Alex Winter provides an excellent update on the potentially radical Bill & Ted 3!
Actor/director Alex Winter – a.k.a. Bill S. Preston himself – has offered an insight into about the follow-up to Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey.
Winter and co-star Keanu Reeves will both return for the threequel, which has essentially been in the making for 23 years as Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey was released in 1991.
Winter has been talking about his first acting role after a long hiatus in front of the screen, but the discussion inevitably took a turn toward the Bill & Ted fan favourite franchise.
Winter had this to say about implementing the age factor into the new script: “[Bill & Ted] will be 40-something and it’s all about Bill and Ted grown up, or not grown up,” …It’s really sweet and really f—-ing funny.”
Winter elaborates: “But it’s a Bill & Ted movie, that’s what it is. It’s for the fans of Bill & Ted. It fits very neatly in the [series]. It’s not going to feel like a reboot. The conceit is really funny: What if you’re middle-aged, haven’t really grown up and you’re supposed to have saved the world and maybe, just maybe, you kinda haven’t?
“There’s many versions of ourselves in this movie. [It’s] answering the question: ‘What happened to these guys?’ They’re supposed to have done all this stuff, they weren’t the brightest bulbs on the tree, what happened 20 years later? To answer that question in a comedic way felt rich with possibility.”
The initial plan was to keep it under wraps to prevent fan disappointment, as it is not happening anytime soon: “The thing we had going against us is that word got out,” he explains. “That was kind of a bummer. It just takes a long time to put a movie together. Now we’re having to build this thing in public, which is fine. I just feel bad [the fans] have to get dragged through this long, boring, protracted process.”
However, there is the positivity that Winter and Reeves are still very close to original writers Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon: “Me and Keanu and [original writers] Chris [Matheson] and Ed [Solomon] are all very close and have remained close over the years,” says Winter. “We’d be having dinner and we’d be like, ‘is there a point? Is there a way in?’ We’d kick an idea around and go no and we would leave it alone for a bunch of years. I guess about four years ago we had an idea together that we thought was pretty great. I think it was because so much time had gone by that it was great.”
Even more promising is that the script has been worked on for a good couple of years now: “It was really just the four of us and we were really very measured about it. It took time to construct the idea, it took Chris and Ed time to build the first draft. Then we put a producer together and got a director [Galaxy Quest helmer Dean Parisot]. We’ve been working on drafts for the last couple of years. The script’s been finished for a while, but comedy is so specific. We’re in that world where producers are on, financiers are on and we’re just working and reworking the script.”
It all sounds like it has been well thought out and it isn’t another sequel based on 90s nostalgia being churned out for the sake of earning some dollar at the Box Office. We here at Following the Nerd are certainly looking forward to more updates. We will keep you posted
For any Alex Winter fans out there, you can see him in Grand Piano which is out on VOD now, although most will be looking forward to seeing him taking up the iconic role of Bill.
Source: Yahoo! Movies
Irwin Fletcher
I'm an LA journalist who really lives for his profession. I have also published work as Jane Doe in various mags and newspapers across the globe. I normally write articles that can cause trouble but now I write for FTN because Nerds are never angry, so I feel safe.
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