Tom Hanks, while a legend in Hollywood, had a particularly impressive run during the mid-90s. Starring in a number of great films over this stretch. Perhaps the most unique on a list that includes films such as The Green Mile, Apollo 13, and Saving Private Ryan, is the wonderful and uplifting Forrest Gump.

While the dim-witted character has many lovable attributes, Forrest sure does love running. As it turns out, this was a change made for the screen and is the reason that Tom Hanks was sent the script. Director Barry Sonnenfeld had read the book Forrest Gump is based on with an opportunity to direct. Check out what he had to say while speaking on the ReelBlend Podcast below.

“When I was finishing Adams Family, the head of Paramount… was a guy named Gary Lucchesi. Gary had a novel called Forrest Gump. And he said, ‘Look, I’ve got eight scripts, [and] they all suck. Can you read this book, and tell me if you want to do it.’ So I read Gump and the lead of Gump was actually a big fat guy who was really strong. He was like Confederacy of Dunces, in many ways. And I said to Gary, ‘Well, here’s what I would do. I would make Gump a runner instead of a fat big guy, and I’ll send it to [Tom] Hanks, if you’re okay with it.’ And Gary said, ‘Sure, send it to Hanks.’ So I sent Hanks a novel. I said, ‘You should be a runner, not a fat guy.’ I said, ‘You probably don’t want to do it, because it’s too much like Big in that he’s another version of a man child.’ You know?

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More from Sonnenfeld:

“Hanks signs on, we get Eric Roth to write this screenplay. And then Paramount decides they want to do Addams Family Values. So I said I’ll only do Addams Family Values if you wait for me to do Gump. And I’ll do both. Paramount says yes. [But another studio exec] says, ‘I don’t want to wait.’ And by the way, she’s right. Hanks could die. There could be three other movies just like this one. There’s so many things that could go wrong. She didn’t want to wait. I had to choose between Forrest Gump or Addams Family Values. And Addams Family was, you know, my firstborn. It is the first thing I ever directed. So it was an easy choice for me to do Addams Family Values. What I should have done is made sure my agent, who’s no longer my agent, but at the time, was to have gotten me a producing credit since I got Hanks and it was my idea to make him a runner. But it didn’t happen. But anyway, I always knew that Hanks was going to be an actor that expanded beyond comedies, because he’s just a really good actor.”

Just a timeless film. Without Sonnenfeld’s small and simple suggestion it’s possible the film wouldn’t have been as great and successful as we all know it to be. Or it could have been even more successful with Forrest Gump as an overweight fellow as he is in the novel.

While there’s no way for us to know how the film would have turned out (at least not with today’s current time travel technology). It is fun to think about the Forrest Gump from the book in iconic situations from the film.

What are your thoughts on this change? Let us know in the comments down below!

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Source: CinemaBlend

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