Forrest Gump [1994] (2 discs)

Random Trivia For This Title:

• Every still picture of Forrest during this film shows Tom Hanks with his eyes closed. However, when Forrest first learns to play ping-pong in the infirmary, he is told the trick is to "keep his eye on the ball" by another soldier. After that moment, whenever he is shown playing ping-pong, he never blinks.
• Gary Sinise's character tells Tom Hanks's character that the day Forrest works on a shrimp boat is the day he'd be an astronaut. This is a reference to the book, where Forrest actually becomes an astronaut, and the following year, Sinise and Hanks appeared together as astronauts in Apollo 13. Gary Sinise is also the commander/narrator of the ride "Mission: Space in Epcot" in Walt Disney World, and also starred as an astronaut in Mission to Mars.
• Robert Zemeckis used the paintings of Norman Rockwell as the design inspiration for the town of Greenbow, Alabama. The scene where Forrest sits in the hallway of his school while his mother talks to the principal is a direct re-creation of Rockwell's painting "Girl with a Black Eye".
• The necklace worn by Lt. Dan is a rosary with a Saint Christopher medal, inscribed "Protect Us In Combat". It was worn in Vietnam by Gary Sinise's brother-in-law, Jack Treese, in 1967-68.
• The line, "My name is Forrest Gump. People call me Forrest Gump," was ad libbed by Tom Hanks while filming the scene and director Robert Zemeckis liked it so much that he decided to keep it in.
• When Forrest gets up to talk at the Vietnam rally in Washington, the microphone plug is pulled and you cannot hear him. According to Tom Hanks, he says, "Sometimes when people go to Vietnam, they go home to their mommas without any legs. Sometimes they don't go home at all. That's a bad thing. That's all I have to say about that."
• Many of the extras in the hippie scene were actors from the Maryland Renaissance Festival, since the casting director ^[?] Ellen Lewis realized that would be a good source of performers with long hair.
• The actor who plays the reporter on the scene when Tom Hanks visits Washington DC after his tour in Vietnam was, himself, an actual tourist from Atlanta, Georgia. He happened to be on Capitol Hill that day with his wife, and was asked to read.
• During the ping-pong matches, there was no ball; it was entirely CGI, animated to meet the actors' paddles.
• Tom Hanks signed onto the film after an hour and a half of reading the script but agreed to take the role only on the condition that the film was historically accurate. He 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 and patterned his accent after Michael Conner Humphreys (young Forrest) who actually talked that way.
• According to writer Winston Groom, John Goodman was the perfect Forrest Gump in his mind. Bill Murray, John Travolta and Chevy Chase turned down the role of Forrest Gump. Travolta later admitted that passing on the role was a mistake. David Alan Grier, ^[?] Ice Cube and Dave Chappelle turned down the role of Bubba. Chappelle thought the movie would bomb, and has since admitted to deeply regretting not taking the role. Terry Gilliam and Barry Sonnenfeld turned down the chance to direct the film.
• Following the success of the movie, Winston Groom wrote a sequel novel, 'Gump & Co.' (1995), which referenced the movie as if it had been released in Forrest's world (he mentions that the movie was inaccurate - that is, compared to the first novel's canon - and brought him unwanted press attention). Forrest also meets Tom Hanks in the novel. Due to the massive success of the movie, talk of a sequel naturally arose. However, at the time, Tom Hanks adamantly refused to work in any sequel (and making the sequel with another actor was not a consideration). Although Hanks has since reconsidered his stance on sequels/prequels (Toy Story 2, Toy Story 3, Angels & Demons), a sequel remained in "development hell" for years. As of 2010, Gump & Co. is in development.