Run Forrest, Run!
Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get.
Stupid is as stupid does.
Me and Jenny goes together like peas and carrots.
The iconic Oscar-winning film, Forrest Gump is filled to the brim with memorable lines
and famous scenes.
Who could forget when Forrest Gump drank at least fifteen Dr. Peppers and told President
John F. Kennedy, “I gotta pee.”?
It remains a true Hollywood classic.
However, before it was ever a movie, the story of Forrest Gump was told in a book of the
same name.
That book also had a sequel called Gump & Co.
With the film being the smash hit that it was, it’s surprising that the sequel book
hasn’t been adapted into a sequel of the film.
Well, as a matter of fact, it almost was.
So why was Forrest Gump 2 immediately canceled once the script was completed.
Stay with us as we go behind the scenes to find out why the sequel movie never saw the
light of day.
The original film
Forrest Gump is the 1994 American comedy-drama, directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by
Eric Roth.
The film is based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Winston Groom.
Hollywood legend Tom Hanks, already beloved for his performances as Andrew Beckett in
Philadelphia, and Sam Baldwin in Sleepless in Seattle, played Gump alongside an all-star
cast.
Robin Wright starred as Jenny Curan, the childhood best friend and soulmate of Gump.
Gary Sinise played Lieutenant Dan and Sally Field was cast to perfection as Gump’s mother,
Mrs. Gump.
Zemeckis, known as the director of such Hollywood projects as the Back To The Future trilogy,
Romancing the Stone, and What Lies Beneath, worked as a director with Hanks for the first
time on Forrest Gump.
However, it would bloom into an ongoing working relationship as Hanks starred in future Zemeckis
projects with the 2000 hit, Cast Away and he voiced alongside performing for the motion
capture of multiple characters in the animated movie, The Polar Express.
Robin Wright also collaborated with Zemeckis again following this film.
She starred in the 2007 adaptation, Beowulf, which also used motion capture.
Forrest Gump depicts several decades in the life of Gump, who is a slow-witted but kind-hearted
man from Alabama.
The charm of the movie comes from Hank’s grounded performance and the fact that the
character of Gump witnesses and unwittingly influences several defining historical events
in the 20th century United States.
This includes Gump meeting U.S. Presidents John F. Kennedy, President Lyndon B. Johnson,
and President Richard Nixon, using state-of-the-art visual effects for its day, to piece Hanks’
performance into archive footage.
Other historical figures and events that the move features include Elvis Presley, the Klu
Klux Klan, the Black Panther Party, the hippie movement, John Lennon, the Vietnam War, and
the Watergate Scandal.
Forrest Gump also features some incredible moments that are completely original to the
story of Gump.
Suffering with a physical disability that required Gump to have braces in order to walk.
This sequence led him to running from the local bullies and the braces falling apart
as he realized he could run like the wind.
It was a breathtaking and awe-inspiring scene.
Other memorable moments included Gump becoming a Table Tennis World Champion, a war hero
in Vietnam where he saved several soldiers during a battle, and the uplifting sequence
in which Gump just felt like running.
To later reveal that he ran for three years, two months, fourteen days, and sixteen hours.
Other powerful moments included Hank’s powerhouse performance of discovering that he had a son,
and later speaking at the gravesite of his lost love, Jenny.
It’s no wonder that Forrest Gump is a film still loved today.
The film was released in the United States on July 6th, 1994.
It was well-received and praised for Zemeckis's direction, the performances, particularly
that of Hanks, the visual effects, music, by Alan Silvestri, and the screenplay.
With enormous success at the box office, it became the top-grossing film in America that
year and earned over $677 million worldwide during its theatrical run.
This made it the second highest-grossing film of 1994, behind Disney’s all-time classic,
The Lion King.
The film won six Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for
Hanks, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Visual Effects, and Best Film Editing.
In 2011, the Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the United States
National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
If you enjoy behind-the-scenes stories about your favorite movies and revelations about
Hollywood’s biggest productions, make sure to click the like button and subscribe to
the channel.
The sequel book
The second book, titled Gump & Co, focused on Forrest's business, Bubba Gump Shrimp.
The 1995 novel by Winston Groom, was written to chronicle Gump's life throughout the 1980s.
Rather than being an idiot savant, as Gump was in the first book, this written take of
the character is more similar to Hank’s performance of the character, as a warmhearted
dope.
Winston Groom was an American novelist and non-fiction writer.
He is best known for the Forrest Gump novel, but also wrote numerous non-fiction works,
on diverse subjects including the American Civil War and World War I. Groom passed away
on September 17th, 2020 from a suspected heart attack at his home in Fairhope.
He was seventy-seven years old.
When writing the sequel book, Groom had the text purposely contain frequent grammar and
spelling mistakes in order to indicate the character's deficient education and cognitive
difficulties.
The story of the sequel is that the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company has gone bust and Forrest
is broke.
He’s pushed to sweeping floors in a strip joint in order to support his son.
But things get exciting when the chance to play championship football comes his way once
again, and Gump is back in the money.
This leads to other adventures.
The response for the sequel book was majorly positive, with Larry King reportedly calling
it “the funniest novel I ever read.”
The publisher, Simon & Schuster, cite a number of positive reviews, including Patricia Holt
in the San Francisco Chronicle.
She called it a delight.
Other reviews weren’t so enthusiastic.
The New York Times review called the book’s humor tiresome and banal.
Canceling the sequel
Eric Roth, the screenwriter of the popular film adaptation is also well-known for some
of Hollywood’s high-caliber classics.
He wrote The Insider, starring Russell Crowe and Al Pacino, and directed by Michael Mann.
Based on a research chemist who came under personal and professional attacks when he
decided to appear in a 60 Minutes exposé on Big Tobacco.
2005’s Munich, based on the true story of the Black September aftermath, about the five
men chosen to eliminate the ones responsible for that fateful day.
Directed by Steven Spielberg, it starred Eric Bana and Daniel Craig.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, the story of a man who ages backward, starring Brad
Pitt and Cate Blanchett, directed by David Fincher. 2018’s A Star is Born, about a
musician who helps a young singer find fame as alcoholism sends his own career into a
downward spiral.
Starring Bradley Cooper, Sam Elliot and Lady Gaga.
It was Cooper’s directorial debut and Roth received an Oscar nomination for best adapted
screenplay.
Most recently, Roth wrote the screenplay for Dune, directed by Denis Villeneuve and starring
Timothée Chalamet, Jason Momoa, Zendaya and Josh Brolin.
The film is set to be released later this year.
Having written the original, Roth was brought in to pen the script for the Forrest Gump
2.
On September 10th, 2001, his script was complete.
But with the 9/11 attacks the following day, moving ahead with the Forrest Gump sequel
didn't feel quite right.
Roth told Yahoo Entertainment, that the movie no longer felt like it had any meaning.
He was very open about how he felt and made an incredibly personal and understandable
decision.
With all that was going on in the United States at that time, it was for the best that the
Forrest Gump sequel never made it to the big screen.
Forrest Gump 2 would have followed the same style as the first movie, with Gump unknowingly
becoming part of iconic historical events throughout his life.
The novel Gump & Co. stuck with this style to a certain extent, but Roth's outline would've
had the sequel movie stray considerably from its source material.
Rather than the 80’s, Forrest Gump 2 would've taken place in the '90s.
The events that the movie would have chronicled included the AIDS epidemic and O.J.
Simpson's infamous car chase.
Other historical figures would have included Gump dancing with Diana, the Princess of Wales.
Something that stood too close to the 9/11 attacks was a set piece that placed Gump just
out of harm's way, during the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
Roth knew that showing a terrorist attack on screen would've been inappropriate and
insensitive.
He certainly made the right call.
What most can agree on is that the 1994 movie, Forrest Gump, is better off as a stand-alone
film.
The movie became and continues to be a cultural juggernaut since its release, and to capture
that magic for a second time would’ve been near impossible.
As they say, you can’t catch lightning in a bottle twice, and Forrest Gump 2, if it
was produced, would likely have proven that theory correct.
Are you happy that they decided to cancel the Forrest Gump sequel, or would you love
to see Gump once again stumbling into history's most iconic moments?
Let us know in the comments section below and don’t forget to subscribe to Facts Verse
for more.
Click the bell icon to stay updated on all our latest content.