A Forrest Gump sequel was almost made – and you'll be glad it wasn't
Forget the (probably ill-advised) Forrest Gump remake for a second, because something truly awful has emerged about a Gump sequel that, thankfully, never was.
In a recent interview with Yahoo Entertainment, Forrest Gump's screenwriter Eric Roth revealed exactly what he had in mind for the ill-fated follow-up.
The Forrest Gump sequel was shelved permanently after the tragedy of 9/11, with Roth admitting that the devastating terrorist attack meant the film no longer had "meaning".
While it may not have had meaning, however, it did have a full script, complete with scenes featuring OJ Simpson and Princess Diana (!).
Related: Watch Tom Hanks' Forrest Gump audition and more pre-fame A-listers
Describing the central plot of the film, Roth explained: "It was gonna start with [Forrest's] little boy having AIDS, and people wouldn't go to class with him in Florida.
"We had a funny sequence where they were [desegregation] busing in Florida at the same time, so people were angry about either the busing, or [their] kids having to go to school with the kid who had AIDS. There was a big conflict."
'Where the hell does OJ Simpson come into this?', we hear you cry.
Apparently, the sequel would also feature Tom Hanks' Forrest hiding out in the back of Simpson's white Bronco during the infamous 1994 police chase.
"[Forrest] would look up occasionally and they didn't see him in the rear-view mirror," Roth revealed. "I also had him as a ballroom dancer, who was really good... and eventually as a charity thing he danced with Princess Diana."
Roth went on to recall how he, Hanks, and director Bob Zemeckis all agreed to bury the project – which was also set to feature the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing – because the trauma of the World Trade Center attacks had rendered it "meaningless".
A Bollywood remake of Forrest Gump suddenly sounds like a wonderful idea, doesn't it?
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