Summary

• Tom Hanks' debut novel, "The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece," explores the creation of a Hollywood film from the 1940s to the present day.
• Hanks incorporates format experimentation by including script pages and a fictional comic book within the novel itself.
• Hanks drew inspiration from his own experiences in the film industry, making the book a personal and reflective endeavor. Despite mixed reviews, Hanks plans to continue writing.

Tom Hanks' book The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece sees the celebrated Hollywood legend enter new territory as he pens a fiction story about the industry he knows so well. The novel, released in 2023, chronicles the creation of a massive Hollywood film from the inception of the story all the way back into the 1940s, to the day it finally splashes onto the big screen in the modern day. Naturally, Hanks is best known for his Oscar-winning film roles, but the beloved screen icon has also directed films like That Thing You Do! a movie for which he also provided the screenplay.

Amazingly, Hanks' writing isn't some new phase in a career that is on the decline, and he has continued to star in hit after hit while also taking time to pound out a 400-plus page novel. Besides Tom Hanks' best movies which have won him fans all around the globe, the man himself is a well-liked member of Hollywood's A-list, which brings plenty of goodwill into his new book. However, Hanks didn't merely rest on his laurels by producing yet another movie memoir but instead revealed much about his signature business through fiction in the form of The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece.

The Making Of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece Is Tom Hanks’ First Novel

Having conquered the worlds of acting, directing, and screenwriting, Tom Hanks turned his sites to another form of storytelling when he penned The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece in 2023. The novel is actually Tom Hanks' first, and the book is an ambitious debut novel by any stretch of the imagination. The Hollywood star with a surprising hobby for collecting typewriters finally put them to good use when constructing a story that fits his worldview and personal experience. The old adage goes that authors should write what they know, and Tom Hanks' book is literally what the Oscar-winner knows best.

Though The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece is Hanks' first novel, it isn't his first published work, and he is no stranger to fiction storytelling of the literary variety. Previously, Hanks published a collection of short stories called Uncommon Type in 2017 which collects 17 different tales all inspired by his collection of vintage typewriters. The book was well-received with some outlets praising it for its rosy outlook saying it featured a "gentler, sweeter kind of storytelling than we've come to expect" (via NPR). In a lot of ways, that sense of wonder and charm carried over into his first full-length novel.

Both of Tom Hanks' books are available for purchase wherever books are sold.

The Book Features Script Pages And Even Comic Books

Debut novels are often a chance for an author to put their best foot forward and make a big impression, but they are usually also simpler and less assuming that the writings of a more established wordsmith. Tom Hanks' book ignored that age-old convention and went for the gusto in a way that few debut novels can, and played around with format in a way that makes The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece stand out. The story is about a man who, inspired by a comic book, grows up to become a filmmaker who later adapts said comic into a feature film, and the comic itself becomes a character.

Comic book movies are all the rage, but the art of comics themselves is somewhat lost in all the sound and fury of the Hollywood machine. However, Hanks sought to include the fictional comic by actually putting comic book pages within the novel itself. Written by Hanks, the fictional comic that serves as inspiration for the story is available to the reader as part of the story itself. By the same token, portions of the novel are taken up by script pages which are supposed to be the screenplay for the massive motion picture masterpiece that the book draws its title from.

What Inspired Hanks To Write The Book

Behind the scenes, the impetus for the book is actually almost as fascinating as the story itself. Hanks has obviously found himself at the top of the heap in Hollywood, and that sort of narrow focus can sometimes limit storytellers. Instead, Hanks decided to lean into his experience and write a book about the industry that helped to make him rich and famous. In an interview with the BBC, Hanks laid out his reasoning for writing a novel, and it mostly came from the long and arduous grind of making movies. He explained that he had "run out of curiosity for the job", an unsurprising fact considering his decades-long career.

The motivation is rather obvious considering his extensive career, but what may be a surprise is that many of the novel's most dynamic moments are actually pulled from Hanks' own experience. In the same BBC interview, Hanks itted that he "pulled every single one of those moments of behavior myself on set", claiming that he isn't the saint everyone makes him out to be. In fact, Hanks' has been vocal about his on-set antics, a fact that has surprised some, but also made him even more endearing because of his openness.

Hanks Plans To Keep Writing

Unsurprisingly, Tom Hanks' book The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece was a New York Times Bestseller and was most likely a smash because of its recognizable author. However, that sort of instant success isn't what Hanks was after, and he actually has no plans to stop writing. In an interview with PBS, Hanks answered the question directly when he said "yes. I don't know what, but I like to consider myself to be a writer with a day job". Regardless of what it turns out to be, Tom Hanks is likely a name that will be seen in bookstores in the near future once again.

What Critics Thought Of The Making Of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece

While the book has fared well in sales, The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece isn't as universally beloved as its famous author. Novels are often polarizing, and an author like Hanks comes with a lot of baggage in the form of high expectations. Hanks himself lamented that he wasn't able to experience the trials and tribulations of being a young author on the hunt for recognition (via BBC), but he did get his fair share of criticism regarding his debut novel. While most reviews were tepid at best, others were much less kind and echoed much of the negative sentiment of others, but with a harsher tone.

A review from The Guardian sums up the typical critical response when they described it as "a bland busman’s holiday dressed up as literary fiction". It seems that the quaint and rose worldview of his short stories didn't quite translate, and the review went on to say that the book was "crying out for an editor". There's no doubt that Tom Hanks is a talented storyteller, but perhaps critics hit the nail on the head when they lamented the fact that Hanks' abundant talent was taken at face value and The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece was scrutinized before publication like most other books are.