Tom Hanks on Movie-making

Though he doesn't say which 4... Tom Hanks: I’ve Only Made ‘Four Pretty Good’ Movies in Decades-Long Career

The first quote is all over social media.

“I’ve made a ton of movies (and four of them are pretty good, I think) and I’m still amazed at how films come together. From a flicker of an idea to the flickering image onscreen, the whole process is a miracle.”

But the thing that says I know he is serious about movies, and not just box-office...

“A smart thing I did is I’ve never signed a contract that had a contractual obligation to a sequel,” Hanks said. “I’ve always said, ‘Guys, if there’s a reason to do it, let’s do it. But you guys can’t force me.’ There is that natural inclination that is one of pure commerce that says, ‘Hey, you just had a hit, so do it again, and you’ll have a hit.’”

I have a long-standing rule about movies. I never see a sequel. I certainly never pay good-money to see a sequel in a theater. I've missed out on a 2 or 3 good movies that way, but I have avoided uncounted disasters.

Take for example The Matrix. It was a masterpiece (considering who starred in it). The 2 sequels were SO BAD, they went back in time and made the 1st movie not that good. And I haven't seen the third/latest sequel, but somehow it managed to be even worse.

How many times can you say, "The sequel was so much better than the original?"

I miss the days of movies like A League of Their Own, and Forrest Gump.

Sequels came up in the interview, because studio execs wanted to do a sequel to Forrest Gump. It would have been awful.

“I will say that, with a long time in between, we did take a stab at talking about another ‘Forrest Gump’ that lasted all of 40 minutes,” Hanks shared. “And then we never, we said, ‘Guys, come on.’”

The social media aspect is discussions of what 4 movies he meant. He never said.