Won't You Be My Neighbor? is a 2018 documentary movie directed by Morgan Neville. It is about the life and philosophy of Fred Rogers, the host and creator of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. The trailer was released on what would have been Rogers' 90th birthday, March 20, 2018.
Release
The movie premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival and was released on June 8, 2018. The movie received very good reviews and has a 99% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
It has made $22 million in the box office making it the highest grossing biographical-documentary of all time.
Awards
It was nominated for numerous awards, won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary Feature, and was chosen by Time magazine as one of its top ten films of 2018.
Background
In November 2018, Morgan revealed that the original title of the movie was The Radical Mister Rogers, but after the election of Donald Trump, the term "radical" had a negative connotation according to Morgan.
PBS aired the movie on February 9, 2019, as part of the network's Independent Lens series.
On July 27, 2018 the movie became the highest-grossing biographical documentary of all-time, and on August 12 passed Bowling for Columbine to become the 12th-highest-grossing documentary overall.
Cast
Joanne Rogers as herself. François Clemmons as himself. Yo-Yo Ma as himself. Joe Negri as himself. Tom Junod as himself. David Newell as himself. Fred Rogers as himself in archival recordings.
