Forrest Gump (1994): trivia & fun facts

Fun facts

• For twelve years, it remained as the highest-grossing film starring Tom Hanks; it was surpassed in 2006 by The Da Vinci Code.
• Motion picture business consultant and screenwriter Jeffrey Hilton suggested to producer Wendy Finerman to double the prints and advertising budget based on his viewing of an early print of the film.
• The film was a major success at the box office: it became the top-grossing film in the United States released that year and earned over US$678 million worldwide against a $55 million budget during its theatrical run, making it the second-highest-grossing film of 1994, behind The Lion King.
• Haley Joel Osment as Forrest Gump Jr.: Osment was cast in the film after the casting director noticed him in a 1993 Pizza Hut commercial.
• The film is based on the 1986 novel by Winston Groom, with ImageMovers as the production company, which was known as South Side Amusement Company.
• Ivan Reitman, Penny Marshall and Terry Gilliam passed on the project before Robert Zemeckis was hired.
• Hanks initially wanted to ease Forrest's pronounced Southern accent, but was eventually persuaded by director Robert Zemeckis to portray the heavy accent stressed in the novel.
• Jodie Foster turned down the role of Jenny, the filmmakers eventually settled on Robin Wright for the role.
• Paramount removed the film from release in the United States when its gross hit $300 million in January 1995, and it was the second-highest-grossing film of the year, behind The Lion King with $305 million.
• Forrest Gump held the record for being the highest-grossing Paramount film until it was overtaken by Titanic three years later in 1997.
• An adaptation of the 1986 novel of the same name by Winston Groom, the film's screenplay was written by Eric Roth.
• This was intended by Winston Groom, the author of the original novel, to be hepatitis C, itself an "unknown virus" until defined in April 1989, although some of the makers of the film have said that they intended it to be HIV/AIDS.
• Mykelti Williamson as Benjamin Buford "Bubba" Blue: Bubba was originally supposed to be the senior partner in the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, but due to his death in Vietnam, their platoon leader, Dan Taylor, took his place.
• With the exception of a lengthy suite of themes from Alan Silvestri's original score, all the songs are previously released.
• Principal photography took place between August and December 1993, mainly in the tri-states Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

Source: Wikipedia

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