Almost 30 years since its release, Forrest Gump remains one of the most remembered films of Tom Hanks‘ career, and perhaps one of the greatest Hollywood classics. The acclaimed actor and Back to the Future director Robert Zemeckis teamed up to tell a tale that spanned an important part of American history, through the eyes of an endearing character.
Hanks has already become one of the biggest names in the film industry, and is one of the most successful actors at the box office. His presence in a movie can be synonymous of success. It hasn’t always been this way, though, and it seems that the Academy Award winner has felt insecure about some roles many times. And one of those was Forrest Gump.
During the presentation of his new book, The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece in New York (via Variety), Hanks confessed that for a moment he thought that the audience would not care about the story they were telling, and that he spoke with Zemeckis about it:
“I say, ‘Hey Bob, I’ve got a question for you. Is anybody going to care about this movie?. This guy sitting on a thing in these goofy shoes and this cuckoo suit with a suitcase full of ‘Curious George’ books and stuff like that…are we doing anything here that is going to make any sense to anybody? And Bob said, ‘It’s a minefield, Tom. It’s a minefield. We may be sowing the seeds of our own destruction. Any footstep we take can be a bouncing Betty that’ll blow our nuts right off.’”
Fortunately, everything went well. In fact, much more than that. Forrest Gump won six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Hanks.
The Story of Forrest Gump
Based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Winston Groom, Forrest Gump is a 1994 comedy-drama centered on the titular character, a man with learning disabilities who sits on a bench waiting for the bus to visit his great love.
Sitting there he meets various people and, little by little, he reveals to them his life story, which connects with important moments in American history. Forrest tells, among other things, how he inspired Elvis’s legendary dance moves, his participation in the Vietnam War, how he got to be part of one of the largest shrimping companies in the country, and many other impressive events.
In 2011, the film was selected for preservation by the National Film Registry, for being considered “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”. With a budget of just $55 million, it managed to raise an incredible $678.2 million and is still rewatched by many on streaming platforms, with fans still finding new meanings to every detail included in the movie.
In 2001, Eric Roth wrote the script for a sequel based on the second novel written by Groom, Gump and Co. that continues to mix historical events with Forrest’s life and explores his relationship with his son. However, some time later it was decided that the project would not move forward.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
