“I had taken pride in being absolutely unsentimental with ‘My Life as a Dog,’ and this was a very sentimental story,” Mr. Hallstrom, who broke through in the United States with his Swedish coming-of-age film, “My Life as a Dog,” in which the young protagonist is shattered to learn of the death of his family’s hound, said he was wary of taking on material that was in any way similar. Hallstrom, who had recently directed him in “The Hoax,” a 2007 film about the forger Clifford Irving. The movie, which has already sold more than $45 million in tickets during its release over the past year in Asian, European and South American markets, is a contemporary retelling of the story of Hachiko, an Akita who lived in Japan in the 1920s and ’30s.Īfter joining the film in the role of the professor as well as a producer, Mr. The result may be satisfying to that cable channel, but it’s somewhat perplexing to its animal-loving leading man and director. Instead the movie, “Hachi: A Dog’s Tale,” will make its United States television debut on Sunday on the Hallmark Channel. Gere shares the screen with a particularly faithful canine character can bury any hopes of watching it in a local movie theater. Hallstrom, the director of “Dear John” and “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape” in which Mr. Gere, the “Chicago” and “Pretty Woman” actor, and Mr. And since time immemorial or at least since the 1943 release of “Lassie Come Home” there has been a loyal viewership for pictures about dogs and their unflagging fidelity to their human companions.īut American filmgoers interested in the latest collaboration between Mr.

In the animal kingdom of Hollywood, there is still an audience for movies whose casts feature Richard Gere, and for films directed by Lasse Hallstrom.

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