Editing Forrest Gump (section)

=== Pre-production and script ===
{{Main|Forrest Gump (novel)|l1 = ''Forrest Gump'' (novel)}}

{{Quote box |width=30em|bgcolor=#c6dbf7|quote="The writer, Eric Roth, departed substantially from the book. We flipped the two elements of the book, making the love story primary and the fantastic adventures secondary. Also, the book was cynical and colder than the movie. In the movie, Gump is a completely decent character, always true to his word. He has no agenda and no opinion about anything except Jenny, his mother and God."|source=—director [[Robert Zemeckis]]<ref name="BookChanges" />}}

The film is based on the 1986 [[Forrest Gump (novel)|novel]] by [[Winston Groom]]. Both center on the character of Forrest Gump. However, the film primarily focuses on the first eleven chapters of the novel before skipping ahead to the end of the novel, with the founding of Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. and the meeting with Forrest Jr. In addition to skipping some parts of the novel, the film adds several aspects to Gump's life that do not occur in the novel, such as his needing leg braces as a child and his run across the United States.<ref name="MoviesBook">{{cite news|last=Delarte|first=Alonso |title=Movies by the Book: Forrest Gump|work=Bob's Poetry Magazine|date=February 2004|url=http://bobspoetry.com/Bobs01Fe.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090327090919/http://bobspoetry.com/Bobs01Fe.pdf |archive-date=March 27, 2009|page=24|access-date=July 2, 2009}}</ref>

Gump's core character and personality are also changed from the novel; among other things, his film character is less of a [[savant]] – in the novel, while playing football at the university, he fails craft and gym but receives a perfect score in an advanced physics class he is enrolled in by his coach to satisfy his college requirements.<ref name="MoviesBook" /> The novel also features Gump as an [[astronaut]], a [[professional wrestler]], and a [[chess]] player.<ref name="MoviesBook" />

The book had a bidding war regarding an adaptation even before publication, with [[Wendy Finerman]] and [[Steve Tisch]] acquiring them by joining forces with [[Warner Bros.]], where Finerman's husband [[Mark Canton]] was president of production.<ref name=nyt>{{cite news |author=Grimes, William |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/09/01/movies/following-the-star-of-a-winsome-idiot.html?scp=28&sq=Forrest%20Gump&st=cse |title=Following the Star Of a Winsome Idiot |work=The New York Times |date=September 1, 1994 |access-date=June 28, 2012 |archive-date=November 22, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181122145911/https://www.nytimes.com/1994/09/01/movies/following-the-star-of-a-winsome-idiot.html?scp=28&sq=Forrest |url-status=live }}</ref> Groom was paid $500,000 and also wrote the first three first drafts of the screenplay, which leaned closer to the events of the novel.<ref name=dad>{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-08-07-ca-24436-story.html|title=Forrest Gump's Proud Dad|work=[[Los Angeles Times]]|author=Epstein, Robert|date=August 7, 1994|access-date=February 14, 2023|archive-date=February 14, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230214231013/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-08-07-ca-24436-story.html|url-status=live}}</ref> After ''[[Rain Man]]'' told the story of a savant, Warner Bros. lost interest in the picture, and by 1990 the project was in [[Turnaround (filmmaking)|turnaround]]. Finerman contacted [[Columbia Pictures]], who went on to reject it,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-08-10-ca-25605-story.html|title=One Studio's Trash Is Another's Treasure|work=Los Angeles Times|author=Welkos, Robert W.|date=August 10, 1994|access-date=February 14, 2023|archive-date=February 14, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230214233845/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-08-10-ca-25605-story.html|url-status=live}}</ref> while hiring [[Eric Roth]] to rewrite the script. Roth and Finerman kept in contact with Groom to ensure the script was historically accurate.<ref name=dad/> Roth delivered a screenplay in 1992, which [[Paramount Pictures]] chairwoman [[Sherry Lansing]] liked enough to bring the project to her studio, who acquired the rights from Warner Bros. in exchange for the script for ''[[Executive Decision]]''.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/07/13/movies/gump-a-9-year-personal-campaign.html|title='Gump,' a 9-Year Personal Campaign|work=The New York Times|author=Weinraub, Bernard|date=July 13, 1994|access-date=June 28, 2012|archive-date=May 26, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150526103500/http://www.nytimes.com/1994/07/13/movies/gump-a-9-year-personal-campaign.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=thr/>

[[Ivan Reitman]], [[Penny Marshall]] and [[Terry Gilliam]] passed on the project before [[Robert Zemeckis]] was hired.<ref>{{cite video|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LvCGFJd17Q|title=Penny Marshall Discusses Passing on Directing "Forrest Gump"|publisher=[[Larry King]]|access-date=February 14, 2023|archive-date=February 14, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230214233844/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LvCGFJd17Q|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="GilliamDirect">{{cite web |last=Plume |first=Kenneth |url=http://movies.ign.com/articles/644/644724p1.html |title=Gilliam on Grimm |website=IGN |page=3 |date=August 24, 2005 |access-date=October 20, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081224124306/http://movies.ign.com/articles/644/644724p1.html |archive-date=December 24, 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name=thr>{{cite web|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/throwback-thursday-forrest-gump-ran-733915/|title=Throwback Thursday: 'Forrest Gump' Ran Away With the Box Office in 1994|author=Higgins, Bill|work=The Hollywood Reporter|date=September 18, 2014|access-date=February 14, 2023|archive-date=February 14, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230214233844/https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/throwback-thursday-forrest-gump-ran-733915/|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Barry Sonnenfeld]] was attached to the film, but left to direct ''[[Addams Family Values]]''.<ref name="BarryDirect">{{cite magazine |last=Fretts |first=Bruce |title=Get Barry |url=https://ew.com/article/1995/11/03/get-barry/ |magazine=Entertainment Weekly |page=2 |date=November 3, 1995 |access-date=October 20, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090425194723/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,299341,00.html |archive-date=April 25, 2009 |url-status=live }}</ref>