Telluride Film Festival: Tom Hanks interrupts Sully Q&A to praise La La Land

Tom Hanks might have a potential awards season hit on his hands with the new Clint Eastwood-directed film, Sully, which debuted this weekend to decent reviews at the Telluride Film Festival, but the actor can’t seem to keep himself away from gushing about a movie he’s not at the Colorado event to promote: Damien Chazelle’s La La Land.

Speaking at a Q&A session for Sully, a biopic about Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, the US Airways pilot who successfully landed an Airbus on the Hudson River in 2009, Hanks interrupted a discussion about the film to praise Lionsgate’s La La Land, which had its North American premiere at the festival Friday.

According to Deadline, after Eastwood spoke about wanting to do more original movies, Hanks chimed in with his thoughts on the Emma Stone/Ryan Gosling musical, which Chazelle (Whiplash) directed from an script he wrote himself.

“I like to think we approach movies the same way we approach being members of the audience in that you just want to see something you have never seen before. It’s funny. Who saw La La Land yesterday?” Hanks said as members of the audience clapped in response. “When you see something that is brand new, that you can’t imagine, and you think, ‘Well, thank God this landed,’ because I think a movie like La La Land would be anethema to studios. Number one, it is a musical and no one knows the songs.”

Hanks then made a quip about Warner Bros., the studio distributing Sully, likely being thrilled that he interrupted an event for the film to praise another studio’s movie before elaborating on his initial sentiment.

“This is not a movie that falls into some sort of trend. I think it is going to be a test of the broader national audience, because it has none of the things that major studios want,” he said. “Pre-awareness is a big thing they want, which is why a lot of remakes are going on. [La La Land]is not a sequel, nobody knows who the characters are…But if the audience doesn’t go and embrace something as wonderful as this then we are all doomed.”

After strong showings with critics at both Venice and Telluride, La La Land is expected to perform well this awards season as the upcoming Oscar race unfolds.

La La Land opens in theaters Dec. 2. Sully hits wide release Sept. 9.