What was the first movie directed by actor Tom Hanks?
Actors trying their hand at directing has been commonplace in Hollywood for decades, and it usually tends to be the case that a passion project is what spurs an on-camera performer to find out how the other side lives. That was certainly the case for Tom Hanks, even if he wasn’t best pleased with the results.
By the time he wielded the megaphone for the first time, Hanks was already an A-list megastar and one of the industry’s most popular – and profitable – names. Achieving the rare feat of winning back-to-back Academy Awards when Philadelphia and Forrest Gump secured him a pair of ‘Best Actor’ trophies, he had the world of cinema at his feet.
He could have continued on down the path of winning over audiences with his easygoing charm and boundless charisma, but he got stuck with an itch that he couldn’t scratch. Leaning into his love of music and the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia, Hanks wrote and directed 1996’s musical dramedy That Thing You Do!
Heavily inspired by his fondness for the era he grew up in, not to mention his obsession with a certain quartet of Liverpudlians who took the world by storm in the mid-1960s, Hanks channelled his love of The Beatles and the boundless optimism of the burgeoning counterculture movement to tell the story of the Oneders, a smalltown band who achieve massive success with their titular track.
As tends to be the case, the increased fame and visibility start to cause tension within the group, matters that are exacerbated by their manager, Amos White, played by Hanks. He signs them to a record deal, renames them The Wonders, and suggests they change their musical style to avoid becoming known as nothing more than one-hit wonders.
That Thing You Do! earned Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for its title song, and in the years since its release, the film has evolved into a cult classic, but it didn’t exactly fly out of the gates. While Hanks appreciates the longevity his directorial debut continues to enjoy, by his own admission, he’d have much-preferred audiences to show up the first time around and prevent his first feature as a director from bombing at the box office.
When he’s in front of the cameras, Tom Hanks movies tend to thrive. However, despite That Thing You Do! carrying a talented cast and boasting plenty of charm to spare, it took longer than he would have liked for the picture to catch on with the average filmgoer.
How many movies has Tom Hanks directed?
Tom Hanks’ filmography has racked up billions of dollars at the box office, and thanks largely to his status as an enduring, in-demand A-lister and a certified draw, his filmmaking efforts since That Thing You Do! have been far from prolific.
In fact, Hanks has been credited as a writer more than he has a director in the three decades since his debut, penning the screenplay for World War II submarine thriller Greyhound and writing the script for the IMAX documentary Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D alongside co-scribe and director Mark Cowen.
He’s written three scripts in total since That Thing You Do!, but he’s only directed one of them. That came in 2011 when he co-authored Larry Crowne with My Big Fat Greek Wedding creator Nia Vardolos, in which he played the title character, who finds himself in the midst of a midlife crisis when the single divorcee gets laid off from his job until Julia Roberts’ Mercy Tainot injects a much-needed spark into his existence.
