How the 9/11 terror attacks cancelled ‘Forrest Gump’ sequel
If Forrest Gump was released today and experienced the same levels of success as it did back in 1994, it stands to reason that the studio would move heaven and earth in an effort to get a sequel off the ground as soon as possible.
After all, these days, sequels are given the go-ahead days and weeks after the release of their predecessors, and having earned a monstrous $678million at the box office before winning six Academy Awards from 13 nominations. These included ‘Best Picture’, ‘Best Director’, and ‘Best Actor’, leaving the door even remotely ajar for a follow-up would be an opportunity Paramount would instantly capitalise on.
There was talk for a while, with literary successor Gump and Co. being published the year after the movie’s release, with screenwriter Eric Roth returning to pen a script for its feature-length adaptation. It even opened in a similar fashion, beginning with Hanks’ title character sitting on a park bench, albeit this time waiting for his son to return from school.
In an unpredictable turn of events, though, Roth admitted to Slash Film that the 9/11 attacks ultimately saw Gump and Co. shelved permanently when it was decided the concept of a relentlessly optimistic fantastical drama was no longer relevant in a rapidly changing modern world.
“I turned in the script the night before 9/11,” Roth revealed. “And we sat down, Tom and Bob and I, looked at each other and said, ‘We don’t think this is relevant anymore'”. Forrest Gump was a beacon of hope and positivity, something that the writer conceded wouldn’t play as well with audiences in the wake of a devastating tragedy and its subsequent after-effects.
The abandoned sequel to Forrest Gump reared its head once again in 2007 when Paramount began exploring the possibility of getting it off the ground. However, as Roth would suggest, “Maybe some things should just be one thing and left as they are”.
It was an opinion shared by both Hanks and director Robert Zemeckis, both of whom had moved on in their careers on either side of the camera. Like Roth said, not every massively successful movie needs to launch a string of sequels, even those like Forrest Gump that already have pre-existing source material from which to draw.
Hanks conceded that while he was open to the possibility of reprising the role, the only serious talks he ever had over a potential Forrest Gump 2 “lasted all of 40 minutes”. There was no justification in his mind for it to happen, and he wasn’t contractually obligated to do so, with Roth turning in his draft right before 9/11 ultimately scuttling any chances it had, not that any of the key creatives were left devastated by the missed opportunity.
