Remember the tail end of last week when we brought you news that the still-hypothetical, yet increasingly-likely-to-hit-theaters-at-some-point third Bill & Ted movie had moved a bit closer to reality? That got us excited for this film, but at the time we knew very little about the flick beyond the fact that Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves had agreed to reprise their roles from Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure and Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey. Now, thanks to Keanu Reeves himself, we’ve got a scant few details about this movie’s plot.
Those of you who recall Bogus Journey will know that the titular heroes are destined to, at some point, unite humanity and end human strife forever with the power of their music. Bill & Ted 3 uses this idea as a jumping off point, but in a recent GQ interview, Reeves claims that at the start of the third film Ted Logan and Bill S. Preston, Esquire are “crushed by the responsibility of having to write the greatest song ever written and to change the world.” As a result of this pressure to save mankind, the two pals “have just drifted off into esoterica and lost their rock.”
Of course, this being a Bill & Ted movie, the solution to the duos’ problems lies in yet another trip through time. “We go on this expedition, go into the future to find out if we wrote the song, and one future ‘us’ refuses to tell us, and another future ‘us’ blames us for their lives because we didn’t write the song, so they’re living this terrible life,” Reeves said. “In one version we’re in jail; in another we’re at some kind of highway motel and they hate us.”
If we can digress for a moment, is anyone else finding Reeves’ use of the phrase “future us” to be immensely comforting? We are.
As we mentioned in last week’s story, this film is in the very, very early stages of production. So far the film has a director (Galaxy Quest helmer Dean Parisot), two writers (original Bill & Ted creators Ed Solomon and Chris Matheson) and, of course, its crucial stars, but beyond that the movie is still seeking financiers. Though MGM owns the rights to Bill & Ted, the studio seems wary of funding a third Bill & Ted movie by itself. Other studios are currently being polled to see if any of them would like to co-finance the film, though as of yet there is no solid deal in place.
While we’re still a bit wary of this project as a whole — again, who could possibly replace George Carlin as the helpful futuristic guide Rufus? — as more information on the film leaks out of Hollywood we can’t help but get excited. Have you watched either of the Bill & Ted movies recently? They were entertaining slapstick in our childhood, but re-watching the series as an adult is an entirely different experience. You understand so much more, and those of you who consider yourselves music geeks are guaranteed to love either film simply by virtue of the huge number of unexpected cameos by famous rockers.
How many of you thought that Faith No More guitarist Jim Martin would become a beloved religous icon? We could maybe see Mike Patton being worshipped by indigenous tribes in the South Pacific, but Jim Martin? That one caught us by surprise.
