Life wasn’t exactly a box of chocolates when getting “Forrest Gump’’ to the screen 20 years ago this week. Casting was a struggle, there were many script rewrites — and one studio walked away from what became a beloved phenomenon that won six Oscars, including Best Picture, and sold more than $700 million in tickets worldwide, despite mixed reviews. 
Winston Groom, who wrote “Forrest Gump,’’ originally sold his novel to Warner Bros. in 1985 before publication — but, after years of development, executives there reportedly decided in 1990 its mentally-challenged hero was too much like the one in the recent Oscar winner “Rain Man’’ and sold off the project to Paramount Pictures.
After several drafts and the move to Paramount, Groom was replaced as screenwriter by Eric Roth, who won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Several prominent actors like John Travolta, Nicole Kidman and Ice Cube passed on the project along the way.
Here are some other things you may not have known about this classic, which will arrive in IMAX theaters for a week on Sept. 5 — and will be released on Blu-ray in a commemorative edition Sept. 30, ironically by Warner Bros.
Running
Tom Hanks’ younger brother Jim doubled for him in many of Forrest Gump’s running sequences.
School bus
Hanks’ red-haired daughter Elizabeth and director Robert Zemeckis’ son Alexander play children who won’t let young Forrest (Michael Conner Humphreys) sit down on the school bus.
Home in Alabama
Forrest’s home was built especially for the film in Colleton County, S.C., and torn down after filming because it didn’t conform to building codes. So don’t go looking for it.
That park bench
The famous park bench where Forrest recounts his life story is a fiberglass prop made for the movie that was donated to a museum in Savannah, Ga. There are numerous replicas, including one near the elevator leading to Paramount’s screening room in Manhattan.
The scene was filmed in Chippewa Square in Savannah, where the traffic flow was reversed for filming so the bus doors open into the square at the end of the film.
Vietnam
The Vietnam scenes were shot on what is now the Ocean Creek Golf Course on Fripp Island, S.C.
Forrest’s mother
Sally Field, who plays Forrest’s mother, was around 45 at the time of filming — just 10 years older than Hanks. She was previously his love interest in “Punchline’’ (1988).
Forrest’s girlfriend
Robin Wright won the plum role of the troubled Jenny, and a Golden Globe for best supporting actress, after the part was turned down by Demi Moore and Nicole Kidman.
Forrest’s son
Forrest’s son is played by young Haley Joel Osment, future star of “The Sixth Sense,’’ in his screen debut.
Bubba
Mykelti Williamson got to play the shrimp-loving Bubba after Ice Cube, Dave Chappelle and David Alan Grier all passed.
Hanks, the Oscar and his payoff
Tom Hanks won his second Best Actor Oscar in a row for “Forrest Gump,’’ a year after capturing the same award for “Philadelphia.’’
The only other winner of back-to-back Best Actor Oscars was Spencer Tracy for “Captains Courageous’’ (1937) and “Boys Town’’ (1938). Hanks took a percentage of the gross in lieu of a flat salary, reportedly receiving around $40 million for a role that had been turned down by Bill Murray, Chevy Chase and John Travolta.
Hanks declined to appear in a sequel based on Groom’s “Gump and Co.’’ that was never made.
That shrimp company
There’s a worldwide chain of restaurants named after the film’s Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., which was formed in 1996. One of them is coincidentally in the Paramount building on Broadway in New York.