Breaking News - A New Trailer for Bill and Ted!
For those of us of a certain age, it is unbelievable that is over thirty years since we first met ‘Bill S. Preston Esq.’ and ‘Ted Theodore Logan’, residents of San Dimas, California.
In real-life, San Dimas is a small city of 35,000 that takes its name from the Biblical penitent thief, Saint Dismas.
In 1989, on film, it became the starting point for a most excellent adventure.
Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure
While at college, Ed Solomon and Chris Matheson (both now successful writers and directors) had developed two loveable, yet ultimately quite dim, time-travelling characters.
The resultant film script (originally titled “Bill and Ted’s Time Van”, not quite so catchy) was rejected by a number of studios before director Stephen Herek convinced producer Dino De Laurentiis (“Raw Deal”, “Manhunter”, “Blue Velvet” and many others) that his niche comedy could be a hit.
With the chemistry between Alex Winter (‘Bill’) and Keanu Reeves (‘Ted’) underpinned by the laugh-out-loud script, it was a most excellent hit, taking a 1989 box office of over $40M against a budget of only $6M and introducing a number of enduring catch-phrases and mis-pronunciations to the English language. (Does anybody else still jokingly refer to Beethoven as 'Beef oven'?).
Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey
The 1991 sequel, originally entitled “Bill and Ted Go To Hell”, sees our hapless duo confronted by time-travelling doppelganger robots and the Grim Reaper himself (superbly played by William Sadler) as they battle to save the world through the music of their band ‘Wyld Stallyns’.
We would have to wait twenty nine-years to see Bill and Ted travel again.
Bill and Ted Face the Music
Apparently, the script was ready ten years ago, but no one would make it. By July 2019, United Artists has signed on and production of ‘Bill and Ted 3’ was underway.
With Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves reprising their roles (and William Sadler also returning as ‘Death’) our most bodacious friends are challenged to write a song in seventy-eight minutes that will save all life in the Universe…
… we wonder if a telephone booth and a bit of time-travel will play a part too?
The first trailer and a glimpse of the advance movie poster were released last week.
Slated for release in August, “Bill and Ted Face The Music” promises to be a long awaited laugh in these most troubled of times.
Until then, be excellent to each other and ‘party on dudes!’
Adam and the Art of the Movies team
