The book became a major best-seller in the wake of the film, and Groom got a much better deal for the follow-up novel, 1995´s 'Gump and Co.' 'I would have probably preferred my version of it, but that thing never would have opened.'

'They did an excellent job,' he told the Tuscaloosa News. But he got into a serious dispute with Paramount Pictures when they told him a film that had earned over $600 million was in the red after expenses. Groom got $350,000 for the rights to 'Forrest Gump' plus 3 percent of the net profit of the movie. His most recent novel, El Paso, was published in 2016. Sherman and Jefferson Davis, president of the confederacy. In 2009 he released 'Vicksburg 1863,' an account of the Union siege that brought a novelist´s touch to historical figures like Ulysses S. Pictured: Winston Groom signs copies of 'Gump & Co.,' the sequel to 'Forrest Gump', at a New York City bookstore in August 1995 In 2005, Groom released '1942: The Year That Tried Men´s Souls,' which chronicled the first year of U.S. Groom also wrote non-fiction on diverse subjects including the Civil War, World War I and Alabama's Crimson Tide football. They 'took some of the rough edges off,' Groom told the New York Times in 1994. The film took away Gump´s size - Groom said he envisioned John Goodman playing him - along with his profanity, and most of his sex life. Gump was not a math savant as he was in the book, and was a more saintly soul. The basic outlines of Gump´s life are the same as they are in the book: Gump plays football under Paul 'Bear' Bryant at the University of Alabama, serves in Vietnam and starts a major shrimp business.īut the film made major departures. 2 grossing film at the box office, second only to 'The Lion King.' Actress Robin Wright (left) played the role of Jenny Curran, the childhood friend and eventual love interest for Tom Hank's Forrest Gump (right)

Winston groom