> Skip to content
Play sample
  • Published: 24 September 2024
  • ISBN: 9781804940938
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 448
  • RRP: $26.00

The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece




THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

'A proper literary belter' THE TIMES
'
Affectionate and endlessly entertaining' RICHARD OSMAN

A wildly ambitious story of the making of a colossal, star-studded, multimillion-dollar superhero action film, and the humble comic book that inspired it all.

Spanning eighty years and culminating in the opening of a film, we meet a cast of characters including a troubled soldier, a young boy with an artistic gift, an inspired and eccentric director, a pompous film star on the rise, a tireless production assistant and countless film crew members who together create Hollywood magic.


Funny, touching, and wonderfully thought-provoking, The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece offers an insider's take on the momentous efforts it takes to make a film. At once a reflection on America's past and present, on the world of show business and the real world we all live in.

  • Published: 24 September 2024
  • ISBN: 9781804940938
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 448
  • RRP: $26.00

About the author

Tom Hanks

Tom Hanks has been an actor, screenwriter, director and through Playtone, a producer. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Vanity Fair and The New Yorker. This is his first collection of fiction.

Also by Tom Hanks

See all

Praise for The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece

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

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

With a unique insight and a rare eye for detail, Tom Hanks delivers a stunning, emotionally satisfying tale about the art of storytelling. I never wanted the lights to come up. I could not put it down

Graham Norton

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

Vibrant, jazzy, witty, snazzily written, with a great sense of time and place, this novel-cum-comic book is one of those rare, unique, pieces of fiction. Loved it

Kate Mosse

Affectionate and endlessly entertaining. Hanks writes with such tenderness about human connection and the magic of the movies

Richard Osman

Do you want to go on an adventure? Who doesn't? This was a joy to read in that certain kind of way that only happens when it was a joy to write. Tom Hanks is such a natural storyteller that everything feels like he's telling this story just for you, at a dinner table, and you don't want the night to end

Fredrik Backman

A heartfelt tribute to movies and the people who make them . . . Lovingly crafted, a wildly entertaining story beautifully told . . . You'll love this book

Booklist

An impressive debut

Daily Express

Tom Hanks' novel is smart and sharp

The Telegraph

A proper literary belter

The Times

A thoroughly likeable gem of a novel with hidden depths - rightly securing Hanks's place in the literary world

Press Association

At once a love letter to the movies and an affectionate portrait of small-town America, told with insider insight and considerable charm

Mail on Sunday

An impressive debut

Daily Mirror

Discover more

Article
Great Winter Reads

Books that are perfect for curling up with this winter!