That Thing You Do!
That Thing You Do! is a 1996 American musical comedy-drama film written and directed by Tom Hanks, in his feature writing and directorial debut. Set in 1960s rock and roll culture, it chronicles the rise and fall of a fictional one-hit wonder pop band and stars Tom Everett Scott in his film debut along with Johnathon Schaech, Steve Zahn, and Ethan Embry as the band's members, with Liv Tyler and Hanks appearing in supporting roles. Its production and music are key to its narrative, with original scores by a collaboration of artists including Hanks, Adam Schlesinger, and Howard Shore. The soundtrack peaked at #21 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, featuring a mix of diegetic and non-diegetic tracks. The cast practiced for weeks to perform convincingly on camera, blurring the lines between reality and fiction.
Plot
In 1964, aspiring jazz drummer Guy Patterson is working in his family's appliance store in Erie, Pennsylvania, when his friends Jimmy Mattingly II and Lenny Haise ask him to perform a song Jimmy wrote at a talent show with their band, because their regular drummer, Chad, broke his arm. They rehearse the song, a slow-tempo ballad called "That Thing You Do!", in Jimmy's garage, and Jimmy's girlfriend Faye Dolan proposes "The Oneders", a play on the Beatles, as the band's name. At the talent show, the group performs the song at a faster tempo and wins the competition, earning a paying gig at Villapiano's, a local pizza parlor. After they decide to record the song and sell 45s of it, produced by Guy's Uncle Bob, local talent promoter Phil Horace notices the band, promising them radio airplay within 10 days. Lenny convinces the band to sign with him.
Cast
- Alex Rocco
- Bill Cobbs
- Brittney Powell
- Bryan Cranston
- Carole Androsky
- Charlize Theron
- Chris Isaak
- Clint Howard
- Colin Hanks
- Ethan Embry
- Gedde Watanabe
- Giovanni Ribisi
- Holmes Osborne
- http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q708059
- Johnathon Schaech
- Jonathan Demme
- Kathleen Kinmont
- Kevin Pollak
- Liv Tyler
- Marc McClure
- Mars Callahan
- Obba Babatundé
- Paul Feig
- Peter Scolari
- Rita Wilson
- Robert Ridgely
- Robert Torti
- Robert Wisdom
- Sean Whalen
- Steve Zahn
- Tom Everett Scott
- Tom Hanks
- Tracy Reiner
- Warren Berlinger
More details
| author | Tom Hanks |
|---|---|
| contentLocation | Pennsylvania |
| director | Tom Hanks |
| editor | Richard Chew |
| genre | comedy-drama |
| keywords | 45-rpm 45s a&r artists and repertoire battle of khe sanh beatles billboard billboard hot 100 build disillusion dressing room gold gold record golden eagle hot 100 las vegas los angeles marine corps married meet move music industry one-hit wonder orlando florida purple heart record producer recording session recording studio serve single man state fair talent show television show united states marine corps variety show vietnam vietnam war vomit wash |
| musicBy | Howard Shore |
| producer | Edward Saxon Gary Goetzman Jonathan Demme |
| productionCompany | Clavius Base Clinica Estetico |
| publisher | 20th Century Fox |
| recordedAt | Malibu |
| theme | musical romantic comedy romantic musical |