Genre: Science Fiction/Adventure.
Studio:
Universal Pictures.
Production Company:
Unknown.
Project Phase: Movies Rumored.
Who's In It:
Unknown.
Who's Making It:
Unknown.
Premise: Unknown.
Release Date: Unknown.
Comments: Over the past several years, there have been numerous rumors to the tune that Universal Studios was interested in revamping the BTTF series with 1 or 2 more sequels. So far, nothing has panned out to be true yet. But that's not to say that there hasn't been talk of a BTTF4. Thanks to the efforts of Stephen M. Clark, President of the Back to the Future fan club, we've been made privy to a wealth of information that may give you a clear look at what might be in store for ol' Doc Brown and Marty McFly come the new millennium..
Rumors: Unknown.
Scoop Feedback:
June - October, 1997... Stephen M. Clark, the President of the Back to the Future fan club, has been keeping an eye out for any developments for a new BTTF feature on the horizon. Clark's information is so detailed that it's simply best he's allowed to present it to you. Trust us - you won't get a more accurate picture of which actors are warming up to the idea of another installment from anywhere else, even if you dig through Spielberg's trash bin.
Clark's been wondering exactly what Universal Pictures has been up to with the franchise, and in his first message to us he encapsulates what's been going on with the BTTF actors and theorizes on what direction a sequel could take...
"We receive hundreds of email messages each week from fans all over the world wanting to see another Back to the Future film, so we know that the film would be widely accepted, especially since the BTTF saga has such a universal appeal. Actually, I know for a fact that there were some serious talks about a fourth film shortly before Jurassic Park came out in 1993. Once JP opened though, all attention was diverted towards that project and talks were dropped.
"Since that time, several of the key players in front of and behind the cameras have told our organization's magazine ('Hill Valley Telegraph') in exclusive interviews that they'd love to do a fourth film (Michael J. Fox, Lea Thompson, Tom Wilson, Billy Zane, Claudia Wells, Dean Cundey, Neil Canton, etc.). The two primary actors, Christopher Lloyd and Michael J. Fox, have both publicly stated that should a fourth BTTF film be produced, that they'd love to reprise their roles (sources: STARLOG Magazine, August 1993 {Lloyd} and January 1997 {Fox}).
"What we can't seem to figure out, is why Universal hasn't put this film on the development slate, since it would be a sure-fire hit. Sure, a few years ago, it was completely taboo to carry a franchise beyond a trilogy, unless the film has the words Star Trek in the title. (Remember Superman IV: The Quest for Peace?) However, times have changed, and the ever popular franchises are gearing up for more sequels. With Alien: Resurrection opening this fall, and Star Wars: The Balance of the Force in 1999, it appears that the old myth may have finally gone on the way side. Other rumored 'quattros' such as Lethal Weapon 4, Indiana Jones and the Sons of Darkness, Die Hard: Tears of the Sun, Mad Max 4, and a fourth 'Jack Ryan' movie, make the timing seemingly perfect for Universal to jump on the bandwagon and get this highly anticipated sequel into production.
"In my exclusive interview with Michael J. Fox on the 11th Anniversary of the theatrical release of BTTF1 (July 3, 1996), he told me that he'd love to see the characters end up somewhere besides Hill Valley, possibly having Doc Brown mix wits with Merlin (Fox told me that he & his son Sam are big fans of Tolkien's 'Lord of the Rings' and that type of fantasy.)
"My personal opinion is that the filmmakers should have the film begin in real time (not picking up again in 1985), realisticly placing the film in 1999 if it were to go into development today. With that in mind, I envision some sort of space-time continuum phenomenon based on the split-second changing of the millineum/century/decade/year/month/day/minute/second all at the same time, and that this once-in-a-millineum event is endangering the future of the entire universe due to past time travels across that event to 2015 in the second film and in the BTTF Ride. This 'rollover' of time itself would be explained to act just like an odometer in a car. Under normal circumstances, it simply rolls over and nothing special happens, which is how time has advanced through the ages thus far. However, since Doc & Marty crossed over that event before it was to occur naturally (and perhaps a key element was left in the future that shouldn't have been, such as the leftover Plutonium that we've not seen since BTTF1, is causing the fabric unravelling of the space-time continuum), will cause time itself to jump forward or backward one or more millineums, or stop entirely and 'destroy the entire universe as we know it'. It would be up to Doc & Marty (and perhaps new characters as well as old) to correct the damage before its too late.
Well, it's just a thought. The wonderful thing about the BTTF series is that the possibilities are endless for new stories, but Universal doesn't seem to think in fourth dimensional terms, and thus, there has been no visible steps taken towards getting a new film into development.
"Other things that Universal hasn't given any thought into is that two of BTTF's key players (Fox & Thompson) are seen weekly in top rated sitcoms ('Spin City' & 'Caroline in the City' respectively), bringing in their new fans who may have not followed the trilogy in the '80s. Plus, rumors of John Z. DeLorean's startup of a 'new' DeLorean vehicle for production in 1998 are now apparently for real. The 'D2' (a.k.a. the 'Firestorm 500') is reportedly already set with the proper financing behind the project, and the cars are said to be scheduled to roll off the assembly lines late next year. (see 'http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/8952/newdmc.html' for a crude drawing of the car and a brief article).
On June 17, 1997, it was announced that Director Robert Zemeckis and Producer Steve Starkey are going into a 5-year deal with Steven Spielberg in the formation of their new production company 'ImageMovers', of which DreamWorks will exclusively distribute all of ImageMover's products during the contract period. This could actually keep Zemeckis from directing a fourth installment (which he's never been too keen on anyway), but puts him in line to easily helm production of a fourth BTTF film by executive producing it instead of directing if he so desired, taking over Spielberg's seat from the first three. What's Producer Bob Gale doing these days, anyway?
"With a built-in audience worldwide of millions of fans from the first three films, Fox and Thompson's loyal fan base from television, and an instant tie-in with the new DeLoreans, how could anyone at Universal pass up the biggest opportunity this side of the 20th Century? It sure seems like an obvious way to make some jigga-bucks to me, but what does an ole' boy from Alabama know anyway about Hollywood?"
It seems the people in Japan seem to know about (and love) the BTTF series. Scheduled to open at the Universal Studios themepark in 2001 is a new BTTF ride, the third so far to open up. As well, the first film will be released on DVD between December 1997 and February 1998. And rumors have been circulating for months on Usenet toy collector boards that Universal has inked a deal with Toy Biz to licence out this property for merchandising. According to anonymous posts, two assortments of 5" action figures inspired by the BTTF films have been designed:
Assortment One: Marty McFly, Doc Brown, Biff, Marty wearing Future clothes (part 2) w/ hoverboard, Griff w/ Bulldog hoverboard.
Assortment Two: Young George McFly, Marty Jr., Old West Marty, Old West Doc, Mad Dog Buford.
The rumor also mentions that a 'Deluxe Time Machine DeLorean' and 'Hill Valley Clock Tower' playsets. Whether these rumors have any basis in truth or not remain to be seen. [Special thanks to Stephen M. Clark for rigging up our 1.21 gigawatts adaptor that makes this page possible...]
October 28, 1997... The rumor about the BTTF action figure line from Toy Biz is debunked on the Toy Mania web site. A quick phone call to Toy Biz nailed the lid shut on this one - you can visit their site and get the full story. [Thanks to raving toy maniac Jason Geyer.]
November 11, 1997... There's been a tantalizing report that a script may exist for a proposed television movie titled Back to the Beginning. According to a source that spoke to Stephen M. Clark, Amblin Productions had a script commissioned 4 or so years ago: in the script a young Marty McFly first meets Doc Brown, who's considered to be pretty much a crazy old man. At first the young Marty takes part with the other neighborhood kids in playing mean-spirited tricks on the Doc, like toilet papering his home, but eventually Marty realizes that the Doc is simply a somewhat-unusual inventor and not a sinister old man as Marty's friends would have him believe.
Stephen M. Clark explains why he believes the project to actually exist somewhere in Amblin's vault: " The story behind this is that in 1993, I know for a fact through the office of Bob Gale (BTTF screenwriter/producer) that there were some very SERIOUS talks about doing a fourth movie or some other type of similar continuation with the BTTF series. Universal was in dire need of some hit movies during that time, as they were in a drout. The BTTF Ride was getting ready to open in Hollywood, and so Universal was giving the series some serious consideration for a reprisal. But two key factors killed the talks at that time: Jurassic Park opened in theaters and rocked Universal's foundation, and CBS cancelled the BTTF cartoon series. These talks were being held around May of 1993.
"In 1995, I had a phone conversation with Alan Sutton at Universal marketing (now a Senior VP of Marketing for Universal), who told me then that two years prior to our conversation, there had been serious plans to turn BTTF into a weekly television series, but that the idea had been put on indefinite hold for reasons unbeknownst to him. That conversation validated the information I had been given by an assistant in Bob Gale's office in 1993."
Then a second reply came to Clark's attention, this time from a person who also claimed to have seen the BTTF MOV script in Amblin's vaults. The source said that the story featured a pre-teen Marty starting to make friends with Doc Brown, and possibly providing inspiration for the Doc to eventually construct his DeLorean time machine as a result of the death of one of Marty's friends.
Now that Zemeckis has allied himself with Spielberg's DreamWorks, the possibility exists that the studio may resuscitate the franchise as a spin-off series or a movie of the week. [Thanks to Stephen M. Clark and his anonymous sources for providing the additional information.]
November 22, 1997... We have to agree with the scooper: this is damn creepy. Seems that in a scene from Back to the Future II, Marty buys a sports almanac to take back to 1985 with him and get rich quick. Well, in one part of the movie the young Biff is told Florida will win the World Series in 1997...and they did. The thing that also makes it a clear sign of the Apocalypse is that, back in 1989 when the show was in production, Florida didn't even have a baseball team. [Prophetic decoding done by Tood Dupler.]
November 25, 1997... The Marlins/BTTF2 prophecy turns out to be false. Thankfully, people with a currently-valid Blockbuster Video membership rented the tape and confirmed it's not so. When Marty's in 2015, he sees a billboard proclaiming that the Chicago Cubs beat the Miami Gators in the 2015 Series, which motivates him to get the Sports Almanac.
Well, who better to set the record straight than Stephen:
"Please allow me to clear up this crazy rumor that has been running rampant ever since the Marlins won the World Series last month.
"This is a recent rumor that has been completely distorted and blown out of proportion. The scene in question is indeed from Back to the Future Part II, and involved Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) being in the future in 2015, and him seeing a holographic billboard that announced that the Chicago Cubs had won the World Series against the Miami Gators. The date was October 21, 2015. An old gentleman Marty was talking to said that he wished he could go back to the beginning of the season to place some bets on the Cubbies, and that sparked the idea with McFly, who bought a sports almanac containing sports statistics from 1950-2000 to take back to 1985 with him. However, the plan backfired, and the main plot of the rest of the movie was to get that sports almanac back from falling into the wrong hands (i.e. Biff Tannen) in the past.
"So while Bob Gale & Robert Zemeckis were able to predict the future in that Miami would have a team, there was never anything mentioned about 1997 -- it was just the current year, which was 2015. And the film predicted that Miami had a team, which they didn't until 1993, but the name of the team was the Gators. Back to the Future Part II was released 8 years ago on November 22, 1989."
"But don't let this fool you -- Back to the Future Part II was indeed a predictor of many events yet to come. Besides predicting that Miami would have a major league baseball team, the film also predicted at least two other interesting future events that were yet to come: the downfall of laserdiscs and the procedure of using thumbprints as signatures.
"In an early scene, Doc & Marty carry the sedated Jennifer (Elisabeth Shue) out of the DeLorean and lay her in an alley behind Fusion Industries. You'll notice that the bundled stacks of waste they put her on are mounds of laserdiscs ready to be incinerated. Many people, including some folks at Entertainment Weekly, point out that this scene clearly predicts that laserdiscs won't be a source of entertainment media in the future, apparently paving the way for the new format of the future - DVD."
A-ha! We knew Zemeckis was a member of the global industrial-military consortium!
"As any fan remembers, practically all in-person financial transactions were handled in the future by scanning the thumbprint of the consumer. This is now a reality, as in the past year, a several major banks primarily across the south have instigated new check cashing policies for customers without accounts at those particular banks -- requiring 'thumbprint signatures' by these customers.
"So, what's next? Judging from Zemeckis & Gale's track record, flying cars and hoverboards are probably not too far behind."
Remember 1982's Blade Runner? Some magazine once did a follow-up report on the status of the many companies seen in corporate logos in the background of the picture. Of them, many had gone defunct or bankrupt, or certainly were looking down-and-out (Atari? Pan-Am?) Thankfully, BTTF2 didn't have much corporate placement (well, except for Pepsi insignias).
[Thanks to Stephen M. Clark, oracle for all BTTF lore. Ok hot shot, explain why Marty's son and daughter both looked like him...]
[Scoops handed in by 'rfrank' and Rick.]
June 28, 1998... This one has taken us a while to get it posted up to the site but we've received the scoop ever since the show aired...which shows us that there is fan interest in the BTTF series.
Early last month on Late Night With Conan O'Brien actor Michael J. Fox appeared on the program. Fox chatted about his series Spin City and when the coversation turned to plans for the summer O'Brien asked him about whether he'd do another BTTF movie. Fox response was this:
"No, you know, I feel too old. People say 'Why don't you make another Back to the Future over the summer?'. I'm like George Burns! If I get on a skateboard, I'll break a hip or something! It'd be terrible."
After the laughter died down a bit, an unaudible shout came from one bold audience member. "I'm sorry?", Fox questioned. O'Brien repeated the shout. "He said, 'DO IT!'. Go for it!".
That's gotten BTTF fans to send in their support with the vocal audience member. Perhaps Fox will return to the franchise again one day in the future? [Thanks to 'BL', 'galan', 'time@traveller', Lizzy, 'HWellson', 'Amax' and a few anonymous time travellers for sending in their letters.]
July 14, 1998... Stephen M. Clark informs us that in a July 13 report published on the Hollywood Stock Exchange, the virtual stock market began to list the film on the exchange (as 'BACK4'). That means people who want to wager on the probability that another BTTF film will be in development sometime in the future (no pun intended, honest) can now aquire stock of the property. Clark takes the new listing and last weekend's box office stats as good sign for any possible sequel. "With Lethal Weapon 4's box office bonanza this past weekend of $34.4 million, surely the other studios are scrambling to get Indiana Jones 4 and Die Hard 4 back on the fasttrack! LW4 proved what Batman 4 and Alien 4 failed to -- there's still a lot of life left in these good ole' trilogies!"
September 27, 1998... Could there finally be some action on this project? "Universal is dredging up its archives to produce in-house films based on properties it already owns. While it's been rumored BTTF would be revived in some manner for a long time, there looks to be a full-scale effort in the works to tie some project directly to its BTTF franchise. The "Back to the Beginning" telefilm that was never produced was an IDEA of Bob Gale's, but was never officially commissioned nor really considered. Any live-action BTTF property would enter production at the feature film level. Universal Television never had a BTTF project in the pipeline. Whatever the case, there are discussions to involve Michael J. Fox's character as a sort of bookend to a new story. Using Doc Brown's time travel technology, a couple of teenagers are sent through a series of different eras." Hummmm... Teenagers who time travel? Let me guess their names... Bill and Ted [Scoop sent in Anonymously]
October 1, 1998... Now some words from the president of the BTTF Fan-Club: "For those who think Michael J. Fox wouldn't return to the role of 'Marty McFly', let it be known that the recent 'Spin City' promo with the DeLorean time machine was the brainchild of Fox himself. He came up with the idea for the commercial to use his BTTF-ties to 'transport' the cast of 'Spin City' from Wednesdays at 8:00 to Tuesdays at 9:00. This was reported on ABC's official 'Spin City' page about two weeks ago.
Speculation is that whenever Universal revives BTTF, we won't see Zemeckis at the helm directing this time. Rather, he'll likely take a seat with Spielberg in the Executive Producer role, and we'll see Bob Gale direct this one. Let's just hope that if Universal is in high-gear to revive the series, they'll not stray far from the proven formula. To the Universal executives reading this, you've got a whole army of 'Backies' ready to make this one a blockbuster in record 'time'! Make it, and we will come!" [Scoop sent to us from Stephen M. Clark by mail sent in 1885]
Related Sites:
The Back to the Future Fan Club - For time-travelling DeLorean owners, your one-stop shop. This web site hosts information about the trilogy and the people who helped make the trilogy of movies. Articles, biographies, a calendar, photos, props used in the picture, links and even an on-line catalog can be accessed here.
Fan Club Information:
Stephen M. Clark is the President of the Back to the Future Fan Club. He can be reached at:
Back to the Future*...The Fan Club
P.O. Box 880
Athens, Alabama 35612-0880 U.S.A.
...or at the email address:
'time@traveller.com'
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