The Making of Another Major Motion Pi..., Tom Hanks
The Making of Another Major Motion Pi..., Tom Hanks
11 Rating(s)
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The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece
A novel

Bestseller

Author: Tom Hanks

Narrator: Tom Hanks, Peter Gerety, Natalie Morales, Ego Nwodim, Nasim Pedrad, Connor Ratliff, Holland Taylor, Rita Wilson, Full Cast

Unabridged: 15 hr 57 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/09/2023

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included

Synopsis

From the legendary actor and best-selling author: a novel about the making of a star-studded, multimillion-dollar superhero action film...and the humble comic books that inspired it. Funny, touching, and wonderfully thought-provoking, while also capturing the changes in America and American culture since World War II.

"Wild, ambitious and exceptionally enjoyable." —Matt Haig, best-selling author The Midnight Library, The Humans and Reasons to Stay Alive

Part One of this story takes place in 1947. A troubled soldier, returning from the war, meets his talented five-year-old nephew, leaves an indelible impression, and then disappears for twenty-three years.

Cut to 1970: The nephew, now drawing underground comic books in Oakland, California, reconnects with his uncle and, remembering the comic book he saw when he was five, draws a new version with his uncle as a World War II fighting hero. 

Cut to the present day: A commercially successful director discovers the 1970 comic book and decides to turn it into a contemporary superhero movie.

Cue the cast: We meet the film’s extremely difficult male star, his wonderful leading lady, the eccentric writer/director, the producer, the gofer production assistant, and everyone else on both sides of the camera.

Bonus material: Interspersed throughout are three comic books that are featured in the story—all created by Tom Hanks himself—including the comic book that becomes the official tie-in to this novel’s "major motion picture masterpiece."

*Includes a downloadable PDF of the comics from the book and a QR code for access to the original screenplay of Knightshade: The Lathe of Firefall

About The Author

TOM HANKS has won Academy Awards for best actor for Philadelphia and Forrest Gump. He has starred in, among many other films, Big, Sleepless in Seattle, Apollo 13, Saving Private Ryan, The Green Mile, Cast Away, Catch Me If You Can, Captain Phillips, Bridge of Spies, Sully, Toy Story, The Post, and It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Vanity Fair, and The New Yorker. He is also the author of a best-selling collection of stories, Uncommon Type.R. Sikoryak is a cartoonist and an author based in New York City. His illustrations have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Sharon on May 31, 2023

I think the world of Tom Hanks; he is phenomenally talented, particularly as an actor. The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece was okay. It was interesting to get a peek behind the curtain on all the steps and coordination it takes to complete a movie. I wish the book was more succinc......more

Goodreads review by Karen on June 19, 2023

This is a big book. With a lot of moving pieces. Meaning that Tom Hanks felt a need to describe everything a little too much. So, I will not go into that in this review. Let me just say, that for me, as much as I love Tom Hanks the actor, and loved his book, Uncommon Type: Some Stories, I had a very......more

Goodreads review by Brittany on November 11, 2023

LOVE LOVE LOVE! Pick up this full-cast narration audio RIGHT NOW!! Tom Hanks did a phenomenal job with the entire thing. The time devoted to the people who do all the jobs most people don't think about in a movie is well portrayed and represented. I loved the evolution of both the comic and the maki......more

Goodreads review by Jim on December 31, 2022

This was a fun read by former Concord resident Tom Hanks. Surprised me how good a writer he is, there were a couple scenes i went back and reread because they were so real. The novel is about the making of a movie based on a (fictional) underground comicbook produced in Berkeley circa 1970, the comi......more

Goodreads review by Brok3n on May 15, 2023

Tom Hanks shows who he is Tom Hanks, an actor, has written a novel. It is his debut novel. It is shockingly good. You are not surprised to read this. I was not surprised to discover it. There are some people who will never do less than the best they can on any job they undertake, and whose best will......more

Quotes

"The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece is its own universe, complete with a sun, a cast of circling planets, and a limitless number of stars. Its gravity pulls you in and its far reaching, multi-layered, rollicking exuberance holds you in place. I would have been happy to live inside this book forever." —Ann Patchett, best-selling author of These Precious Days

"This is a wild, ambitious and exceptionally enjoyable novel. A story about how stories happen, with a swirling kaleidoscope of characters across the best part of a century, and a real beating emotional heart. It has a lot of astute and fascinating things to say about comic books, movies, show business, America and human beings. I loved every page." —Matt Haig; author The Midnight Library, The Humans and Reasons to Stay Alive

 "An extravagant, buoyant, joyfully sprawling book, bursting with affection for its characters, for the intricate lore of the movie business, and for the many ways in which human beings are one another's greatest opportunity." —Tana French, award-winning novelist of In The Woods and The Searcher

 "Do you want to go on an adventure? Who doesn't? This was a joy to read in that certain kind of way that only happens when it was a joy to write. Tom Hanks is such a natural storyteller that everything feels like he's telling this story just for you, at a dinner table, and you don't want the night to end." —Fredrik Backman, author of A Man Called Ove

“With a unique insight and a rare eye for detail, Tom Hanks delivers a stunning, emotionally satisfying tale about the art of storytelling. I never wanted the lights to come up. I could not put it down.” —Graham Norton

"Vibrant, jazzy, witty, snazzily written, with a great sense of time and place, this novel-cum-comic book is one of those rare, unique, pieces of fiction. Loved it."
—Kate Mosse; author of Labyrinth

 "A thoroughly engaging tale....This is a story about what happens behind the cameras. Hanks is at pains to impress upon us that moviemaking is a circuitous process involving a vast network of people — some famous, most not — showing up and doing their best. This is most definitely not a novel about the magic of filmmaking; it’s a novel about the hard work of filmmaking.... a love letter to the industry....The longer you watch Hanks create that glittery surface, the harder it is to look away." —Ron Charles, The Washington Post

★ "We all knew he could act, but the publication of Hanks’ Uncommon Type, his excellent 2017 short-story collection, proved he could write, too. Now he’s followed that with a full-length novel, and it is superb.… The writing is spot-on, bringing to the novel all the passion Hanks feels about his profession: “Making movies is complicated, maddening, highly technical at times, ephemeral and gossamer at others, slow as molasses on a Wednesday but with a gun-to-the-head deadline on a Friday.” The whole book is like that: lovingly crafted, a wildly entertaining story beautifully told. If you love movies, you’ll love this book." —David Pitt, Booklist (starred review)

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