The long-rumored third Bill & Ted’s movie took another step towards reality this week, with Keanu Reeves telling MTV News that a finished script is very close:
“I believe the writers are six weeks away from a draft,” he told MTV News Monday, adding with a laugh, “No pressure, guys!”
As so often happens with news about really late sequels to great movies, my initial reaction was just nostalgic gut enthusiasm for Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, which remains unironically one of my favorite movies of all time. But really, the actors are both in their mid-40s, and the last installment came out 20 years ago and featured both characters battling a wacky grim reaper played by Colonel Stewart from Die Hard 2 to literally escape death. Not sure where you go from there?
Alex Winter offered this somewhat hopeful quote:
“We don’t want to make a cynical ‘here’s Bill and Ted — you guys are our kids, now YOU guys go be Bill and Ted and the franchise can live for another 25 years! It’s not that. It’s a straight up, what’s the funniest and most surprising take on where Bill and Ted would be right now if we stopped back in on them?”
He added, “Dickweeds!” Or he should’ve.
I don’t know — no George Carlin, 20-year layoff, characters we last saw as high-schoolers now in their 40s… is there any way this could work? If the film tries to stay true to the spirit of the originals and isn’t self-aware, as Winter claims, wouldn’t that make it even tougher to watch? Are they still gonna be speaking in late-80s slang? Will Bob Genghis Khan be involved? Right now, still just too many questions for me to fully digest this news.
So, what do we think? “YAY, MORE BILL & TED’S!” or, “Huh, more Bill & Ted’s?”
