Greyhound Director on
Tom Hanks WWII Thriller

By Iain Blair

Tom Hanks enjoys telling stories about World War II. After his Oscar-nominated role in Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan, Hanks — together with his producing partner Gary Goetzman and Spielberg — produced Band of Brothers and The Pacific.

Hanks’ latest World War II project is the naval thriller Greyhound, for which he also wrote the screenplay, based on the novel “The Good Shepherd” by C.S. Forester. Set against the backdrop of the Battle of the Atlantic, the film stars Hanks as Ernest Krause, a longtime US Navy officer with no combat experience who finally receives his first command: leading the destroyer Keeling (code-named Greyhound) and three other escort ships to protect a convoy of 37 merchant vessels carrying supplies and troops to England. It’s a dangerous assignment as German submarines patrol the waters, brutally enforcing a German blockade.

To direct Greyhound, Hanks and Goetzman tapped Aaron Schneider, a former DP who began his feature directing career after winning an Oscar for his short-film adaptation of William Faulkner’s “Two Soldiers.”

I recently spoke with Schneider about making the Sony Pictures Film (exclusive to Apple TV+), the workflow and his love of visual effects.

I heard you used an ocean simulator plugin that NVIDIA created for game developers that floats objects on the water based on the underlying physics of open-ocean waves?
Yes, and there’s been some reporting indicating that’s how we made the movie — how we floated our ships — but that’s not quite accurate in how we used NVIDIA in our pipeline. It was more of a look-at tool in that I wanted all of our VFX to feel like we were out in the ocean shooting it.

Read More >

WFH: Posting Elton John’s
One World Performance

Quantum Makes Its Scaler
Tape Libraries More Secure

Comedy Director Ric Cantor Signs With Interrogate

Blackmagic Ursa Mini Pro Offers 12K Super 35 Sensor

Foundry’s Nuke Indie
Targets Freelance Artists

Unreal-Based Mo-Sys Virtual Studio Production Package