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The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece
From the Academy Award-winning 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.
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.
448 pages, Hardcover
First published May 9, 2023
About the author
Tom Hanks
30 books2,049 followersThomas Jeffrey "Tom" Hanks (born July 9, 1956) is an American actor, filmmaker and writer. He is known for his roles in Big (1988), Philadelphia (1993), Forrest Gump (1994), Apollo 13 (1995), Saving Private Ryan, You've Got Mail ( 1998), Cast Away (2000), The Da Vinci Code (2006), Captain Phillips, and Saving Mr. Banks (both 2013), as well as for his voice work in the animated films The Polar Express (2004) and the Toy Story series.
Hanks has received six Academy Award nominations including two consecutive wins for Best Actor for Philadelphia, and Forrest Gump in 1993, and 1994 respectively.
He has received numerous honors including the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2002, the Kennedy Center Honor in 2014, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the French Legion of Honor both in 2016, as well as the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2020.
Hanks has received six Academy Award nominations including two consecutive wins for Best Actor for Philadelphia, and Forrest Gump in 1993, and 1994 respectively.
He has received numerous honors including the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2002, the Kennedy Center Honor in 2014, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the French Legion of Honor both in 2016, as well as the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2020.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 2,907 reviews
May 17, 2023
I’m a huge fan of Tom Hanks and who better to tell the story of how movies are made? But know what you’re getting into before starting this book. The book tends to jump around at the beginning, giving you way too much prelude before getting down to the heart of the book. “You wrote too many scenes, too many characters, too many pages, and not enough conflict.” What Bill Johnson’s agent says about his first screenplay could apply to Tom Hank’s novel. Every little part of the story is embellished. Every character was given a full backstory. He never uses one word when he can use several. Run on sentences abound. And what’s with all the footnotes? They really disrupted the flow. This is a novel, for Pete’s sake. And some were idiotic. Did we really need a footnote explaining who John Wayne, Lee Marvin and Charlton Heston were? Or what a grip or an electrician does? This book was crying out for an editor, but it seemed like whoever had that job was afraid to give the actor the necessary harsh words.
Having said that, once it got to what I’ll call the real meat, I enjoyed myself immensely. The story is told in the third person omniscient narrative style. We hear from the writer/director, the actors, the associate producer, the makeup artist, the driver, the list goes on and on. That doesn’t count the young boy in love with comics who became the young man that wrote the comic. Despite being about how to make a movie, it’s actually much more character based than an action story.
There’s just the right amount of humor, most at the expense of the male lead. Hanks, who never acts like he has an ego, is no fan of those that do. This is his chance to extract revenge without naming names. In fact, consider this Hank’s treatise on what it takes to get a movie made - show up on time, solve more problems than you create. Ynes has a great line that the making of the movie relies on everyone. “At some point, and there’s no telling when that moment is, someone is responsible for the whole movie, right then and there…Everyone has to do their job well or they become a problem. They have to work hard. And keep their word, too. Everyone has the most important job on the movie.”
The book includes a series of comic books that are the basis for the movie. The problem is it’s very hard to enlarge them enough in a kindle to read them. (Bringing them up on the kindle app on my iPad solved the problem, but that may not be an option for all readers.)
My thanks to Netgalley and Knopf Books for an advance copy of this book.
Having said that, once it got to what I’ll call the real meat, I enjoyed myself immensely. The story is told in the third person omniscient narrative style. We hear from the writer/director, the actors, the associate producer, the makeup artist, the driver, the list goes on and on. That doesn’t count the young boy in love with comics who became the young man that wrote the comic. Despite being about how to make a movie, it’s actually much more character based than an action story.
There’s just the right amount of humor, most at the expense of the male lead. Hanks, who never acts like he has an ego, is no fan of those that do. This is his chance to extract revenge without naming names. In fact, consider this Hank’s treatise on what it takes to get a movie made - show up on time, solve more problems than you create. Ynes has a great line that the making of the movie relies on everyone. “At some point, and there’s no telling when that moment is, someone is responsible for the whole movie, right then and there…Everyone has to do their job well or they become a problem. They have to work hard. And keep their word, too. Everyone has the most important job on the movie.”
The book includes a series of comic books that are the basis for the movie. The problem is it’s very hard to enlarge them enough in a kindle to read them. (Bringing them up on the kindle app on my iPad solved the problem, but that may not be an option for all readers.)
My thanks to Netgalley and Knopf Books for an advance copy of this book.
June 14, 2023
I recently had the pleasure of listening to the audiobook version of "The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece," and it provided a fascinating behind-the-scenes glimpse into the world of filmmaking. The link to the audiobook can be found here
The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece
, allowing you to delve into the captivating journey of bringing a cinematic masterpiece to life.
"The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece" takes listeners on a thrilling ride through the intricate process of filmmaking. From the initial concept and script development to casting, production, and post-production, every aspect is explored in detail.
The audiobook offers firsthand accounts and anecdotes from the cast, crew, and filmmakers, providing valuable insights into their creative processes and the challenges they faced along the way. The narrator's engaging voice adds an extra layer of immersion, making you feel like a part of the film production team.
What sets this audiobook apart is its ability to capture the excitement and energy that goes into creating a cinematic masterpiece. The stories shared and the behind-the-scenes revelations make you appreciate the art of filmmaking even more.
Whether you're a film enthusiast, a fan of the particular movie being discussed, or simply curious about the inner workings of the film industry, "The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece" is a captivating listen that offers a unique perspective.
I highly recommend immersing yourself in this audiobook to gain a deeper appreciation for the magic that happens behind the camera. Discover the dedication, creativity, and sheer passion that go into bringing a major motion picture to life.
"The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece" takes listeners on a thrilling ride through the intricate process of filmmaking. From the initial concept and script development to casting, production, and post-production, every aspect is explored in detail.
The audiobook offers firsthand accounts and anecdotes from the cast, crew, and filmmakers, providing valuable insights into their creative processes and the challenges they faced along the way. The narrator's engaging voice adds an extra layer of immersion, making you feel like a part of the film production team.
What sets this audiobook apart is its ability to capture the excitement and energy that goes into creating a cinematic masterpiece. The stories shared and the behind-the-scenes revelations make you appreciate the art of filmmaking even more.
Whether you're a film enthusiast, a fan of the particular movie being discussed, or simply curious about the inner workings of the film industry, "The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece" is a captivating listen that offers a unique perspective.
I highly recommend immersing yourself in this audiobook to gain a deeper appreciation for the magic that happens behind the camera. Discover the dedication, creativity, and sheer passion that go into bringing a major motion picture to life.
Read
May 14, 2023If one of the nicest people on the planet writes a book, I want to read it
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 succinct; all the details distracted me from the flow of the novel.
May 9, 2023
To start this review, I would like to thank Penguin Random House for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece is the debut novel of legendary Hollywood actor Tom Hanks, though it's not his first book (he published a collection of short stories, Uncommon Type, in 2017). The story, when it eventually gets going, follows film director Bill Johnson and his crew as they film the next big hit superhero movie in a fictional equivalent of the DC or Marvel Universes. The filming takes place in the small town of Lone Butte, California, and there is a minor secondary storyline about a family living in Lone Butte during and immediately after World War II. This storyline is relevant because one of the family members eventually writes the comic book that forms the basis of the movie, and of course because of the setting of Lone Butte, where the movie is eventually filmed.
There's a lot to like about this book, but it has a lot of flaws. I really liked the storyline about the family in Lone Butte, and chapter two particularly, which was very well written. I think if the whole book was written with that level of quality, this would have been a literary masterpiece. I also really liked some of the characters, mainly Bill Johnson and an actor called OKB, who was a terrible person but was hilarious for how impossible he was to work with on the movie set. I laughed out loud more than once at OKB's antics. Hanks also has a general pleasant, upbeat tone to his writing that made the book mostly enjoyable to read. I also really liked the comic books! This book features three small comic books inside of it, and these were well drawn and a fun change from a straight prose novel.
Unfortunately, as I mentioned earlier, the book has many flaws. I have some issues with how the story and even the book itself are structured. Hanks starts out by telling the story of Bill Johnson, then completely drops that story for a long time and follows the Lone Butte family, then drops the family in favour of the Bill Johnson storyline focusing on filming the movie for probably close to 200 pages before remnants of the Lone Butte family are reintroduced into the story. So the book is all over the place. The quality of the writing also varies quite a bit between chapters. As mentioned, I thought chapter two was excellent. It was vibrant, had great character development, and had that "magical" feeling that only the greatest writing can evoke. But that was followed by chapter three, which covered completely different material and was lifeless, boring, and pedestrian.
The book also takes way too long to get going, and Hanks doesn't tie the two storylines (Bill Johnson and company making movies in Hollywood and the lives of the people in the small town of Lone Butte) together until page 156, over a third of the way through the story. Until then they were just two confusingly separate narratives that felt clumsily dropped into the same book. The part of the book about making an actual movie doesn't really start until about 200 pages in, which is almost halfway through the book.
Another fundamental problem in this book is that the movie-making storyline just isn't that interesting. It's basically 300-or-so pages of random scenes being filmed, actors and actresses going in and out of makeup, directors discussing things with the crew, and random events and challenges coming up. The plot of the fictional movie seems ridiculous and like something that would never be filmed, and this doesn't exactly help in terms of immersing you in the story. I also feel like the atmosphere on the set is largely unrealistic, which is a theme you'll hear a lot about in this review. Everyone on set is always super friendly and helpful and encouraging and supportive, and even the main stars of the movie are like this. I feel like making a movie wouldn't be this positive, upbeat, and sentimental of an experience, and that egotistical millionaire movie stars would not act that friendly and normal, even toward one another.
And this might just be a "me" thing, but I absolutely detest long chapters in books, and Hanks does that here. Chapter two was 80 pages long, chapter three was 59 pages long, chapter six is nearly a whopping 150 pages long, etc. The entire book is only seven chapters, and it's over 400 pages long. These chapters are way too long without a break in the narrative, in my opinion, and I wasn't a fan of that.
Another thing that I found bizarre was that, in the first hundred pages of the book, there is a comic book that tells a short story of a U.S. Marine with a flamethrower in World War II, but then later in the book Hanks takes about two full pages of the book's prose narrative to retell part of that comic book. I mean, why do we need to read a retelling of this? We just read the comic book version of these same events, worded and visualized exactly the same, a few dozen pages ago. So that seemed like unnecessary filler to me.
A lot of details in the story are also quite bizarre, and in at least one case I happen to know this is because of Hanks himself. From what I understand, Hanks collects old typewriters, and yet in this book, and apparently in his previous short story collection Uncommon Type, there are a lot of references to typewriters. I get that he personally collects and has a fondness for them, but there were references to typewriters right from the beginning of the book, and numerous characters in this book, writing in modern times (I know it's set in the present because Hanks repeatedly mentions COVID-19), use or are otherwise involved with old typewriters. It's simply not realistic that in modern times this many people would be involved with such an old technology. In another strange detail, numerous characters in this story put Ovaltine in their coffee? That seemed a bit odd to me as well. I suspect this is another instance of something Hanks does himself that he unrealistically also has many of his characters do, but that's just my guess. In any case, it was weird.
A lot of the characters in the book are simply unrealistic as well, making Hanks seem out of touch with what ordinary people and everyday reality are like. For example, there was a ride-sharing service driver who texted his fare and asked if she wanted a coffee before picking her up. Has your Uber driver ever asked you if you want a coffee and then bought you one prior to your ride? I doubt it, because that's probably never happened to anyone, ever. To think that a ride-sharing driver who makes minimum wage would go above and beyond at their job to that degree, and at their own expense, is simply not believable. Couple this with the fact that this driver then proceeds to eventually become essentially her chauffeur and personal assistant, tending to her every whim and driving her around exclusively for months, and it becomes ludicrous.
It also seemed like every forty or fifty pages (and sometimes in two pages in a row) a character would talk about how they were "making another major motion picture masterpiece" or "making a motion picture", which became annoying after a while. Hanks is also prone to writing long comma-separated lists of inconsequential items, like the available food options on the movie set, and sometimes these lists went on for almost an entire page. I personally detest long, tedious lists like this, so the large number of them in this book was another source of annoyance for me when it came to this book. To me, such lists are just lazy writing. It's the author being like: "I've just told you about this thing that obviously will have ten or fifteen different items to it (e.g. food options, the physical objects present in a room, etc), but instead of just leaving it at that, I'll go ahead and fill up paper by listing a dozen of them for you." I truly hate it, and Hanks does it. A lot.
Finally, in the second half of the book, there is a part of the story involving an actor who is incredibly difficult (impossible, really) to work with. I felt like that went on for way too long, and that any reasonable film director in real life would have fired the actor way before even a tenth of what occurred in the book transpired, so I found that to be unrealistic and heavily overdone.
Overall, The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece was a mixed reading experience for me. It's highly unrealistic, overly sentimental, plodding, and poorly constructed, but it also features some great writing in places, some interesting characters, and a general pleasantness that makes it mostly enjoyable to read. I don't think I'd recommend this book to anyone other than hardcore Tom Hanks fans, or those curious about his writing. I'm definitely a fan of his myself, but not a diehard one, and for me this book was just "okay". Casual readers who have no interest in Hanks or his work could pass on it, as there are certainly better books out there.
The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece is the debut novel of legendary Hollywood actor Tom Hanks, though it's not his first book (he published a collection of short stories, Uncommon Type, in 2017). The story, when it eventually gets going, follows film director Bill Johnson and his crew as they film the next big hit superhero movie in a fictional equivalent of the DC or Marvel Universes. The filming takes place in the small town of Lone Butte, California, and there is a minor secondary storyline about a family living in Lone Butte during and immediately after World War II. This storyline is relevant because one of the family members eventually writes the comic book that forms the basis of the movie, and of course because of the setting of Lone Butte, where the movie is eventually filmed.
There's a lot to like about this book, but it has a lot of flaws. I really liked the storyline about the family in Lone Butte, and chapter two particularly, which was very well written. I think if the whole book was written with that level of quality, this would have been a literary masterpiece. I also really liked some of the characters, mainly Bill Johnson and an actor called OKB, who was a terrible person but was hilarious for how impossible he was to work with on the movie set. I laughed out loud more than once at OKB's antics. Hanks also has a general pleasant, upbeat tone to his writing that made the book mostly enjoyable to read. I also really liked the comic books! This book features three small comic books inside of it, and these were well drawn and a fun change from a straight prose novel.
Unfortunately, as I mentioned earlier, the book has many flaws. I have some issues with how the story and even the book itself are structured. Hanks starts out by telling the story of Bill Johnson, then completely drops that story for a long time and follows the Lone Butte family, then drops the family in favour of the Bill Johnson storyline focusing on filming the movie for probably close to 200 pages before remnants of the Lone Butte family are reintroduced into the story. So the book is all over the place. The quality of the writing also varies quite a bit between chapters. As mentioned, I thought chapter two was excellent. It was vibrant, had great character development, and had that "magical" feeling that only the greatest writing can evoke. But that was followed by chapter three, which covered completely different material and was lifeless, boring, and pedestrian.
The book also takes way too long to get going, and Hanks doesn't tie the two storylines (Bill Johnson and company making movies in Hollywood and the lives of the people in the small town of Lone Butte) together until page 156, over a third of the way through the story. Until then they were just two confusingly separate narratives that felt clumsily dropped into the same book. The part of the book about making an actual movie doesn't really start until about 200 pages in, which is almost halfway through the book.
Another fundamental problem in this book is that the movie-making storyline just isn't that interesting. It's basically 300-or-so pages of random scenes being filmed, actors and actresses going in and out of makeup, directors discussing things with the crew, and random events and challenges coming up. The plot of the fictional movie seems ridiculous and like something that would never be filmed, and this doesn't exactly help in terms of immersing you in the story. I also feel like the atmosphere on the set is largely unrealistic, which is a theme you'll hear a lot about in this review. Everyone on set is always super friendly and helpful and encouraging and supportive, and even the main stars of the movie are like this. I feel like making a movie wouldn't be this positive, upbeat, and sentimental of an experience, and that egotistical millionaire movie stars would not act that friendly and normal, even toward one another.
And this might just be a "me" thing, but I absolutely detest long chapters in books, and Hanks does that here. Chapter two was 80 pages long, chapter three was 59 pages long, chapter six is nearly a whopping 150 pages long, etc. The entire book is only seven chapters, and it's over 400 pages long. These chapters are way too long without a break in the narrative, in my opinion, and I wasn't a fan of that.
Another thing that I found bizarre was that, in the first hundred pages of the book, there is a comic book that tells a short story of a U.S. Marine with a flamethrower in World War II, but then later in the book Hanks takes about two full pages of the book's prose narrative to retell part of that comic book. I mean, why do we need to read a retelling of this? We just read the comic book version of these same events, worded and visualized exactly the same, a few dozen pages ago. So that seemed like unnecessary filler to me.
A lot of details in the story are also quite bizarre, and in at least one case I happen to know this is because of Hanks himself. From what I understand, Hanks collects old typewriters, and yet in this book, and apparently in his previous short story collection Uncommon Type, there are a lot of references to typewriters. I get that he personally collects and has a fondness for them, but there were references to typewriters right from the beginning of the book, and numerous characters in this book, writing in modern times (I know it's set in the present because Hanks repeatedly mentions COVID-19), use or are otherwise involved with old typewriters. It's simply not realistic that in modern times this many people would be involved with such an old technology. In another strange detail, numerous characters in this story put Ovaltine in their coffee? That seemed a bit odd to me as well. I suspect this is another instance of something Hanks does himself that he unrealistically also has many of his characters do, but that's just my guess. In any case, it was weird.
A lot of the characters in the book are simply unrealistic as well, making Hanks seem out of touch with what ordinary people and everyday reality are like. For example, there was a ride-sharing service driver who texted his fare and asked if she wanted a coffee before picking her up. Has your Uber driver ever asked you if you want a coffee and then bought you one prior to your ride? I doubt it, because that's probably never happened to anyone, ever. To think that a ride-sharing driver who makes minimum wage would go above and beyond at their job to that degree, and at their own expense, is simply not believable. Couple this with the fact that this driver then proceeds to eventually become essentially her chauffeur and personal assistant, tending to her every whim and driving her around exclusively for months, and it becomes ludicrous.
It also seemed like every forty or fifty pages (and sometimes in two pages in a row) a character would talk about how they were "making another major motion picture masterpiece" or "making a motion picture", which became annoying after a while. Hanks is also prone to writing long comma-separated lists of inconsequential items, like the available food options on the movie set, and sometimes these lists went on for almost an entire page. I personally detest long, tedious lists like this, so the large number of them in this book was another source of annoyance for me when it came to this book. To me, such lists are just lazy writing. It's the author being like: "I've just told you about this thing that obviously will have ten or fifteen different items to it (e.g. food options, the physical objects present in a room, etc), but instead of just leaving it at that, I'll go ahead and fill up paper by listing a dozen of them for you." I truly hate it, and Hanks does it. A lot.
Finally, in the second half of the book, there is a part of the story involving an actor who is incredibly difficult (impossible, really) to work with. I felt like that went on for way too long, and that any reasonable film director in real life would have fired the actor way before even a tenth of what occurred in the book transpired, so I found that to be unrealistic and heavily overdone.
Overall, The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece was a mixed reading experience for me. It's highly unrealistic, overly sentimental, plodding, and poorly constructed, but it also features some great writing in places, some interesting characters, and a general pleasantness that makes it mostly enjoyable to read. I don't think I'd recommend this book to anyone other than hardcore Tom Hanks fans, or those curious about his writing. I'm definitely a fan of his myself, but not a diehard one, and for me this book was just "okay". Casual readers who have no interest in Hanks or his work could pass on it, as there are certainly better books out there.
May 13, 2023
Audiobook….read by Tom Hanks, Peter Gerety, Natalie Morales, Ego Nwodim, Nasim Pedrad, Connor Ratliff, Holland Taylor, Rita Wilson, full cast.
….15 hours and 57 minutes
Wow….where to begin? > The blurb is a perfect description….
But for me…for starters:
…..to all of those Sklyine High School Graduates…..
our school made it into Tommy’s debut novel…..(nothing about this high-spirited animated novel rings as ‘debut’). Tom Hanks is a pro right out the door …. and hopefully he’s not a one-novel-trick-pony author. He has great command over his narrative — he’s smart — shows awareness, knowledge and consciousness.
And….
For some of us:
…..we could listen to Tom Hanks read the phone book and be entertained. Tom’s other buddies (audio-readers weren’t exactly chopped liver either) > but not quite as good. I always couldn’t wait for Tom to return.
I wouldn’t have missed this audiobook of “The Making of Another Major Motion Masterpiece”….. for anything. It’s no secret I like our High School’s alumni.
I didn’t understand everything — but I laughed plenty — was sad and touched in other scenes.
By the end — I was very clear I much rather watch a great movie — than learn all the minute details of how they are made.
Don’t get me wrong —- I appreciate all that goes into making a movie and every single person who has a part —but I’m just not that curious of the ‘how to’s.
Our own daughter has been in movies. I spent hours - days - months - of my time on those movie sets when she was a young teen. A parent was required.
I remember all the waiting around time (playing cards and chess).
I remember the lunch-line protocol: Leads went first, Mom’s followed their kid, Production crew was at the end of the line.
Maybe this has changed — I’m not really sure.
It didn’t really matter who went first — the food was scrumptious and plentiful.
I had fun with Tom’s descriptive-writing. I liked his choices and often it was those small details that I liked best:
….Coca-Cola with vanilla cream — so sweet it tasted like pudding (it was funnier the way Tom Hanks read it).
….”The Cardboard Carnival” is what Tom describes movie making. (It makes sense)….
….I liked the smorgasbord — storytelling > an Uncle Bob’s love for his nephew, Robbi, Uncle Bob’s vulnerability sharing about his time in Vietnam and being an alcoholic, the wife he married — the pretty good cook he became — Chinese Chop Suey and other Chinese food dishes his wife taught him—“The Golden Dragon” restaurant, sitting at the counter having a soda pop at the local drugstore…
….I enjoyed the coming-of-nephew with his artistic drawing skills
….There is the reminder of War — which left an indelible mark on many of us in my generation …
….There were the motorcycle riders, beer drinking, the hippies, pool playing guys, Summer Of Love, Crosby stills Nash and Young, The Rolling Stones, the Vietnam war protests, San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley and other places in the Bay Area, etc.
The only book — slightly — that I could compare this book to (in spirit)….is Michael Chabon’s Pulitzer Prize novel: “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.
So…..I wouldn’t call Masterpiece a masterpiece’….but it’s dazzling -impressive - and entertaining.
Tom Hanks has a terrific sense of humor and a heart of gold.
Funny, warm, and ultimately an uplifting book.
4 stars from me ….(It’s close to 5 stars)….
The one thing I wanted more (the typewriting was great)….was ‘more’ personal intimacy for longer periods with the characters themselves.
But….I’m proud of this Oakland guy! (our most famous Skyline High Graduate)
….15 hours and 57 minutes
Wow….where to begin? > The blurb is a perfect description….
But for me…for starters:
…..to all of those Sklyine High School Graduates…..
our school made it into Tommy’s debut novel…..(nothing about this high-spirited animated novel rings as ‘debut’). Tom Hanks is a pro right out the door …. and hopefully he’s not a one-novel-trick-pony author. He has great command over his narrative — he’s smart — shows awareness, knowledge and consciousness.
And….
For some of us:
…..we could listen to Tom Hanks read the phone book and be entertained. Tom’s other buddies (audio-readers weren’t exactly chopped liver either) > but not quite as good. I always couldn’t wait for Tom to return.
I wouldn’t have missed this audiobook of “The Making of Another Major Motion Masterpiece”….. for anything. It’s no secret I like our High School’s alumni.
I didn’t understand everything — but I laughed plenty — was sad and touched in other scenes.
By the end — I was very clear I much rather watch a great movie — than learn all the minute details of how they are made.
Don’t get me wrong —- I appreciate all that goes into making a movie and every single person who has a part —but I’m just not that curious of the ‘how to’s.
Our own daughter has been in movies. I spent hours - days - months - of my time on those movie sets when she was a young teen. A parent was required.
I remember all the waiting around time (playing cards and chess).
I remember the lunch-line protocol: Leads went first, Mom’s followed their kid, Production crew was at the end of the line.
Maybe this has changed — I’m not really sure.
It didn’t really matter who went first — the food was scrumptious and plentiful.
I had fun with Tom’s descriptive-writing. I liked his choices and often it was those small details that I liked best:
….Coca-Cola with vanilla cream — so sweet it tasted like pudding (it was funnier the way Tom Hanks read it).
….”The Cardboard Carnival” is what Tom describes movie making. (It makes sense)….
….I liked the smorgasbord — storytelling > an Uncle Bob’s love for his nephew, Robbi, Uncle Bob’s vulnerability sharing about his time in Vietnam and being an alcoholic, the wife he married — the pretty good cook he became — Chinese Chop Suey and other Chinese food dishes his wife taught him—“The Golden Dragon” restaurant, sitting at the counter having a soda pop at the local drugstore…
….I enjoyed the coming-of-nephew with his artistic drawing skills
….There is the reminder of War — which left an indelible mark on many of us in my generation …
….There were the motorcycle riders, beer drinking, the hippies, pool playing guys, Summer Of Love, Crosby stills Nash and Young, The Rolling Stones, the Vietnam war protests, San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley and other places in the Bay Area, etc.
The only book — slightly — that I could compare this book to (in spirit)….is Michael Chabon’s Pulitzer Prize novel: “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.
So…..I wouldn’t call Masterpiece a masterpiece’….but it’s dazzling -impressive - and entertaining.
Tom Hanks has a terrific sense of humor and a heart of gold.
Funny, warm, and ultimately an uplifting book.
4 stars from me ….(It’s close to 5 stars)….
The one thing I wanted more (the typewriting was great)….was ‘more’ personal intimacy for longer periods with the characters themselves.
But….I’m proud of this Oakland guy! (our most famous Skyline High Graduate)
June 20, 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 difficult time immersing myself in this one.
It took a long time to get through the details – the stories on each of the characters he chose to introduce on his way to making the masterpiece movie.
And if you are really interested you can download the screenplay by scanning the link at the end of this book. Seriously. I am not kidding.
Having said all that, how did I really feel about this book?
Let me say this…Tom Hanks has a way with charming banter, inspirational speeches about show business – “the Business of Show” as his characters like to call it – that truly show what he knows intuitively – instinctively. These speeches are usually delivered by an experienced hand to a promising tenderfoot who is new to the business, but nonetheless instinctively gets what it will take to get a movie made.
He made me believe that show business can be made up not of attention-desperate moneymen type drama addicts, but of hardworking individuals plucked from obscurity on the basis of their glorious talent for getting it done.
There is no way we can’t admire his (Tom Hanks) commitment to moviemaking… one that ignores the corrupt, even ugly parts of the process.
I admire his relentless good cheer.
I admire his nice guy persona.
I just wish it didn’t take so many pages to tell this particular story. I don’t think it was necessary. 3.5 stars.
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 difficult time immersing myself in this one.
It took a long time to get through the details – the stories on each of the characters he chose to introduce on his way to making the masterpiece movie.
And if you are really interested you can download the screenplay by scanning the link at the end of this book. Seriously. I am not kidding.
Having said all that, how did I really feel about this book?
Let me say this…Tom Hanks has a way with charming banter, inspirational speeches about show business – “the Business of Show” as his characters like to call it – that truly show what he knows intuitively – instinctively. These speeches are usually delivered by an experienced hand to a promising tenderfoot who is new to the business, but nonetheless instinctively gets what it will take to get a movie made.
He made me believe that show business can be made up not of attention-desperate moneymen type drama addicts, but of hardworking individuals plucked from obscurity on the basis of their glorious talent for getting it done.
There is no way we can’t admire his (Tom Hanks) commitment to moviemaking… one that ignores the corrupt, even ugly parts of the process.
I admire his relentless good cheer.
I admire his nice guy persona.
I just wish it didn’t take so many pages to tell this particular story. I don’t think it was necessary. 3.5 stars.
August 3, 2023
Not at all what I was expecting. Going in I thought this would be about stories with plots with history and direction instead of sporadic snippets all over the place. This Masterpiece of blah and Major disappointment results in dnf.
May 13, 2023
I didn’t finish this. Listening to 5 hours was bad enough and I made the decision that my commute is dreadful enough without suffering another 9 hours of this drivel. I would describe it as a non-story, with no plot, memorable or remotely interesting character … and a huge disappointment.
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 making of the movie.
Al & Ynez are my favorites, while OKB was the worst character in the entire book. I loved Ren & JB as well!
I love the depth of character and occupation and the detail given to each. The way that Tom Hanks and the cast suck you into being on the set and in the position of each role. The way that serendipitous and random encounters lead to so many parts of a movie. The right place at the right time abounds.
If you have heard Tom Hanks narrate before, you know he has a slow reading cadence, but once you get the hang of it, you forget you are listening. This one was made for audio. A few moments could have been condensed, but they didn't overshadow the rest of the good for me.
I had a great time with this story in my car to and from Summer Camps and sports practice, to work, and back home. This was a great friend, and I will miss spending time with this one.
5 Stars!
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 making of the movie.
Al & Ynez are my favorites, while OKB was the worst character in the entire book. I loved Ren & JB as well!
I love the depth of character and occupation and the detail given to each. The way that Tom Hanks and the cast suck you into being on the set and in the position of each role. The way that serendipitous and random encounters lead to so many parts of a movie. The right place at the right time abounds.
If you have heard Tom Hanks narrate before, you know he has a slow reading cadence, but once you get the hang of it, you forget you are listening. This one was made for audio. A few moments could have been condensed, but they didn't overshadow the rest of the good for me.
I had a great time with this story in my car to and from Summer Camps and sports practice, to work, and back home. This was a great friend, and I will miss spending time with this one.
5 Stars!
Read
May 16, 2023DNF @ 50%
This was so boring
So boring
So
This was so boring
So boring
So
January 1, 2023
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 comic is reproduced in the book and that was the only thing i didn't like. Thought the comic wasn't accurate to the time, but in the two weeks since i read it, i've read all of the Berkeley Barb's from 1968 and 1969, the art and story are accurate to the time.
This book spends only a dozen pages in 1970 Berkeley and Hanks (a Skyline alum) got it perfect, even mentioned Loading Zone, a band i'd been meaning to research.
This will be a perfect beach/airplane read.
Reminded me a bit of Michener's The Novel, and like that book i expect to reread it in a few years. A friend loaned me their arc.
The novel is about the making of a movie based on a (fictional) underground comicbook produced in Berkeley circa 1970, the comic is reproduced in the book and that was the only thing i didn't like. Thought the comic wasn't accurate to the time, but in the two weeks since i read it, i've read all of the Berkeley Barb's from 1968 and 1969, the art and story are accurate to the time.
This book spends only a dozen pages in 1970 Berkeley and Hanks (a Skyline alum) got it perfect, even mentioned Loading Zone, a band i'd been meaning to research.
This will be a perfect beach/airplane read.
Reminded me a bit of Michener's The Novel, and like that book i expect to reread it in a few years. A friend loaned me their arc.
May 15, 2023
It’s written with too many details…Tom Hanks wrote it like a script rather than telling a story. I couldn’t get through the first Chapter. Tried a bit of each chapter and it was completely uninteresting. Boring, don’t waste your money.
May 24, 2023
well mr hanks…..all i can say is, don’t quit your day job!
August 11, 2023
I love Tom Hanks the actor! But Tom Hanks the fiction writer? Not so much.
If ‘The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece: A Novel’ had been written instead as an autobiography or filmed as a PBS documentary, I’d give it four or five stars. Or I would have based on the pages 108 to 490. However, the novel is too dense with detail for a good novel - at least after page 108.
From page 19 to 107, it is a novel of domestic Americana, a historical fiction. Readers learn about the life, small-town environment and family of Bob Falls, a World War II Marine veteran. In 1947 Falls, who perhaps has PTSD, disappears, riding away on his motorcycle. But his exploits in the military as a trained flamethrower inspires his nephew, Robby Andersen. Readers are informed of how Robby came of age to adulthood and his career as an artist in the “Summer of Love”. Andersen becomes a comic book artist, and he creates a comic book in 1971 about his missing uncle’s wartime job.
Bill Johnson, director and screenwriter of motion pictures in 2020, comes across Andersen’s comic in a box of old comics. He is inspired, thinking the Marine flamethrower would be a terrific bad-guy character in a superhero movie! He begins the process of making a movie.
At this point, Hanks turns the book into sort of a scripted reality-show of how a movie is made - the people, the jobs, the work, the timeline of the process of gathering people and the order of arranging the parts of making a movie. Hanks tells of Johnson’s fictional biography of how he became a director. This is the first of many movie-people characters we readers meet in the book, learning about how they each became involved in movie making. It often is about somebody knowing somebody. It often is serendipity. It sometimes is being talented in something workaday that is also necessary to movie making. Of course, wink-wink, I suspect Hank’s novel is based on real people and real events.
While Hanks inside knowledge about movie making is interesting, even at time fascinating, the book is weighted down by insider info-dumping.
I have copied the book blurb:
”From the Academy Award-winning actor and best-selling author: his debut novel. The story of the making of a colossal, star-studded, multimillion-dollar superhero action film...and the humble comic book that inspired it.
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 23 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 go-fer production assistant, and everyone else on both sides of the camera.
Funny, touching, and wonderfully thought-provoking, this is a novel not only about the making of a movie, but also about the changes in America and American culture since World War II.
Bonus material: Interspersed throughout are the three comic books that are featured in the story - all created by Hanks himself - including the comic book that becomes the official tie-in to this novel's major motion picture masterpiece.”
The above blurb is accurate except, imho, about the book being funny and touching. For me, the info-dumping drowns this novel. However, it does give readers a 101-textbook tour in how the process of making a movie happens. The timeline process of pulling together all of the elements needed and the numbers of necessary people is incredible!
If ‘The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece: A Novel’ had been written instead as an autobiography or filmed as a PBS documentary, I’d give it four or five stars. Or I would have based on the pages 108 to 490. However, the novel is too dense with detail for a good novel - at least after page 108.
From page 19 to 107, it is a novel of domestic Americana, a historical fiction. Readers learn about the life, small-town environment and family of Bob Falls, a World War II Marine veteran. In 1947 Falls, who perhaps has PTSD, disappears, riding away on his motorcycle. But his exploits in the military as a trained flamethrower inspires his nephew, Robby Andersen. Readers are informed of how Robby came of age to adulthood and his career as an artist in the “Summer of Love”. Andersen becomes a comic book artist, and he creates a comic book in 1971 about his missing uncle’s wartime job.
Bill Johnson, director and screenwriter of motion pictures in 2020, comes across Andersen’s comic in a box of old comics. He is inspired, thinking the Marine flamethrower would be a terrific bad-guy character in a superhero movie! He begins the process of making a movie.
At this point, Hanks turns the book into sort of a scripted reality-show of how a movie is made - the people, the jobs, the work, the timeline of the process of gathering people and the order of arranging the parts of making a movie. Hanks tells of Johnson’s fictional biography of how he became a director. This is the first of many movie-people characters we readers meet in the book, learning about how they each became involved in movie making. It often is about somebody knowing somebody. It often is serendipity. It sometimes is being talented in something workaday that is also necessary to movie making. Of course, wink-wink, I suspect Hank’s novel is based on real people and real events.
While Hanks inside knowledge about movie making is interesting, even at time fascinating, the book is weighted down by insider info-dumping.
I have copied the book blurb:
”From the Academy Award-winning actor and best-selling author: his debut novel. The story of the making of a colossal, star-studded, multimillion-dollar superhero action film...and the humble comic book that inspired it.
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 23 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 go-fer production assistant, and everyone else on both sides of the camera.
Funny, touching, and wonderfully thought-provoking, this is a novel not only about the making of a movie, but also about the changes in America and American culture since World War II.
Bonus material: Interspersed throughout are the three comic books that are featured in the story - all created by Hanks himself - including the comic book that becomes the official tie-in to this novel's major motion picture masterpiece.”
The above blurb is accurate except, imho, about the book being funny and touching. For me, the info-dumping drowns this novel. However, it does give readers a 101-textbook tour in how the process of making a movie happens. The timeline process of pulling together all of the elements needed and the numbers of necessary people is incredible!
May 26, 2023
"Well, it wasn't for me but actually, I quite..." No. I hated it.
The only good part was that we get to sort of see what goes into making a movie. I guess.
This was a BORING book. I wanted to like it because of Tom Hanks but it was incredibly boring. I got to the last 10 pages and felt like someone was sticking heated spikes into my eyes. I wanted the pain to just go away.
Why are there footnotes in a novel? Why? It is the opposite of immersive.
I hate that it is about a supehero movie. Superhero movies suck. I hate that it is (mostly) set in modern day. However, these are "me" problems.
There was ONE character I liked and that was Bob Falls but he is in the story for a little while and then gets a "and then he lived happily ever after" ending.
None of the characters were remotely interesting and new characters were added damn near every other page. Hanks cared so little for his own characters that their names often got reduced down to initials.
At some point toward the end he just randomly goes into fake one sided interviews with some of the characters and it is jarring. If he had thrown these in throughout the book in intervals that would have made sense, but no.
Also in another part someone posts something to social media and you think "uh oh that is probably going to turn out bad" and instead of allowing for the suspense and letting the reader experience the consequences, Hanks writes, literally in the next sentence "The consequence of this act would prove terrible. Just terrible." Thanks for the spoiler? I never thought it was possible for an author to spoil their own story arc right on the page, but here we are.
The story was also all over the place. It felt like a collection of short stories or novellas that loosely matched together.
Boring read. One star. Hopefully his next book is better.
The only good part was that we get to sort of see what goes into making a movie. I guess.
This was a BORING book. I wanted to like it because of Tom Hanks but it was incredibly boring. I got to the last 10 pages and felt like someone was sticking heated spikes into my eyes. I wanted the pain to just go away.
Why are there footnotes in a novel? Why? It is the opposite of immersive.
I hate that it is about a supehero movie. Superhero movies suck. I hate that it is (mostly) set in modern day. However, these are "me" problems.
There was ONE character I liked and that was Bob Falls but he is in the story for a little while and then gets a "and then he lived happily ever after" ending.
None of the characters were remotely interesting and new characters were added damn near every other page. Hanks cared so little for his own characters that their names often got reduced down to initials.
At some point toward the end he just randomly goes into fake one sided interviews with some of the characters and it is jarring. If he had thrown these in throughout the book in intervals that would have made sense, but no.
Also in another part someone posts something to social media and you think "uh oh that is probably going to turn out bad" and instead of allowing for the suspense and letting the reader experience the consequences, Hanks writes, literally in the next sentence "The consequence of this act would prove terrible. Just terrible." Thanks for the spoiler? I never thought it was possible for an author to spoil their own story arc right on the page, but here we are.
The story was also all over the place. It felt like a collection of short stories or novellas that loosely matched together.
Boring read. One star. Hopefully his next book is better.
August 14, 2023
I would give this 2.5 stars as I thought the first 2/3 of the book was really slow, and I really hated the the footnotes (just use parentheses). I liked the story once it actually got to the movie-making process, and I liked most of the characters, except OKB.
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 never be less than very, very good. Tom Hanks is such a person.
The tone for The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece is set in the dedication
It is exciting and funny and informative. (Seriously. The characters talk in impenetrable showbiz jargon, and the book is extensively footnoted to help the ignorant like me understand.) I certainly learned more about the facts and the feel of moviemaking than I have ever known. Here you will learn (what I have always wondered) what it is a producer actually DOES! And what is a gaffer, or a teamster...
The gist of the story is that the making of a movie is a creative, chaotic, unpredictable activity.
Despite this, I was surprised at how ordinary the story was. It is people doing their jobs, and the heroes are those who hit their marks and solve more problems than they create. If you are a human who has ever worked at any serious project, this will sound familiar. In fact, I was reminded of Tracy Kidder's nonfiction accounts of the building of a house (House) or the design of a digital computer (The Soul of a New Machine).
The real secret here is that "The Blur" is not really "*The* Blur" -- it is "a Blur". The Blur of the Shoot is unique to movie-making, but it is a thing of the same kind as The Blur of scientific discovery (my own background), which is also unique, or The Blur of founding a corporation, which is yet another intense, chaotic Blur. Hanks understands this. He makes that clear in a sort of epilog written by Doctor Patrice Johnson, Writer-Director Bill Johnson's significant other, who is a scientist and educator.
TMOAMMPM is one of the best debut novels I have ever read. It is informative, funny, exciting, and just plain FUN!
Blog review.
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 never be less than very, very good. Tom Hanks is such a person.
The tone for The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece is set in the dedication
For all the actors in the cast and every member of the crewAs the title indicates, the novel tells the story of the making of a movie. But the stars of the novel are not the stars of the movie. The stars of the novel are a kid Robbie Andersen who draws comic books, an associate producer Al (short for Allicia) Mac-Teer, a PONY (think Uber or Lyft) driver, Ynez Gonzalez-Cruz, and the writer-director of the film Bill Johnson. Now, there are also actors, two of them the stars of the film, and they are important characters, but if this book were to be nominated for Oscars, they would be up for Best Supporting Actor/Actress.
It is exciting and funny and informative. (Seriously. The characters talk in impenetrable showbiz jargon, and the book is extensively footnoted to help the ignorant like me understand.) I certainly learned more about the facts and the feel of moviemaking than I have ever known. Here you will learn (what I have always wondered) what it is a producer actually DOES! And what is a gaffer, or a teamster...
The gist of the story is that the making of a movie is a creative, chaotic, unpredictable activity.
Imagine a jet plane, the funds for which were held up by Congress, designed by poets, riveted together by musicians, supervised by executives fresh out of business school, to be piloted by wannabes with attention deficiencies. What are the chances that such an aeroplane is going to soar? There you have the making of a movie, ...The heart of the experience is "Principal Photography", known informally as "The Shoot", when the the film is actually recorded. At the beginning of the shoot Al explains to Ynez what it will be like. She calls it "The Blur". It is intense and chaotic and like nothing else.
Despite this, I was surprised at how ordinary the story was. It is people doing their jobs, and the heroes are those who hit their marks and solve more problems than they create. If you are a human who has ever worked at any serious project, this will sound familiar. In fact, I was reminded of Tracy Kidder's nonfiction accounts of the building of a house (House) or the design of a digital computer (The Soul of a New Machine).
The real secret here is that "The Blur" is not really "*The* Blur" -- it is "a Blur". The Blur of the Shoot is unique to movie-making, but it is a thing of the same kind as The Blur of scientific discovery (my own background), which is also unique, or The Blur of founding a corporation, which is yet another intense, chaotic Blur. Hanks understands this. He makes that clear in a sort of epilog written by Doctor Patrice Johnson, Writer-Director Bill Johnson's significant other, who is a scientist and educator.
TMOAMMPM is one of the best debut novels I have ever read. It is informative, funny, exciting, and just plain FUN!
Blog review.
September 2, 2023
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.
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.
May 10, 2023
Started it and couldn’t finish it. I realized I have zero interest in movie making— even in a novel format. The first 15 pages of the book were so confusing and I felt like I was missing something. The second part got better but the writing feels like it should be read aloud for a movie dialogue so maybe this would be good for audio?
May 17, 2023
Yes, that Tom Hanks.
Yes, it’s long. Yes, there are footnotes, many ellipses (narrated in the audiobook as “dot dot dot,” and lists of what food is available from craft services. I’ve read many reviews complaining (and docking stars for) these points.
But to me, these are pluses, not minuses.
It adds to the charm that IS Tom Hanks. He’s telling us a story using his mannerisms. And I’m here for ALL OF IT. Truth in advertising: He could read me the phone book. While a 15-hour and 57-minute audiobook might seem like a phone book to some, it didn’t seem like that to me. I adored it. I want to reread it!
Hank’s debut novel (his previous printed work was a short story collection) tells the story of how the sausage is made re: making movies. In what feels like interconnected short stories, we spend time with a writer/director, producer, gofer, actress, and actor and see how they all interact. We dip into historical fiction to meet a young boy and his beloved uncle, damaged and home from the war. The boy grows up to draw a comic, discovered decades later, and used as inspiration for a superhero movie. I loved the interwoven connections and the celebration of problem-solvers behind the scenes.
“Imagine a jet plane, the funds for which were held up by Congress, designed by poets, riveted together by musicians, supervised by executives fresh out of business school, to be piloted by wannabes with attention deficiencies. What are the chances that such an aeroplane is going to soar? There you have the making of a movie.”
I messaged a friend about the book. “I lovedlovedlovedlovedloved it. Loved. Did I mention I loved it? Charming characters that help each other out, insight into the magic of behind-the-scenes movie making, and the back-breaking skill and labor that makes the magic work. It was wonderful. And Tom Hanks’ delivery? Just. Take. My. Money.”
QOTD: Favorite Tom Hanks Movie?
Yes, it’s long. Yes, there are footnotes, many ellipses (narrated in the audiobook as “dot dot dot,” and lists of what food is available from craft services. I’ve read many reviews complaining (and docking stars for) these points.
But to me, these are pluses, not minuses.
It adds to the charm that IS Tom Hanks. He’s telling us a story using his mannerisms. And I’m here for ALL OF IT. Truth in advertising: He could read me the phone book. While a 15-hour and 57-minute audiobook might seem like a phone book to some, it didn’t seem like that to me. I adored it. I want to reread it!
Hank’s debut novel (his previous printed work was a short story collection) tells the story of how the sausage is made re: making movies. In what feels like interconnected short stories, we spend time with a writer/director, producer, gofer, actress, and actor and see how they all interact. We dip into historical fiction to meet a young boy and his beloved uncle, damaged and home from the war. The boy grows up to draw a comic, discovered decades later, and used as inspiration for a superhero movie. I loved the interwoven connections and the celebration of problem-solvers behind the scenes.
“Imagine a jet plane, the funds for which were held up by Congress, designed by poets, riveted together by musicians, supervised by executives fresh out of business school, to be piloted by wannabes with attention deficiencies. What are the chances that such an aeroplane is going to soar? There you have the making of a movie.”
I messaged a friend about the book. “I lovedlovedlovedlovedloved it. Loved. Did I mention I loved it? Charming characters that help each other out, insight into the magic of behind-the-scenes movie making, and the back-breaking skill and labor that makes the magic work. It was wonderful. And Tom Hanks’ delivery? Just. Take. My. Money.”
QOTD: Favorite Tom Hanks Movie?
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December 21, 2022I'd rather read The Making of Chet Hanks
April 27, 2023
An entertaining love letter to the unsung heroes of movie making, the folks behind the scenes, without whom there would be no magic in movies.
September 7, 2023
I love stories that go "behind the scenes"- of movies, of TV shows, of books, fictional or nonfictional. I like to know how the sausage gets made, especially when the author is someone who really Knows. And if anyone knows moviemaking, it's got to be Tom Hanks, amirite? Star of Bosom Buddies, The 'Burbs, the man who brought the world That Thing You Do!
I also love stories that are character studies, that do deep dives into people's lives. How did this guy get to be a director? Why did this comic book artist do a weird, short lived series about a marine with a flamethrower? "It all started in 1945 . . ." I know some people would shut the book right there, but I was HOOKED. The story of how all these different people came together to make this movie, how the comic book that inspired it was inspired in turn by a single day in the life of a young boy in a podunk town in Northern California . . . all of it fascinated me. At first I was a little distracted, thinking that the characters would be based on real people and I could figure out who they were. But I quickly shoved that aside. Maybe some of them were, maybe some of them weren't, it doesn't matter. The book stands alone, fabulously.
I can't wait to see the movie!
I also love stories that are character studies, that do deep dives into people's lives. How did this guy get to be a director? Why did this comic book artist do a weird, short lived series about a marine with a flamethrower? "It all started in 1945 . . ." I know some people would shut the book right there, but I was HOOKED. The story of how all these different people came together to make this movie, how the comic book that inspired it was inspired in turn by a single day in the life of a young boy in a podunk town in Northern California . . . all of it fascinated me. At first I was a little distracted, thinking that the characters would be based on real people and I could figure out who they were. But I quickly shoved that aside. Maybe some of them were, maybe some of them weren't, it doesn't matter. The book stands alone, fabulously.
I can't wait to see the movie!
August 3, 2023
From impetus to forgotten comic book, from source material to audience ready — Hanks takes readers on a behind-the-scenes journey in The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece. Across various eras, ages, and backstories, every narrator and their storyline is a captivating testament to his unique brand of storytelling. Hanks crafts with evident care, showcasing his deep appreciation for the human experience and the connections that unite us.
Hanks, growing from short story author (and screenplay writer, let's not forget) to novel writer, stares at the write-what-you-know mantra demand and meets it head-on. Without more catalog from which to draw, placing Hanks's style and storytelling is harder to do without leaning into his filmography and well-established reputation as the nicest, most trusted man in Hollywood. (The sentiment is summed up nicely with just the title of this HuffPost article from 2013: Tom Hanks Named 'Most Likable Man In Hollywood' And The World Nods In Agreement.)
The voice in The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece is very Tom — no matter what character you're with — and reminded me heavily, in a general sense of the tone of the book, of his 2011 movie Larry Crowne. A project that he starred in, directed, and co-wrote with Nia Vardalos. A movie that tanked, but that should be revisited by many. We were riding high on the hog of self-congratulations to our own accomplishments in 2011 — and a nastier underbelly has since been exposed. What many called bland and too nice, is actually an underrated movie with nuance and solid character development. He wasn't trying to make an OSCAR-bait movie (nor is he going for a Pulitzer Prize winning novel here), and I think the joy in the former is present in the latter — the feeling we get from knowing how nice Tom Hanks is should not be eschewed and stomped out when he injects that into his own work.
Because, although the idea behind this one is bigger than a middle-aged guy who gets laid off from work and is able to recover from having unknowingly veered off the road, half asleep, the same kinds of people inhabit this world. They were also in his short story collection, Uncommon Type. These people are multi-faceted, of varying ages, exceedingly realistic, and more often than not — someone whose company I'd enjoy.
Audiobook, as narrated by the author: Hanks reading his own words is something I wouldn't miss — and I did the rare combo of audiobook and print copy. But if you just want to listen to this gem, the publishers have downloadable PDFs for the inserted bits from the comic-book source material available online. All the other narrators who perform the various points-of-view were fantastic and provided a cushy rounding out of the emphasis on the number of people it takes to make these movie things work.
Hanks, growing from short story author (and screenplay writer, let's not forget) to novel writer, stares at the write-what-you-know mantra demand and meets it head-on. Without more catalog from which to draw, placing Hanks's style and storytelling is harder to do without leaning into his filmography and well-established reputation as the nicest, most trusted man in Hollywood. (The sentiment is summed up nicely with just the title of this HuffPost article from 2013: Tom Hanks Named 'Most Likable Man In Hollywood' And The World Nods In Agreement.)
The voice in The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece is very Tom — no matter what character you're with — and reminded me heavily, in a general sense of the tone of the book, of his 2011 movie Larry Crowne. A project that he starred in, directed, and co-wrote with Nia Vardalos. A movie that tanked, but that should be revisited by many. We were riding high on the hog of self-congratulations to our own accomplishments in 2011 — and a nastier underbelly has since been exposed. What many called bland and too nice, is actually an underrated movie with nuance and solid character development. He wasn't trying to make an OSCAR-bait movie (nor is he going for a Pulitzer Prize winning novel here), and I think the joy in the former is present in the latter — the feeling we get from knowing how nice Tom Hanks is should not be eschewed and stomped out when he injects that into his own work.
Because, although the idea behind this one is bigger than a middle-aged guy who gets laid off from work and is able to recover from having unknowingly veered off the road, half asleep, the same kinds of people inhabit this world. They were also in his short story collection, Uncommon Type. These people are multi-faceted, of varying ages, exceedingly realistic, and more often than not — someone whose company I'd enjoy.
Audiobook, as narrated by the author: Hanks reading his own words is something I wouldn't miss — and I did the rare combo of audiobook and print copy. But if you just want to listen to this gem, the publishers have downloadable PDFs for the inserted bits from the comic-book source material available online. All the other narrators who perform the various points-of-view were fantastic and provided a cushy rounding out of the emphasis on the number of people it takes to make these movie things work.
August 12, 2024
And the Oscar for Worst Book Written by an A-List, Oscar-Winning Actor goes to….this travesty. I figured this would be a fantastic book about the making of a movie since it’s Tom Hanks but I was sadly mistaken. It starts off slowly, continues slowly, nothing happens, and then they make a movie where still nothing happens. If this wasn’t a book club choice I would’ve stopped after 100 pages. The monotony and boredom I felt reading this book was criminal. The only redeeming quality I found was Hanks created solid characters but then did nothing with them. He gives them very good backstories but when it’s time for them to have plot, nothing is incorporated or used. This was a huge disappointment and a flop.
June 7, 2023
I’m sorry to say that I did not really care for this book. I thought it was too busy, too wordy, and it had too much unneeded information which made it hard for me to concentrate on the story -- and it way too long.
I read Tom Hanks’ previous book and enjoyed his writing style. But it felt like he was trying too hard in this one.
It may also be that it didn’t hold my attention because I am not particularly interested in the subject matter, so there’s that…
I’d like to thank NetGalley, Tom Hanks, and Knopf Books for the advanced reader's copy in exchange for my unbiased review.
I read Tom Hanks’ previous book and enjoyed his writing style. But it felt like he was trying too hard in this one.
It may also be that it didn’t hold my attention because I am not particularly interested in the subject matter, so there’s that…
I’d like to thank NetGalley, Tom Hanks, and Knopf Books for the advanced reader's copy in exchange for my unbiased review.
May 13, 2023
"He calls moviemaking the Carboard Carnival. The moment a customer buys a ticket, he provides them the distraction from life they crave at the cost of a few bucks."
It's no surprise that an award-winning actor would write a book about moviemaking – you write what you know, right? This is Tom Hanks' first novel and it's all about something he's an expert in.
Bill Johnson is an acclaimed director and screenwriter. So when someone asks whether he'll direct a superhero film in a massive MCU-like universe, he's dismissive, until he looks at the pitch and decides he can put his own stamp on it. He's partly inspired by a character in a decades-old comic book, a soldier fighting in World War II, a flamethrower who struggles to come to terms with what he's seen, named Firefall.
Flashback to 1947 when a five-year-old boy – Bobby – who loves to draw comics meets his uncle – an ex-soldier – for the first time. The man isn't around for very long but leaves a lasting impression on his nephew, so much so that the adult Bobby draws a comic book about him called Firefall. Bill combines the Firefall character with another superhero character – a woman with superpowers who suffers from incurable insomnia, creating a script that is pure gold.
The book explores the search for the perfect cast, the intricacies and minutia of actually making a motion picture, how the stress of filmmaking takes a toll on relationships and also the beauty of creating something that takes forever to make, and only a couple of hours to consume.
There are some great characters in this book, particularly Bill's super-efficient assistant, Al Mac-Teer, and her ride-share driver, Inez, who also comes to play a part in making the film. And then there is Bobby and his uncle... I wanted so much more from that arc. In fact, I felt like their story was the best part of this novel, rather than the filmmaking itself.
My biggest complaint about the book is that it gets bogged down by too much detail. There is a plethora of footnotes explaining a bunch of incredibly irrelevant and excruciatingly boring technicalities about moviemaking and the backgrounds of VERY minor and almost irrelevant characters. The NetGalley format was also so poor that the footnotes would appear several pages later so I constantly had to jump back and forth on my Kindle to read them.
I felt like the book needed a different editor – just like in the movies, a good editor can make a BIG difference. I would have cut the majority of the footnotes and incorporated the rest into the main plot. The annotations distracted me from the main story, which is, mostly, highly enjoyable. Is it the kind of book you'd enjoy with a bowl of popcorn? Yes. Is it a masterpiece? I don't think so.
July 21, 2023
4.5 🌟 Quote from the man himself, who can explain better the concept of his novel: "Every character in the book does something I’ve experienced while making a movie, as well as discovered a philosophy or learned an important lesson," Hanks told People. "Even the foolish moments are some kind of stunt I’ve pulled or mistake I’ve survived.". The story of The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece begins in post World War II America and spans to the present day. "The source for a movie can go back as many years as are in history. A story turns on a single moment in the life of someone, then all the anecdotes of the current day magnify that moment". If you don't love the ins and out of the process of making a movie this book isn't for you. It isn't flawless but Hanks deserves this rating because this book is humongous, the comic book pages inserted into the story, also written by him, are very well done. It's really good for a debut novel of a non-profesional writer. Hanks may have landed on a second career...🤔
June 24, 2023
I gave up on this one. It is a treatise on making a movie and an ode to those people who don’t get credit for doing so ( we’ve all switched streaming channels or left the theater by the time their names are scrolled). It is not a novel—- for me absolutely no story once they get into making the movie, just character studies. Love Tom Hanks, the actor, but not Tom Hanks, the novelist. This is really non- fiction.
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