Nice guys don’t always finish first

Tom is nice. Ron is nice. Tom and Ron work in a place called Hollywood which isn’t always nice, but Tom and Ron are. Long ago they made a movie called “Splash,” and it was nice. Then they made a movie called “Apollo 13,” and it was nice. Everyone liked these movies and everyone liked Tom and Ron. But then a man wrote a story that some people liked and some people didn’t like. How could Hollywood make a movie from this story? They asked Tom and Ron to do it! Who would object to Tom and Ron? Both were so nice!

OK, sorry for the first-grade reader language. Something about these guys suggests it.

Let me start over.

Every 11 years
“The Da Vinci Code” is the third film Academy Award-winner Ron Howard has made with Academy Award-winner Tom Hanks, and in each of these films the two icons have helped one another.

When Hanks was still a TV actor, mostly known for the well-received but short-lived sitcom “Bosom Buddies,” Howard chose him for his first starring role, “Splash,” and helped make him a star. Eleven years later, when Howard’s attempts to graduate to serious movies for grown-ups (“Backdraft,” “Far and Away,” “The Paper”) hadn’t fared as well as Hanks’ likewise attempts (“Philadelphia,” “Forrest Gump”), it was Hanks’ turn to help Howard. He starred in “Apollo 13” and helped make Howard a big-time director of adult dramas.

It’s 11 years later again and both men could use the help of the other. After the financial and critical success of “A Beautiful Mind,” Howard made “The Missing,” a good Tommy Lee Jones western that did OK business for a western ($27 million domestic) but not for a Ron Howard film. He followed it up with “Cinderella Man,” which was probably mishandled by the studio. A fall movie, it was released in the heat of summer and wilted, making $61 million domestic and garnering little awards attention at the end of the year.

Hanks, meanwhile, has been peeling off $100 million films like lesser men peel off five dollar bills. From “Forrest Gump” (July ’94) to “Catch Me If You Can” (December ’02), every movie he starred in made over $100 million domestic. All got big releases (2,000+ theaters) during the prime movie months (June/July, November/December).

Then he took a risk and made “The Ladykillers” which was marketed as a Coen Brothers movie rather than a Tom Hanks movie (a March release in 1,500 theaters). Though Hanks was delicious as a comically insufferable con man, the film was slammed as somehow unworthy of either Hanks or the Coens and didn’t make $40 million. More surprising was the box office results for “The Terminal,” which was directed by Steven Spielberg and received the usual Hanks/Spielberg fanfare: a June release in nearly 3,000 theaters. It didn’t even manage $80 million domestic. For a Tom Hanks/Steven Spielberg movie? That’s almost a sign of the Apocalypse.

Of course Hanks and Howard are still near the top of the Hollywood power structure, but there will be talk if the two of them can’t make a hit out of one of the biggest-selling books of all time.

Basic instincts
I’m a fan of both men, by the way. “The Andy Griffith Show” is one of the most underrated sitcoms in TV history and, for anyone who grew up in the 1970s, “Happy Days” was iconic (I was a Richie always looking for a Fonzie but generally finding the Malachi Brothers). I also loved the comedy and camaraderie in the short-lived “Bosom Buddies” and was bummed when it was canceled but assumed Peter Scolari would go on to bigger things. I felt kind of sorry for the curly headed guy. What could he possibly do?

It was Howard’s assistant, Louisa Velis, who repeatedly told Howard to look at Hanks for “Splash.” “This guy Tom Hanks,” Howard recalls her saying, “you gotta meet him. He’s great, he’s funny, he’s charming.”

THE DA VINCI CODE Studio orders script for ‘Da Vinci’ precursor Review: ‘Da Vinci’ lacks book’s momentum Readers torn over ‘Da Vinci Code’ movie Nice guys don’t always finish first Opinion: Scientology? How about Opus Dei Take our 'Da Vinci Code' quiz

“Splash” was a hard movie to cast. Bigger names — Herbert Ross and Warren Beatty — were interested in making their own mermaid movie, and not many name-brands in Hollywood were willing to take on such giants for little Opie Cunningham. Howard, out of necessity but to his credit, went with Hanks after he nailed the audition. He thought, “Well, nobody’s going to go to a Tom Hanks movie. But if you just care about casting the role, you couldn’t get anyone better.”

I love that. Nobody’s going to go to a Tom Hanks movie. More directors should trust their gut this way. Moviegoers don’t necessarily know what they want until they want it. Or see it. Marketers, please please please pay attention.

Hanks trusted his instincts as well. There’s a scene in the movie where Allen Bauer (Hanks), unable to find Madison (Daryl Hannah), rushes out of his apartment and pushes both banks of elevators and then stands in the middle of the lobby, arms out, waiting for the first ding. It was a little detail that Hanks insisted on and Howard decided to indulge him, figuring. what the hell, he’d probably cut it in editing. But the scene tested well. In fact there were 8 or 9 instances when Hanks’ instincts were right on the mark and Howard remembers thinking, “If I ever work with this guy again I’m going to trust him more.”

He did. There’s a great early scene in “Apollo 13” when a party crowd is watching Neil Armstrong walk on the moon. Most of the partygoers look happy and amazed that we’re doing this great thing, but Howard noticed Hanks, as astronaut Jim Lovell, doing something else and zeroed in on him. In the film Lovell looks like a man thinking: That should’ve been me. It lent authority to the following scene when Lovell unbelievably lists the great explorers: Christopher Columbus, Charles Lindbergh ... and Neil Armstrong? It should’ve been me. It’s the edge the film needed.

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