Author: James Andrew Miller
Quotes of Author: James Andrew Miller
RAND HOLSTON: Forrest Gump is a movie I am extremely proud of. I represented Wendy Finerman and Steve Tisch, the producers. STEVE TISCH: Gump was '94 but we set up the project at Warner Bros. in '85-a nine-year development gestation period. It didn't hurt that Ovitz wanted Gump to be made. Hanks and Zemeckis were clients. When the head of the most important talent agency in the business at that time says he wants to make something happen and he's very passionate about making something happen, it's a lot of wind in your sail. RAND HOLSTON: We had to restructure the deal more than once. The studio decided it wasn't willing to make the picture for what had been previously discussed, and when they gave us the new number, it was clear the only way to get the film made was taking the principals above the line-Bob Zemeckis, Tom Hanks, Wendy, and Steve-to take less cash up front, and we made sure they were able to get more gross points on the back end. This turned out to be a really good deal for all of them. ROBERT ZEMECKIS: The studio was going to shut the movie down if Tom and I didn't give our fees back. This was something that they do all the time: There's forty-eight hours left before you shoot, and they say you've got to take X amount of million dollars out of the budget. So we said, "How are we going to do that now? We've got to start shooting in forty-eight hours." And it comes back, "Well, you guys are just going to have to give us back your fees. book-quote
