A Hologram for the King

[projekktor id=’23823′]

Based on Dave Eggers’ 2012 novel of the same name, A Hologram for the King is a comedic drama written and directed by Tom Tykwer (Cloud Atlas, Run Lola Run). The film stars Tom Hanks, Alexander Black, Sarita Choudhury, Sidse Babett Knudsen, Ben Whishaw, and Tom Skerritt.

Cultures collide when an American businessman (Tom Hanks) is sent to Saudi Arabia to close what he hopes will be the deal of a lifetime. Baffled by local customs and stymied by an opaque bureaucracy, he eventually finds his footing with the help of a wise-cracking taxi driver (Alexander Black) and a beautiful Saudi doctor (Sarita Choudhury).

“A Hologram for the King hit a very particular nerve in me,” Tykwer recalls. “It was the most contemporary novel I’d read in a very long time so I felt like it couldn’t wait: this story had to be made into a movie.” And working with Hanks on the film was a pleasure for the director. “Working with Tom is liberating for a filmmaker because he’s so open-minded to every moment and every situation. He’s like a super- intelligent child who comes into a room and says, ‘Okay, what are our toys?’ And then, ‘Let’s explore what we can do with them!’ That’s super inspiring because when you come up with a new idea, he picks it up really greedily and does something with it in a wonderfully playful way.”

A Hologram for the King is rated 14A.