Dave (1993)
At the time of Big‘s theatrical release, Ross was consulting for Michael Dukakis’ presidential campaign. The suddenly prominent screenwriter (Big was his first produced feature script) had worked in politics before, and he would again consult on another democratic presidential campaign four years later. But that 1988 experience clearly inspired his next hit movie idea. After doing some work on the script for Mr. Baseball, which was someone else’s idea, he went solo for Dave, a comedy directed by Ivan Reitman about a lookalike who fills in for an ailing president. Obviously, it’s even more Capra and Being There than Big is, but certainly, the pitch for Dave (and a comparison made in a few of its reviews) was to do something like Big as a political satire.
Forrest Gump (1994)
After playing a child in a grown-up’s body, taking on the role of Forrest Gump must have seemed like a retread for Hanks. Interestingly enough, some of the same actors who were up for the part in Big were also up for this, most notably Travolta. This time, for the adaptation of the novel of the same name, Hanks would be playing an adult man with a low IQ and rather childlike sensibilities. To develop the role, he mimicked the voice and mannerisms of child actor Michael Conner Humphreys, who plays young Forrest, which was similar to how he modeled his behavior for Big after his younger counterpart in that movie, David Moscow. Ultimately repeating himself wasn’t a bad decision for Hanks, considering Gump made the actor even more popular and gave him his third Oscar nomination and second win for Best Actor.
Jack (1996)
Supposedly, Hanks was up for this movie about a boy with a form of progeria, too, but the title role went instead to Williams, who with it got his own Big almost a decade later. The Francis Ford Coppola flop would seem a natural fit for the actor with his childlike energy, but despite Jack being a real version of the premise of Big, the performance here is not as believable. Coppola was reminded of his own Peggy Sue Got Married when choosing the project, which he saw as the reverse of that movie’s woman-trapped-in-her-teenage self premise — interestingly enough, Marshall had been linked to Peggy Sue before Coppola took it over. IMDb credits Jack as a spoof of Big, which is harsh.
Big the Musical (1996)
Long before every movie inevitably was turned into a Broadway musical, Big got a special chance in the mid-1990s. The result, simply called Big the Musical, includes songs with titles like “Fun” and “Skateboard Romance” and “Cross the Line,” the last of which sounds like they did the sex scene here, too. Although nominated for five Tony Awards, this version of Big was not otherwise much of a success in its initial run. The show closed after fewer than 200 performances. Touring and foreign productions of the musical have had greater success, however, and now there’s a Broadway adaptation of 13 Going on 30 (see below) on its way. Meanwhile, Big was also recently slated to be adapted into a TV series for Fox, but that didn’t work out so well either.
Blue’s Clues (1996-2007)
No, this isn’t where you learn that Blue’s Clues host Steve Burns was supposed to be playing a child trapped in a man’s body. However, Burns was an adult playing a teenage boy, with his departure as host tied to the character going away to college. The more direct link between Big and the Nickelodeon program is with producer Dr. Alice Wilder. She’s a psychologist specializing in educational television and went on to help develop such shows as Super Why! and Amazon’s Tumble Leaf, and she’s acknowledged that she came to this dream job of hers after seeing Big and being inspired by the way Hanks’ character was perfect for his toy company gig because he thought like a kid. She’s approached her work with that mindset ever since.
Related Topics: Big, One Perfect Archive, Shazam!, Tom Hanks
