Sometimes people who are creative in one area are also creative in others. In this case, Tom Hanks is a global superstar when it comes to acting. But did you know he also writes books? The Making of Another Major Motion Picture is actually his second, following up his debut short story collection about the typewriter called Uncommon Type. When I first saw this, I thought it was going to be autobiographical, with Tom telling us about his vast and long-lived career making movies. 

Wrong. 

This one is fiction, folks. To be fair, we still get a good look at the process of making films, something I’ve never had any experience with. But in this case it’s about Knighshade: The Lathe of Firefall, a Marvel Universe wannabe, with superheroes and ongoing characters from the Agents of Change series.

The novel starts clear back at the inception of Firefall by telling the story of Kool Katz Komix artist TREV-VORR, and how he grew up as Robby Anderson in Lone Butte, CA.  His Uncle Bob, a WWII soldier, was the inspiration for the character Firefall. And friends, Mr. Hanks was so kind as to actually include a copy of the original Firefall comic in his book! I’ve never seen that done before but highly enjoyed it. 

Then we get to travel through all the casting decisions/changes, through all the pre-shoot working into the actual making of the movie. This novel was captivating. I couldn’t wait to see what happened next. I was a little afraid that because Tom Hanks is such a big, well-known star, I would have trouble getting his voice out of my head. But, this was not an issue at all. I almost had more trouble imagining that this great story was being told by Mr. Hanks. (Not a knock on his writing, but I’m just more used to him being in front of the camera.) 

I highly recommend this one. It is one of my favorite reads of the year so far. And check out the other titles below because Mr. Hanks is not the only celebrity to get his writing on.

Happy celebrity-noveling…
:) Amanda