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Book Summary and Reviews of The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece by Tom Hanks

The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece by Tom Hanks

The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece

A novel

by Tom Hanks

  • Critics' Consensus (11):
  • Readers' Rating (3):
  • Published:
  • May 2023, 448 pages
  • Rate this book

About this book

Book Summary

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.

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."

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"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)

"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

"Write what you know, the famous rule of fiction demands. Hanks does not waver from it. You learn, in sometimes entertaining fashion, plenty of things about how films get made: that the first day of shooting is always Wednesday (so those hired hands who don't cut it can be fired before the weekend, after three days' trial). That the props trailer is a kind of Amazon warehouse in miniature. That there are a thousand different kinds of delay. Some of this detail also serves to emphasise, however, that the real magic of films shares something crucial with novels: what you leave out is at least as important as what makes the cut."—Tim Adams, The Guardian

This information about The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Write your own reviewwrite your own review

Gloria M

Like Being an Insider on a Movie Set!!
It is crystal clear that Tom Hanks loves movies. He loves acting, he loves the process, and most importantly he loves all the people involved with movies. "The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece" is a love letter to all the casts and crews, from the superstars to the extras and the directors to the gofers. It is also a gentle rebuke to those of us who say negative things about movies. Instead of panning and bad mouthing a movie, it is kinder to merely say something akin to "the film in question was not for me, but I certainly appreciate all the work that went into it."

Tom Hanks is a most excellent writer! I admit I was a bit skeptical as I opened the front cover and began to read, but this was based on my erroneous assumption that his first book, a collection of short stories sold only because of his fame (I have not read that one yet.) This is a well woven, intricate tale with fully fleshed out characters that you instantly become enraptured with. My personal favorites are Al Mac-Teer, Wren Lane and Ynez Gonzalez-Cruz, but I fully support you choosing your own dearest ones! With all of Hank's inside knowledge of the industry we are embedded in the backstage procedures and dramas and there are even actual comics!

Who will like this book? Everyone! The book actually feels heavier than usual hardcovers in my hands and the plot is equally dense and satisfying! I definitely will re-read it at some point and I look forward to Hanks' next novel!!

Cloggie Downunder

more than one string to his bow.
4.5?s
The Making Of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece is the first novel by award-winning American actor, film-maker and author, Tom Hanks. There are no prizes for guessing what the book is about. Freelance journalist and reviewer, Joe Shaw is invited by successful writer/director Bill Johnson to watch the process of a movie being made. He’s so enthralled, he decides to write a book.

Back in the post-war years, former WW2 marine, Bob Falls is the inspiration for his nephew, Robby Andersen’s comic about a flame thrower who saves his platoon from annihilation by the Japanese. Meanwhile, aspiring screenwriter Bill Johnson sends a script to agent Fred Schiller who teaches him how to polish his work to movie standard. Turns out they have a hit on their hands.

Many hit movies (and one flop) later, we watch Bill’s writing routine, and learn from what he draws inspiration, this time, a heroine who can’t sleep, one of the Ultra in Dynamo’s Agents Of Change series, and a flame-throwing ex-marine, from an old Kool Katz Komix comic. His interactions with his highly efficient Production Assistant, Al Mac-Teer set her on a path to find out who owns the rights. Eventually, Dynamo studios and the Hawkeye streaming service are collaborating with Bill to produce another Agents Of Change movie for streaming.

By the time the first days of filming are described, the massive coordination effort involved to bring it in on time and on budget will grip the reader as they follow the antics of the self-absorbed knucklehead who has scored the male lead role. His pretentiousness indicates that he clearly isn’t on the same page as the rest of them: Bill, his talented leading lady, Wren Lane the support actors and the crew. Do they let this guy derail the whole thing?

For each significant character, Hanks provides vignettes – if a vignette can be this detailed – giving each of them backstories and describing how they become part of the movie. By the end of 417 pages, you love each and every one, and wish you could spend more time with them.

Peppered throughout are interesting, informative, and often amusing footnotes, and illustrator R. Sikoryak provides three examples of Robby Anderson’s comics, two in full colour. “Interviews” with various cast and crew members add another perspective.

It must be obvious from the long list of credits at the end of each movie just how many people are involved in such an endeavour, but Hanks brings their roles to life, and demonstrates just how important each one’s contribution is. Hanks proves, once again, that he has more than one string to his bow.

Molly

The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece Is A Mouthful of Ennui
The book's title, alone, is an undertaking, but wait until you try to read it.

Tom Hanks applies his impressive acting career to the page by birthing the story of a fictitious blockbuster. The writing is decent, laced with frequent alliteration, onomatopoeia, similes, and other figures of speech. However, one struggles to keep up with the ever-expanding cast of characters, whose descriptors and emails and text messages derailed the story and this reader's interest. On the plus side, the characters are vivid and fully fleshed out, and the reader gets an insider's view of Hollywood grit. One feels as though they are on set with the actors and crew, drawn into the script, makeup trailer, snooty food orders, long days, and cornucopia of human demeanors. Again, though, the characters just kept on coming. The stereotypes and tropes were heavily sprinkled throughout, and the reader starts to die a slow death from the many communication avenues utilized. Perhaps Tom Hanks is practicing his screenwriting? He has proven himself as a successful actor and filmmaker, but the jury's still out on his writing abilities.

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Author Information

Tom Hanks Author Biography

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 (illustrator of The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece) 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.

... Full Biography
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