To this day, Forrest Gump remains one of Tom Hanks’ highest grossing movies. Not only was it the top moneymaker of 1994, but it also semi-infamously beat the likes of Pulp Fiction for Best Picture (and a slew of other Oscars, including Hanks’ second in a row). Nowadays, you know what that would mean: a sequel, a franchise, maybe some spin-offs. (Lt. Dan and Bubba would both get Paramount+ series.) But back in the day, Hanks says, the discussion about whether to make Forrest Gump 2 lasted about 3 ½ times shorter than the movie. And obviously the decision was no.
“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 revealed on the Happy Sad Confused podcast (as caught by IndieWire). “And then we never, we said, ‘Guys, come on.’”
There could have easily been a second Forrest Gump. The movie wasn’t exactly faithful to the novel, by Winston Groom, where, for starters, our simpleton hero is actually 6’6” and 242 pounds. There’s a lot of misadventures screenwriter Eric Roth left out, like Forrest playing in a folk band with Jenny, working for NASA, becoming a stunt man on Raquel Welch movies, even a brief dalliance as a wrestler. Groom even published a sequel, Gump & Co., the year after the movie burned up the box office. But it was not to be.
“A smart thing I did is I’ve never signed a contract that had a contractual obligation to a sequel,” Hanks explained. “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.’”
In other words, Hanks is saying that you don’t make a movie just to make money. Imagine that! But he did believe in the film; he even helped pay for some of it after Paramount wouldn’t pony up some extra bucks. Anyway, instead of making more Gump, Hanks simply kept reuniting with director Robert Zemeckis. That’s why we have Cast Away, The Polar Express, and the new live-action (plus CGI, of course) take on Pinocchio.
(Via IndieWire)
