The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece

A Novel

By: Tom Hanks

Narrated by: Tom Hanks, Peter Gerety, Natalie Morales, Ego Nwodim, Nasim Pedrad, Connor Ratliff, Holland Taylor, Rita Wilson, full cast

Length: 15 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2023 Tom Hanks (P) 2023 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"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

Bliss

As an actress from a small town learning the business of show, I find this book is both a treasure from our beloved Mr. Hanks and a gift to demystifying the magical realm of moviemaking.. Enjoyable characterizations, prose and stories. The candor in Mr.Hanks voice is a delight. Every reader serves the story beautifully.

The magic of movies answered on a typewriter.

The future of audiobooks is here and it is all starting with this. The story is everything one would expect it to be with much more human interest than you can shake a stick at. The character voice actors do-not disappoint as they completely understood the asignment. The post audio editing is missing a few things but I am sure that can be fixed soon.
How blessed we are in this time to have the talent of Tom Hanks, Rita Wison and the rest of the cast expound thier talents in this medium. I thabk you all for your efforts and dedication to your craft.
I will be buying a new-to-me typewriter, recommending this book and a typewriter to everyone that I know including my mother.

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you don't want it in my plan and the game has to do it right there for

What a fun insight into filmmaking!

What an interesting insight into film making. I loved the characters and the story from the beginning and how it circled back at the end. It’s also always great to hear Tom Hanks!

Fun peek behind the movie curtain

A touching story and interesting insight into the world of cinema. Tom Hanks is an easy to listen to narrator. Highly recommend!

Not the usual kind of thing I would read, but I took a chance and loved it

While it was not the kind of story or book, that I would normally choose to read, given that it was written by Tom Hanks I thought I might give it a shot and I’m certainly glad that I did. Given the author being in the business of film, it gives credence to this fantastic story of how a movie probably more often than not comes in to being. Fascinating.

Sweet story

In this crazy world we live in not every book or story has to be tragic to be of value. I loved this book. It was sweet, gave me lots of info into film making and enjoyable. His voice is soothing, comfortable and the book was interesting. I give it a thumbs up!

Seeing Behind the Curtain Through Tom Hanks’ Eyes

The story reads like a guided tour of the film business by Tom Hanks. The world building is meticulous and palpable. The characters made me care enough that I laughed, cried and worried about people who did not exist the day before. The performances added to the experience.

My only knock is there was a minimal amount of tension. Threats like a stalker just disappeared rather than coming to fruition. Bill, Al and Ynez had straightforward worldviews that were never tested. The only moment the film was in doubt for me was during OKB’s destructive tenure. Just needed more like that to be a 5-star story. Great listen though.

I loved it!

Wow! What a fantastic work. I know personally that sitting down to write a challenging and seeing projects like this through takes cleverness, thoughtfulness, and hard work. It took some research to you can tell from all the details. I’m really impressed with the writing I thought Mr. Tom Hanks did a phenomenal job. I’m really impressed Mr. Hanks. :-) I myself am pursuing writing and I really appreciate the way that you put this together and shared with us. You’re incredible insight into the movie making business. And your insightful life hacks were pretty cool as well. I really loved it. I was even moved to tears a few times really great job. Thank you for writing this book. Write another one!
D.D.R.Stewart

Love it!

I’m a big fan of Tom Hanks and enjoy everything he does. Yes, at times it was a little confusing but I put that me more than the book. Learned a lot about movie making and think he did a great job of explaining. I will listen again in the future and hope a movie and more books come from Tom. Thank you!