CANADA/ USA: TOM HANKS MAKES HIS FEATURE WRITING AND DIRECTING DEBUT WITH 'THAT THING YOU DO'

Record ID: 386600

  • Title: CANADA/ USA: TOM HANKS MAKES HIS FEATURE WRITING AND DIRECTING DEBUT WITH 'THAT THING YOU DO'
  • Date: 15th September 1996
  • Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (SEPTEMBER 30, 1996) (REUTERS TELEVISION - ACCESS ALL) HANKS SAYING WE HAVE ALL BEEN IN THAT POSITION WHERE WE ARE SITTING AROUND ON A SET SOMEWHERE DISSATISFIED SAYING HEY I COULD DO A BETTER JOB THAN THIS THESE PEOPLE DONT KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING. WE ALL GET CRANKY LIKE THAT AND THINK IF ONLY PEOPLE WOULD LISTEN TO US BECAUSE WE ARE SUCH GENIUSES THEN EVERYTHING WOULD JUST GO ACCORDING TO PLAN. TRY IT. HERE'S WHAT YOU DO JUST GIVE IT A SHOT YOU'LL SEE HOW HARD IT IS (ENGLISH) LIV TYLER SAYING FOR ALL OF US EVERYBODY WOULD BE LAUGHING EVERY SECOND WE'D SEE THESE GADGETS THESE CARS AND THESE THINGS THE CLOTHES WE'D SEE EACH OTHER IN THESE CLOTHES AND WE'D JUST FALL ON THE FLOOR IN HYSTERICS WITH EACH OTHER (ENGLISH)
  • Embargoed: 30th September 1996 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA AND LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES AND VARIOUS FILM LOCATIONS
  • City:
  • Country: Canada
  • Reuters ID: LVABRK891X71T0QFE7XZBEXQN7B3
  • Story Text: Tom Hanks is making his motion picture writing and directing debut with the new comedy/drama "That Thing You Do" - the story of a one-hit wonder teen sensation rock group set in the summer of 1964.

    In an interview with Reuters Television, Hanks said the physical punishment he took as director of the film came as a shock. "I heard from a number of folks it's a marathon and be prepared for the long haul and I thought I was but I wasn't nearly as prepared as I thought I was." If people think it was easy being the one to order others around for once Hanks begs to differ.

    "We have all been in that position where we are sitting around on a set somewhere dissatisfied saying hey I could do a better job than this...just give it a shot you'll see how hard it is." Veteran director Ron Howard said the film was important to Hanks because it had been one of his pet projects. "It made all the sense in the world that he took it, wrote it and is doing it himself and I'm really looking forward to it," he said.

    In the film, actor Tom Everett Scott, who sports an amazing resemblance to a younger Hanks, plays Guy Patterson, a young man stuck in a dead-end job at his father's appliance store in Erie, Pennsylvania. By day he works the store, but after hours, his real passion is playing the drums.

    His big break comes one day when a local group of teenagers, played by Johnathon Schaech, Steve Zahn, and Ethan Embry, approach him to fill in for their drummer when he breaks his arm the night before a big show.

    What starts out as a simple high school dance performance becomes a teenage craze after Guy decides to jazz up the group's signature song, titled "That Thing You Do." Before the group has time to stop and think they are approached by the enigmatic record company executive Mister White, played by Tom Hanks.

    Renaming the group The Wonders, White takes the group on a nationwide tour with other top acts and launches the group on a meteoric rise in the music charts.

    Also along for the ride is Faye - the girlfriend of the band's lead singer. Played by up-and-coming actor Liv Tyler, ("Stealing Beauty"), Faye finds her loyalties torn between Jimmy, played by Johnathon Schaech, and Guy.

    In addition to writing, directing and starring in the film, Hanks also helped write several of the soundtrack's songs.

    The title song, "That Thing You Do," was chosen after filmmakers received more than three hundred submissions from songwriters in New York, Nashville, Miami, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and Seattle.

    As for the actors playing band members, getting ready for the film involved hours and hours of musical practice, both individually and as a group.

    Steve Zahn said the group was locked up together for a week to perfect their music but afterwards they were still bad.

    Only one of the actors, Ethan Embry, who plays the bass player, previously had any musical experience.

    As for Liv Tyler, she said she was laughing all the time looking at the other actors in their 60's gear.

    "We'd see each other in those clothes and we'd just fall on the floor in hysterics."
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