Why name of Homer Hickam’s ‘Rocket Boys’ was changed to ‘October Sky’ for movie

CLARKSBURG, W.Va. (WBOY) — If you’re from West Virginia, odds are you’ve heard of Homer Hickam’s 1998 book “Rocket Boys.” You might have even watched the movie adaptation, “October Sky,” in eighth grade West Virginia history class.

The movie, which was released in 1999 and starred Jake Gyllenhaal as Homer Hickam, was a decently accurate adaptation of the original memoir; both follow Homer’s story of growing up in Coalwood, West Virginia with a dream of building rockets. Although some details had to be adapted to fit the length of a movie, did that really warrant the complete change of the title?

In a 1999 blog post about working with the movie crew, Hickam said that the name of the movie was changed from “Rocket Boys” to “October Sky” to make the movie more appealing for women.

“After marketing surveys by Universal Studios indicated that ‘Rocket Boys’ as a movie title would not attract the female over age thirty demographic, the film was retitled and released as ‘October Sky,'” Hickam said in the post.

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October Sky is also an anagram of Rocket Boys, meaning they have the same letters just switched around in a different order. Hickam said that director Joe Johnston discovered the anagram after the new movie title was already chosen and considered it “cosmically inspired.”

Although that 1999 blog post is no longer on Hickam’s website, more information about the conversion from book to movie is detailed in Hickam’s 2013 book “From Rocket Boys to October Sky.” According to Hickam’s website, the book answers questions like “What are Jake Gyllenhaal/Chris Cooper/Laura Dern, etc. really like?” and “What’s it like to have a movie made about your life?” and “Why are the book and movie different?” and “Why are they still popular after all these years?”

Hickam also announced in 2023 that a sequel movie called “December Sky” is in the works.

He also released sequel memoir to “Rocket Boys” called “Don’t Blow Yourself Up” in 2021, and even toured across West Virginia at that time promoting the book.

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