Tom Hanks is in talks to star in Warner Bros.’ film adaptation of Allen Levi’s bestselling novel Theo of Golden, with the studio negotiating for the feature rights. Hanks is also attached to produce alongside Gil Netter and Gary Goetzman, while Levi will serve as executive producer. The project is still at an early stage, with no director or release date announced.
What makes the development particularly interesting for the film business, however, is the extraordinary trajectory of the book itself. Theo of Golden was originally self-published by Levi in 2023 and initially built its audience almost entirely through word of mouth.
The novel was subsequently acquired for wider publication by Simon & Schuster and has since become a major bestseller, selling more than 3.5 million copies in the US, spending more than nine consecutive months on the New York Times bestseller list and becoming the highest-selling print book in America so far in 2026, according to TheWrap. It has also been published in 43 languages and reached No. 1 in markets including the UK, Italy and the Netherlands.
The novel follows Theo, a mysterious stranger who arrives in the small Southern town of Golden. At a local coffeehouse, he finds pencil portraits of the town’s residents and begins buying them, one by one, only to return each portrait to the person depicted. In exchange, he asks for their story. What begins as a series of seemingly simple encounters gradually becomes a story about secrets, regrets, relationships, community and the effect one person’s kindness can have on another.
That premise also helps explain the attraction of Hanks to the material. Rather than being built around spectacle or a conventional high-concept hook, Theo of Golden is driven by an older, enigmatic central character whose interactions with ordinary people gradually reveal both their lives and his own past.
For Warner Bros., the combination of an unusually large existing readership and a character that fits Hanks’ strengths makes the property considerably more significant than a routine literary adaptation.
The film, however seems still in development stage. Warner Bros. is negotiating the rights and Hanks is in talks rather than formally confirmed as the star. For now, the bigger Hollywood story may be how a self-published novel by a first-time novelist became a 3.5-million-copy bestseller and, within a remarkably short period, found itself being pursued by a major studio with one of Hollywood’s most recognisable actors circling its lead role.
