The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece

A novel

by Tom Hanks
R. Sikoryak

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NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • AN NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • 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."

Creators
- Tom Hanks
  
  Author
- R. Sikoryak
  
  Illustrator
Publisher

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Release date

May 9, 2023
Formats
- Kindle Book
- OverDrive Read
  - ISBN: 9780525655602
- EPUB ebook
  - ISBN: 9780525655602
  - File size: 39780 KB
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- Table of contents to all chapters of the text via links.
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Languages
- English
Reviews
- Library Journal
  
  October 1, 2022
  A burnt-out soldier returns home from World War II, then vanishes after meeting his gifted young nephew. The nephew grows up to create underground comic books, including one featuring a World War II fighting hero inspired by his uncle. In the present day, the comic book is rediscovered and inspires a multimillion-dollar superhero action film whose workings two-time Academy Award-winning actor Hanks should detail with verve and grace.
  
  Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
- Publisher's Weekly
  
  March 13, 2023
  Actor Hanks explores the making of a superhero film epic in his entertaining debut novel (after the collection Uncommon Type). In 1947, Bob Falls finds it difficult to adapt back to civilian life after returning from the battlefields of WWII. In 1970, his artist nephew, Robby Andersen, creates a comic book series titled The Legend of Firefall inspired by his uncle’s experiences wielding a flamethrower in the Pacific theater. In the present, writer-director-producer Bill Johnson decides to use Andersen’s comic as the basis for a superhero film. Cast as Firefall is O.K. Bailey, an actor whose ego knows no bounds, while the female lead, Wren Lake, is as savvy as she is beautiful and talented. The shoot gets underway in Robby’s hometown of Lone Butte, Calif., where the production is complicated by marital disharmony between a rising star actor and his neglected wife, the unexpected death of a beloved character actor, and a stalker who threatens Wren’s life. Pages from Firefall, illustrated by R. Sikoryak, appear throughout and are a hoot (in one panel, Firefall’s sergeant gives the order “light ’em up” while lighting Firefall’s cigarette). Neither slashing satire nor moody melodrama, this sincerely Hanksian paean to the people behind the scenes of a movie production comes to life with great characters. It’s a winner.
- Kirkus
  
  April 15, 2023
  A fictional account of the agony and ecstasy of making a movie, from someone who'd know. For his sprightly debut novel, actor/writer/national treasure Hanks--author of the story collection Uncommon Type, 2017--imagines the making of Knightshade: The Lathe of Firefall, a mashup of Marvel-esque superhero fare, war story, and artsy melodrama. The movie's concept seems like an unworkable, even bad idea, which is part of the point--Hanks stresses the notion that successful movies aren't just a matter of story but the people who make them. So he's assembled an engrossing cast of characters: Bob Falls, the World War II vet who served as a flamethrower in the Pacific theater and became a PTSD-struck biker; Robby Andersen, the nephew who turned him into alternative-comix antihero Firefall; Bill Johnson, the well-decorated Spielberg-ian director who acquires the Firefall property and writes the script; and the small army of actors, assistants, and technicians charged with shooting the film in the Northern California town of Lone Butte--on time, lest morale collapse and the budget inflate. Hanks ably depicts how easily things derail. The male lead's ego wrecks the shooting schedule. A stray social media post complicates security. On-set flirtations threaten a marriage. But the novel reflects the sunny stick-to-it-iveness of many of Hanks' roles, and his central thesis is that every movie's true hero is anybody who reduces friction. To that end, his most enchanting and best-drawn characters are the director's assistant, Al Mac-Teer (full name Allicia), and Ynez Gonzalez-Cruz, a ride-share driver with no movie experience but a knack for problem-solving. "Most of the film business is done by meeting folks," one character says, and Hanks suggests that meeting the right people--and being kind to them--is half the battle of successful moviemaking. Overly romantic? Consider the source. Regardless, it's a well-turned tale of a Hollywood (maybe) success. (Sikoryak illustrates some comic-book pages related to the Firefall backstory and film.) A loose-limbed, bighearted Hollywood yarn.
  COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
- Booklist
  
  Starred review from April 1, 2023
  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. As the title suggests, it's the story of the making of a movie--a big-budget superhero movie. But it's so much more than that. Above all, it's a heartfelt tribute to movies and the people who make them. We follow not just the director of this movie, but the creator of the comic book on which it's based (the novel includes a replica of that fictional comic book, drawn by graphic-novel illustrator R. Sikoryak), the director's brilliant production assistant, and an assortment of other characters. Joe Shaw, the book's narrator, is thoroughly compelling, a guy who loves movies and wants us to love them, too. 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.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Hanks' first novel is a delight that will draw not only the actor's fans, but also movie buffs everywhere.
  COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
- Good Reading Magazine
  
  The first chapters of the book focus on a young boy growing up after World War II. His war veteran uncle introduces him to comics, which will become the boy’s passion, eventually having a comic being made into a superhero movie. The Making tells the story of how this comic came to be and how an entire big studio film production takes over a small California town to make the movie. Hanks sets the scene placing you amongst the action. From housing A list stars to the union transport drivers (teamsters) that essentially move an entire small town of people and objects every time there’s a location change. The book touches on every aspect of a film production down to the smallest detail, much of it with the jargon and nomenclature of the industry but still easy to follow. Even when a major star is fired and another one dies mid-shoot, Hanks wrangles a big picture view of it, as concerned with the Holy Grail (staying on schedule and budget) as he is with the emotions and fallout the characters feel. In doing so, he has a singular and at times delightful turn of phrase that will remind you a little bit of Stephen King talking about his own turf (small town in the ’60s). But everyone – from an Uber driver-turned production runner to the major cast and even the star’s make-up artist – get detailed rundowns of how they came to be where they are, leaving no stone unturned. Hanks debut novel takes a few chapters to find its feet, but it’s rewarding in the end. Reviewed by Drew Turner About the Author TOM HANKS has won Academy Awards for best actor for Philadelphia and Forrest Gump. He has starred in, among many other films, Big, Sleepless in Seattle, Apollo 13, Saving Private Ryan, The Green Mile, Cast Away, Catch Me If You Can, Captain Phillips, Bridge of Spies, Sully, Toy Story, The Post, and It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Vanity Fair, and The New Yorker. He is also the author of a best-selling collection of stories, Uncommon Type.
- BookPage
  
  Remember when you were a little kid, and adults seemed to be imbued with powers you couldn’t even imagine? Robby Andersen felt that way when, in 1947, his uncle came to visit with glorious, gory stories of using his flamethrower against the enemy in World War II’s Pacific theater. Fast forward about a quarter century, and Robby is illustrating underground “comix” inspired by his uncle’s wartime experiences, starring a sort of super-antihero called Firefall. The comic, published during the thick of the Vietnam War, garners a mixed reaction, as American military personnel were not universally revered. After a flurry of sales and hate letters in response to his creation, Robby and the rest of the world move on to other things. In the present day, movie director Bill Johnson is casting about for his next film, and when he envisions an adaptation of the union of Robby’s superheroes, Firefall and Knightshade, it’s a marriage made in, well, Lone Butte, California. The fictional Lone Butte is the kind of small town that has come to symbolize the “real America,” a trope that Academy Award-winning actor Tom Hanks used to great effect in his 1996 directorial and screenwriting debut, That Thing You Do! Much like that film follows the arc of a pop band from college talent-show winners to chart-topping sensation, The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece pulls its audience behind the velvet rope and into the production offices and soundstages where magic happens. Read our review of the audiobook, narrated by Tom Hanks and a full cast. As an army of “talent,” craftspeople and other workers descends on the hamlet of Lone Butte, readers are offered an unparalleled glimpse into the hurry-up-and-wait nature of filmmaking. Hanks lavishes praise on the largely unsung heroes who keep the machine running, from the gaffers to the makeup artists to the myriad of problem-solvers whose names you miss as you exit the theater. In fact, the story is almost as much about the metamorphosis of young Ynez Gonzalez-Cruz from cabbie to associate producer as it is about the main characters’ journeys. Hanks’ familiarity with the filmmaking process and keen eye for detail make his first novel (with comic book panels illustrated by R. Sikoryak) a joy for anyone who loves the art of cinema. Hanks retains a childlike sense of wonder even as he moves among adults whose powers, like movies themselves, are just illusions that we will ourselves to believe.