Bill and Ted adapt to 2007
The 1980s cult classic is being revisited for a straight-to-DVD release. Will their innocence become a casualty?
By Jay A. Fernandez, Special to The Times
July 11, 2007
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Dude, did you hear Bill and Ted are climbing back into the time machine?
No way!
Yes way.
MGM is developing a straight-to-DVD revisiting of the late-'80s cult classic "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" for producer Frank Mancuso Jr. at 360 Pictures. Although their deal is still being worked out, writers Gabe Grifoni and Suzanne Francis ("Wieners") have already turned in an outline for an updated take on San Dimas' most excellent native sons.
(Insert air guitar trill here.)
But is there still an audience for Bill and Ted's pre-culture-of-irony straightforwardness and unshakable positivity in a world that has since given us "Wayne's World," "Dumb and Dumber," "Dude, Where's My Car?" and "South Park"? Or will the boys be Stiflerized for today's market?
Several attempts at a spinoff TV series in the early '90s, one animated and one live action, misread the boys' appeal no matter what your memory tells you, they weren't actually stoners, surfers or Valley dudes and sparked cries of betrayal from devoted fans who felt that the sensibility of the original films' writers, Ed Solomon ("Levity") and Chris Matheson ("Mr. Wrong"), had been corrupted.
While in UCLA's film school 20 years ago, Solomon and Matheson would rent a stage on Sunset Boulevard for $20 and crack each other up by improvising the two lovable doofuses. The two "Bill & Ted" films the sequel was "Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey" in 1991 then became their first feature credits.
More than a decade later, they actually tried to get a third "Bill & Ted" feature made, with the idea of checking in with the guys as middle-aged men. Actors Keanu Reeves (Ted "Theodore" Logan) and Alex Winter (Bill S. Preston, Esq.), now both in their 40s, were reportedly game until Reeves' manager advised his client, by then a major movie star (although still on-screen climbing in and out of phone booths), against revisiting the material.
Solomon and Matheson, who have only recently re-teamed for the comedy "NowhereLand," now in pre-production at Paramount, were not asked to participate in the new film.
"We loved Bill and Ted," says Solomon. "They were created out of complete innocence. We had a lot of fun with them, and we wish them well."
Let's hope they retain that innocence. As the boys would say: Be excellent to each other.
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