IDEASMILLIONDOLLAR

HOLLYWOOD: IDEA MILLION DOLLAR:  

Forrest Gump Jr

by Kevin Salveson

 

Is there not one other person on this planet with the IMD (idea million dollar) of a sequel for the Academy Award winning movie Forrest Gump?  Zameckis should be rolling over in his bank vault.

 

I did a search on the ol' net and did not find anything indicating someone is working on the new novel "Forrest Gump Jr" out there other than a mention of the possibility on a fan fiction site.

 

Hmmm, but it would be so easy.

 

Of course, the parallels to the first fim have to be in there for the average viewer to draw comfort from the predictability but there has to be a few changes as well.

 

THE TREATMENT (PLOT POINTS)

 

So, Forrest Jr. is a savant who can play the piano well but typically lacks the social skills.  

 

He is supposed to be in the school play and they make fun of his inability to repeat his lines but then when the piano player is sick the night of the play he sits down and plays the score from memory and saves the day.  Penny, the love interest, has a part in the play as well.  She has success in music as well but eventually has issues with stage fright, body issues and industry exploitation issues but of course Forrest Jr is there to defend her honor if convince her that moving in together before they marry is a good idea, damn the statistics.

 

He is there when Clinton meets Lewinski, perhaps in the crowd the day Bill hugged Monica along the greeting line outside the White House.

 

He is at the scene of the Florida Vote Count when Bush is eventually ushered into office.  He then gets sent to the Afghani war as a USO type.  He's there and involved when the courier that leads to Bin Laden is identified.

 

 He starts his own roadhouse bar chain which becomes as successful as the shrimp company, and there he works with his Lt. Dan/USO buddy to tame the rednecks for jokes after which they become the sympathetic secondary characters.

 

He's on the "fifth" plane that clearly has another 9/11 hijacker on it but he inadvertantly foils their plan without realizing it (of course, the audience sees it).

 

He then goes on to be present during the Wall Street Crisis of 2008 and whatever other significant events you want to cover as historically significant.  (He's asked to help the Lehman people get boxes from their offices, one after another).   He buys stock inadvertantly in a "math company" since he knows a Google is a large number.  Maybe he is there to witness the BP oil spill?  That's a disaster that shoud not go unmentioned.

 

And so on.

 

Heck, it writes itself!

 

However, since I have so many million dollar ideas I' may or may not execute on them all.

I'm a little like that savaant in the TV shows where the police keep coming to me to solve their murders.  Thus, if I don't get to it first at least give me an acknowledgement in the credits if not a point on the backend which includes 1% of all licensing deals if you ever get it made on my behalf.

 

Good luck!     8/15/14