He co-starred with a volleyball in "Cast Away" and played a man with AIDS in "Philadelphia" at a time (1993).

So, perhaps it should come as no surprise that on Friday, the Hollywood star is bringing out his newest movie, "Larry Crowne" about a man who loses his job due to the recession, at a time when so many people are out of work.

To heighten the risk, Hanks not only stars in the movie, he directed it and co-wrote the screenplay with "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" writer Nia Vardalos.

Making "Larry Crowne" a box office hit will be a challenge to say the least, especially during the summer when movie theatres are filled with big-budget, effects-filled films like "Transformers: Dark of the Moon."

But Hanks feels that he and his movie, which co-stars Julia Roberts, are up to the challenge, and he thinks "Larry Crowne" has one key secret for its potential success. It's not about loss, so much as about hope for the future.

"We are competing in a marketplace in which the thing we might have going for us is the true battle against cynicism," he said. "That's what 'Larry Crowne' is about more than anything else."

Hanks plays the title character who is fired from a Walmart-like store where he's worked for decades. Divorced, with a mortgage and a gas-guzzling SUV, he enrolls in college to start over, taking classes taught by a teacher (Julia Roberts) with her own problems.

He sells his house, rides a scooter to save money and works at a diner to make ends meet.

Yet rather than being depressed about things, "he's got this amazing new forceful presence in his life and he can honestly say, 'The best thing that ever happened to me was getting fired from my job.'", said Hanks.

Copyright Reuters, 2011