Tom Hanks, Novelist

Tom Hanks' next big venture has no hope of winning him an Oscar—unless it's adapted into a film. The 66-year-old actor is writing his first novel, one that's due out in May 2023, reports People. The book is called The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece, and, as the title suggests, it has a Hollywood theme. The story spans about 80 years, per the Guardian, and tells the fictional tale of how a comic book inspired by a soldier's return home from the war in the 1940s turned into a modern-day movie.

"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," says Hanks, per People. "Even the foolish moments are some kind of stunt I've pulled or mistake I've survived." The Guardian ticks off some of the book's characters: In addition to the returning soldier is his artistically gifted young nephew (who grows up to write the comic book), "an inspired and eccentric director, a pompous film star on the rise, and a tireless production assistant," per the Guardian. Though this is Hanks' first novel, he published a book of short stories in 2017. (More Tom Hanks stories.)