There have been lots of rumours about a new Bill & Ted film. Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves have said it is on, then off.
Speaking to MTV, Alex Winter (Bill S. Preston) has confirmed that the film is in the works.
“We kicked around the idea over the years and had always thought if we could make something that was as kind of genuine in spirit as the originals and without falling prey to kind of retro cynicism or something that was unnecessary, it would be worth doing,” Winter said “Now the cat’s out of the bag, and the truth is that, yeah, we have finally hit upon an idea that we think is pretty great.”
“We’ve been working on it for the past couple of years, honing that idea and getting it into shape,” he continued. “[Screenwriters Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon] are working on it now. The bottom line is that we still all feel like we need to sit down and look at a script and see if it’s everything that it can be before we set about doing anything with it.”
“The essence of what we’ve always wanted to do is to make a ‘Bill & Ted’ movie,” he said. “We don’t want to make a cynical ‘here’s Bill and Ted — you guys are our kids, now YOU guys go be Bill and Ted and the franchise can live for another 25 years!’ It’s not that. It’s a straight up, what’s the funniest and most surprising take on where Bill and Ted would be right now if we stopped back in on them? That’s what we’re doing.”
One question that surfaced was what would they do without George Carlin who played Rufus in the first two films.
“We’re working our way through it right now,” said Winter. “It’s really complicated. He was such a big part of the spirit of the originals, and we’ve been trying to be clever about making a new one that can handle the Carlin issue. It’s actually stopped us in the past — why do it without Rufus? We’ve been delicate about moving around him.”
Luckily they won’t be recasting the role.
“That would be horrible,” he said. “That’s the thing about the movies — they’re personality-based. It’s Reeves’ personality when he’s doing comedy, it’s my personality and it was George’s personality. It doesn’t really work when you’re pretending that other people are those people, because there’s just not that much there [otherwise]. No, we’re definitely not going to recast Rufus.”
I had my doubts about a new Bill & Ted film, but I am starting to come around to the fact it could work. If the characters are grown up what possibilities does that bring? How much closer are Wyld Stallyns to bringing world piece?
Do you think Bill & Ted 3 could work?
Be excellent to each other.
