Tom Hanks [1] is adding another title to his résumé: novelist. The actor is releasing a debut novel titled "The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece" in 2023. It will be about the movie industry and the making of a "colossal, star-studded, multimillion-dollar superhero action film and the humble comic book that inspired it," per its official synopsis [2]. Beginning in 1947 with the story of a soldier returning home from war, it then switches focus to the soldier's nephew, who writes a comic book about his uncle in 1970. From there, it pivots to present day, when a director adapts the comic book into a superhero movie.
To write the book, Hanks drew directly from his own experiences in Hollywood. "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 tells People [3]. "Even the foolish moments are some kind of stunt I've pulled or mistake I've survived."
Hanks adds that he will use his own knowledge of the movie business to paint a picture of how a major motion picture actually comes together. "No one knows how a movie is made — though everyone thinks they do," he says. "I've made a ton of movies (and four of them are pretty good, I think) and I'm still amazed at how films come together. From a flicker of an idea to the flickering image onscreen, the whole process is a miracle."
Behind the miracle, of course, is a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. "Movie-making is very hard work over a very long period of time that consists of so many moments of joy slapped up against an equal number of feelings of self-loathing," he explains to People. "It is the greatest job in the world and the most confounding of labors that I know of. I hope the book captures as much of 'the accidental judgements and casual slaughter' that go into a motion pictures dictum to hold 'a mirror up to nature' that I have witnessed (and caused) since I joined the Screen Actors Guild."
Sixty-six-year-old Hanks, who starred in "Elvis" this past June [4], previously published a bestselling collection of short stories called "Uncommon Type" in 2017. "The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece" will be released on May 9, 2023.
A rep for Hanks did not immediately respond to POPSUGAR's request for further comment.
