Yahoo Movies 10 things you might not know about Forrest Gump
CGI ping pong balls? We can do better than that.
Tom Hanks all-timer Forrest Gump is returning to cinemas next weekend to mark its 30th anniversary.
Based on author Winston Groom's 1986 novel, this heart-squeezing comedy-drama centers on the eponymous pure-natured Alabama native, who recounts his incredible life story to the strangers he meets on a bus stop bench.
This includes overcoming a curved spine; military service in Vietnam, for which he's awarded the Medal of Honour; meeting President John F. Kennedy at the White House; unwittingly exposing the Watergate scandal; establishing the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company; investing in Apple Inc.; non-stop running for three years across America, and welcoming a son with his childhood sweetheart Jenny.
Fancy yourself as a bit of a Gump expert? Well, below you'll find 10 insights that might just blow your socks off.
Dave Chappelle and Ice Cube passed on Bubba
Although it's difficult to imagine anybody else as Forrest's closest comrade, comedian Dave Chappelle and rapper Ice Cube were both offered the role of Bubba before Mykelti Williamson jumped aboard.
During one of his stand-up routines after the movie was released, Chappelle claimed screenwriter Eric Roth's script "stunk" and questioned the validity of the supporting character's low intelligence. "Who could be dumber than Forrest Gump? His Black friend, that's who," he said. "No matter how dumb a white dude is, they always gonna find a n***** that's dumber".
The US Army put its foot down
Originally, the plan was for each soldier in Forrest's platoon to express a similar IQ to the protagonist. This was inspired by a now-defunct criteria within the US Army enlisting system, where individuals with low IQs were given clearance for the Vietnam War on the condition that they were all grouped together.
Keen to brush it under the carpet, the Army had this element removed from the final script, with only Forrest and his pal Bubba presented as intellectually challenged on screen.
Accepting the accent
Groom's novel depicts Forrest with a thick Southern accent, but apparently, Hanks pushed back on it before the cameras started rolling. Ultimately, director Robert Zemeckis got what he wanted by urging his leading man to go full rural.
A box office peak for Zemeckis
Having called "ACTION!" on the Back to the Future trilogy, Cast Away, Christmas classic The Polar Express, and Beowulf across his wonderful career, it may shock you to discover that Forrest Gump still stands as the biggest success for Zemeckis at the global box office.
It brought in over $678 million.
No sequel needed
Once again written by Groom, a follow-up novel titled Gump & Co was published in 1995, which featured Forrest losing the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company; working at a strip club as a janitor before making his way to Wall Street; capturing Saddam Hussein in the Persian Gulf War, and visitations from Jenny's ghost.
Roth adapted the story into a screenplay, but by 2001 it was dead in the water due to the 11 September attacks on the Twin Towers.
Skip to 2022 and Hanks himself revealed that the conversation over a cinematic sequel "lasted all of 40 minutes", telling the Happy Sad Confused podcast: "A smart thing I did is I've never signed a contract that had a contractual obligation to a sequel. 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.'"
Keeping it in the family
Just 12 years old at the time of the movie's premiere, Tom's daughter Elizabeth Hanks made her screen debut as School Bus Girl in the scene where Forrest rides into school for the first time. Motioning to sit beside her, the poor youngster is met with a stone-faced shake of the head before moving on to further rejections.
If it wasn't for these cruel kids though, Forrest wouldn't have been offered the seat next to the future love of his life Jenny.
The Beach Boys foreshadowing
Did you notice that during Forrest and Bubba's first encounter with the charismatic Lieutenant Dan (played brilliantly by Gary Sinise), the track 'Sloop John B' by The Beach Boys can be heard in the background?
Its significance is in the lyric 'I wanna go home', which is word-for-word the final line spoken by Bubba prior to his death in the jungle warzone. Our heart has never quite recovered.
Brotherly convenience
Who better to double for you than your own blood? Yep that's right, Tom's younger brother Jim was drafted in for the movie to play Forrest in some of the many cross-country running wide shots.
While the main man and Zemeckis were shooting with the production's main unit, Jim, who went on to appear in episodes of Scrubs and Dexter, ventured out with the second unit to replicate his famous sibling's physicality on the road.
He's also doubled for Tom as the voice of Woody in the likes of Tiny Toy Stories, Toy Story Treats, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins, Lamp Life, Disney Dreamlight Valley, and Disney Infinity: Marvel Super Heroes.
How much?!
The most famous bench in Hollywood history was auctioned off for an eye-watering $25,000 back in 2013, but it was a replica. The original piece of public furniture, which is made of fibreglass, has resided in the Paramount lot since the 90s and is displayed for the studio tour.
Apparently, the movie's countless Oscar-nominated artists - Hanks and Zemeckis won in their respective categories, as did Arthur Schmidt for Best Film Editing; Ken Ralston, George Murphy, Allen Hall and Stephen Rosenbaum for Best Visual Effects; Roth for Best Adapted Screenplay; and Wendy Finerman, Steve Starkey, and Steve Tisch for Best Picture - were each gifted their own copies of the bench, while one was shipped out to the Savannah History Museum in 1995.
Damn you, Rain Man
Warner Bros. was the first studio to take an interest in adapting Groom's book, but in the wake of Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise's beloved Rain Man (released in 1988), its appetite for touching male-driven dramas ceased to exist.
Enter executive producer Kevin Jones, who subsequently joined the Paramount staff and revisited Roth's script. The rest is history.
