Gump and Co.

Gump and Co. is the 1995 sequel to Winston Groom's novel Forrest Gump.

Plot summary

Several years after the events of Forrest Gump, Forrest's shrimping business has gone bust. Jenny has died, leaving Forrest to provide for Forrest, Jr., his intelligent, though emotionally distant, son. Forrest's mother has also died. Jenny occasionally makes an appearance as a sort of guardian angel for Forrest and their son.

As in the first book, Gump stumbles through important U.S. events in the 1980s and early 1990s. He plays football for the New Orleans Saints, sells encyclopedias, works on a pig farm, and helps develop the infamous New Coke. He accidentally crashes the Exxon Valdez, helps destroy the Berlin Wall, and fights in Operation Desert Storm. He meets many celebrities, including Oliver North, the Ayatollah Khomeini, Jim Bakker, Ivan Boesky, Ronald Reagan, Saddam Hussein, Bill and Hillary Clinton, and of course, Tom Hanks.

The sequel's storyline keeps to the storyline of the immensely successful 1994 film version of Forrest Gump, by killing off both Jenny and Forrest's mother, neither of whom died in the original novel.

Possible film adaptation

This book was never made into a movie, due to Groom's feud with Paramount Pictures over payments for the first movie. This is alluded to in the opening paragraph, where Gump warns the readers never to allow anyone to make a movie about their life.

On March 7, 2007, CinemaBlend, as reported by CEO Larry Bower. reported[1] that Paramount had settled its feud with Groom, and an already-written screen adaptation of Gump and Co. could be revived.

On the Internet Movie database, a page has been setup for Gump & Co. setting a tentative 2010 release date.