Los Angeles (AFP)

Tom Hanks is heartbroken that his new war film is not released in cinemas because of the pandemic, but he is hopeful that it can serve as a lesson to viewers on how to behave when faced with the adversity, even if it is a virus.

"USS Greyhound - The Battle of the Atlantic", broadcast on Apple TV + from July 10, was written by Tom Hanks, who plays the role of a captain escorting a convoy of Allied ships in their crossing of the North Atlantic, skimmed by German submarines during the Second World War.

The film follows the novices making up the crew on this terrifying journey, faced with the dual responsibility of watching over the convoy and their own comrades.

"These guys on the ship ... all they can do is what is expected of them, and hope that a mixture of providence and luck will get them through," summed up l actor at a virtual press conference.

"The Covid-19, nobody knows how long it will last, nobody knows who will die from it ... no need to look very far to see the correlations and resemblances to the war years", he estimates .

Tom Hanks is paid to find out: last March, he became the first Hollywood star to contract the new coronavirus, while he was in Australia to start shooting a film about Elvis Presley.

The star of "Saving Private Ryan" and the producer of "Band of Brothers" can not help but be outraged by comparing simple gestures sufficient to protect themselves from the virus - keep their distance and wear a mask - with the German torpedoes and the frozen ocean which the sailors of the time had to undergo.

"If someone is not able to practice these basic things, they should be ashamed of themselves," says Tom Hanks.

"Don't do the wimps. Go ahead, do your part of the job. It's very, very simple," insists the 63-year-old actor.

- "Lived in hell" -

Passionate about history, Tom Hanks found inspiration for his screenplay in a CS Forester novel, "Shepherds on the Sea" (1955). It will have taken him seven years of work from the time he discovered a used copy.

The original cover showed a grizzled, scruffy man in a wind-beaten uniform, Commander Ernie Krause, who he plays in "Greyhound". Seeing this character, "I thought: this man is exhausted, this man has gone through hell," recalls Tom Hanks.

For the shooting of "Greyhound", the director Aaron Schneider had a set based on the building USS Kidd, the only American destroyer of the Second World War still existing today in its original configuration. For more authenticity, some interior scenes were filmed on board the warship, which survived an attack by suicide bombers in 1945 and is now moored in Louisiana, where it acts as a museum.

Unfortunately, viewers will not be able to enjoy all of these details on the big screen as the film will not be released in theaters.

Because of the prolonged pandemic, especially in the United States, the producers decided not to wait, especially since dozens of other big budget films are in the starting blocks for this winter or the year next. Sony therefore preferred to sell "Greyhound" exclusively to Apple for its video on demand service.

"We are all heartbroken that this film will not be released in theaters," said Tom Hanks, saying that we had to face the reality of the pandemic.

"Just like (the commander) Ernie Krause in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, who wonders how he will survive and do his job, if he will survive, we are all in the middle of the Covid-19 crisis, which is five times bigger than we expected, "he said.

"And we don't know how, and if, we will get out, and who will be able to join us on the other side."

© 2020 AFP