The rights to adapt the bestselling book Theo of Golden into a film are currently being negotiated with Warner Bros Pictures, and Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks is the hopeful star.

Hanks, Gil Netter, and Gary Goetzman would produce, while Allen Levi, the book’s author, would executive produce the project.

Theo of Golden started as a self-published book released in 2023 before Atria Books, a Simon & Schuster imprint, started publishing it in 2025. It has spent 37 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list, sold more than 3.5 million copies in the US, and been featured—alongside its author—on Oprah’s podcast.

The feel-good story follows a stranger who arrives in Golden, a small city in the South. He gets to know the locals as he returns portraits that are hanging in a coffee shop to their artists.

Find more news and stories of interest from the book world in Breaking in Books.