See that “Rumor” bit attached to the headline? That’s your cue to take all of the following news with a sizable dose of sodium. This has been today’s helpful disclaimer, now on to the news.
You boys and girls have seen Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, right? How about Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey? Great flicks, right? Yeah, we think so too, so word that both Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter have agreed to reprise their roles for a third Bill & Ted movie has us totally stoked. Vulture reports:
Vulture hears exclusively that a long-thought-impossible third Bill & Ted film is coalescing — and yes, both Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter are attached to star.
Original Bill & Ted creators Ed Solomon and Chris Matheson have also attached Dean Parisot (Galaxy Quest) to direct their script. Unlike so many recent studio remakes, which have simply recycled old material for a new generation, Solomon and Matheson took the unusual step of writing their third Bill & Ted script on spec in an attempt to ensure a take that would address where Mssrs. Ted Theodore Logan and Bill S. Preston, Esq. are in their lives today as opposed to being a reboot or remake. Insiders tell Vulture the hope is to make a mid-priced studio comedy like Hot Tub Time-Machine.
Though a script has been created and the two leads have been secured, this film is still a long ways from screening at your local megaplex. Vulture claims that while MGM owns the rights to the Bill & Ted franchise, this project is being shown to other studios in an effort to secure some kind of co-financing deal for the film. Though the budget for a third Bill & Ted movie would be relatively small, its creators realize that the film would likely appeal mostly to a niche audience, and it’s quite likely that the studios would want to lessen the chance of losing a huge wad of cash on this thing if it turns out to be a flop.
Likewise, director Dean Parisot is currently working on a sequel to 2010’s RED and would likely not be able to commit to a new Bill & Ted project until that film has finished shooting. Given that RED 2 doesn’t start filming until Spring of 2013, any hypothetical Bill & Ted movie would thus be at least two years off.
All that aside, we’re still wondering how exactly Bill & Ted 3 is supposed to work with both Reeves and Winter having aged dramatically since they last portrayed the two bumbling teens in 1991’s Bogus Journey. The Bill & Ted movies were effectively the precursor to Beavis And Butthead and it seems difficult to imagine a now 47-year-old Keanu Reeves believably exuding the same early 90s slacker chic that made the first two Bill & Ted movies so enjoyable. Plus, given the massive number of esoteric, unexpectedly awesome cameos that defined the first two Bill & Ted films we’re having trouble coming up with a list of musicians and accomplished actors who could possibly be seen as analogous entities. In the world of 2012, who could possibly be a suitable replacement for the late George Carlin?
