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‘Bill & Ted’ Writer Shares an Update on the Third Movie

If another excellent adventure ever happens, it will pay tribute to George Carlin.
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
By  · Published on January 25th, 2018

If another excellent adventure ever happens, it will pay tribute to George Carlin.

The last time we saw Bill S. Preston, Esq. and Ted “Theodore” Logan, they were fun loving idiots whose whole lives were in front of them. That was back in 1991, with the release of the sequel Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey. Someday, though, the long-promised third movie might finally happen. Really. Maybe.

In a discussion with Digital Spy, screenwriter Ed Solomon, who penned both the 1989 original, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, and its follow-up with Chris Matheson, shared the trials that have kept this franchise off the big screen for so long and why it is important to get the script perfect. He says:

“We have a script that we really are proud of, that we worked very hard on, that we’ve done many iterations of – and we did it on spec, meaning we spent years working on it because we wanted to get it right, creatively.”

“This is not, ‘Hey let’s all cash-in on the ‘Bill & Ted’ thing for money’ – this is the opposite. This is, ‘We love these characters, they’ve been with us for our whole lives’ – Chris and me, and Alex and Keanu – and we wanted to visit them again as middle-aged men. We thought it would be really fun, and funny, and sweet.”

Titled Bill & Ted Face the Music , the sequel would indeed see returning stars Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves as the now-middle-aged Bill and Ted, both of whom have families to take care of and no time for their rock band. One missing element would of course be their mentor Rufus, who was played by the late George Carlin. The character will still be woven into the fabric of the sequel, though, as his contributions were immeasurable to the franchise.

Solomon addressed the loss of Carlin and how much the new film will pay tribute to the character.

“George Carlin is so deeply missed by all of us. There is a… not just an homage to him, it’s more than that. His absence is a part of the whole movie.”

In addition to Solomon, Winter, and Reeves all being on board, co-creator Matheson is also back for Bill & Ted Face the Music, while Dean Parisot (Galaxy Quest) is lined up to direct with Steven Soderbergh involved as a producer.

Even though everyone is clearly invested in making this movie work, however, there is one significant issue with getting the film made: Hollywood prefers the idea of a Bill & Ted reboot, featuring newcomers in the iconic roles. None of this middle-aged man material.

“It’s ‘Let’s do ‘Bill & Ted’ with new teenagers’, but what we wanna do is the story of Bill and Ted as middle-aged men, and tell what we think could be a really funny, and actually really moving, story about their lives and where they are now – their families, their kids…”

A reboot would be the farthest thing from what Solomon and Matheson are going for with Bill & Ted Face the Music. Hopefully they eventually find a way to get their version made.

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News Writer/Columnist for Film School Rejects. It’s the Pictures Co-host. Bylines Playboy, ZAM, Paste Magazine and more.