Suggesting that Forrest Gump was less movie fantasy than mission statement, Tom Hanks will continue to insinuate himself into every epochal event in American history by producing Parkland, a drama set around the JFK assassination. The film, named for the Dallas hospital where both John F. Kennedy and Lee Harvey Oswald died, will attempt to find a new angle on those oft-told events in much the same way that Emilio Estevez's Bobby did for Robert Kennedy: by focusing on people on the periphery, an ensemble that includes Jackie Kennedy, Abraham Zapruder, Oswald's older brother, and the various Secret Service agents, reporters, doctors, and, presumably, overflowing ashtrays in the hall. (If you haven't read it yet, Stubbed Out In November offers some really eye-opening theories from the ashtrays' perspective.) And of course, the film will find its fresh perspective by viewing those events through the baleful eyes of history's most important witness, Tom Hanks, who—having recently ramped up his attempts to prevent World War II, after failing to prevent 9/11—will now leap back to see what he can learn about JFK's murder, hoping each time that his next leap will be the leap home.
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