Tom Hanks and Starbucks vs. America

This caught my eye today as possibly the worst idea for a movie ever. And believe me, there has been plenty of competition.

According to the always reliable Hollywood Reporter, Tom Hanks is attached to star in "How Starbucks Saved My Life," a fiction book proposal by Michael Gates Gill that was sold to Universal. Gus Van Sant is in negotiations to direct.

The story centers on an older ad exec who loses his job and family and has to go to work at Starbucks to pay the bills. He befriends the young manager and learns about life and love.

As I read this early this morning, I had the same reaction as that adorable Christine Taylor when she tells hubby Ben Stiller, in "Dodgeball," that she just threw up in her own mouth.

Although the contrarian in me has always rooted against Tom Hanks, I used to have loads of love for Gus Van Sant. His "Elephant," an elegaic look at a Columbine-type situation with sparse but very effective dialogue, is close to a masterpiece. But he's also capable of making garbage like "Finding Forrester" and that inexcusable shot-for-shot remake of "Psycho".

As for Hanks, I really can't explain it. Maybe it was when people started calling him the next Jimmy Stewart. I love Jimmy Stewart, so why would I want to replace him? The only movies I can recall unconditionally liking Hanks in were "Big" and "Toy Story." But don't get me started on "Forrest Gump" ...

As an aside, I had long ago decided not to see the "Da Vinci Code," but have recently started to waver. I've never been one in favor of boycotting movies, even one with a premise as revolting as this one. And I just have unconditional love for Audrey Tautou and Jean Reno.

As for "Starbucks," someone explain to me why anyone would want to see this. To be told by genius-turned-hack Van Sant that there are life secrets to learn from ditching your chosen career path to toil for peanuts in a coffee shop? To see this formerly great director make, what will have to be, essentially a two-hour advertisement for the corporation least likely to need one?

Maybe its just me. I'm already a fairly cynical person, and I just get grumpier when I write early in the morning. That said, this just sounds plain awful, no matter what time it is.