It’s almost impossible to imagine Back to the Future as anything other than the lightning-in-a-bottle blockbuster we all know now. So much of it is iconic. The DeLorean, the clock tower, “Great Scott,” everything being heavy — is there some sort of problem with the Earth’s gravitational pull in the future? — it all fits together too perfectly. The road to getting it on screen wasn’t the easiest, but it was well worth it, spawning an epic franchise and a brand name that will outlive us all. Now, we’re about to get even more of it.
Co-creator Bob Gale is opening up the franchise’s archive for Back to the Future: The Complete Screenplay, a new book arriving later this year to mark the movie’s 40th anniversary. The release reproduces Gale’s personal shooting script, complete with revision pages, handwritten notes, deleted scenes, rare photos, sketches, production documents, and a treasure trove of gems for BTTF diehards like ourselves.
“This is going to be really instructional about how movies are made, how scripts are written,” Gale said in a new interview. “The mistakes are in there, the deleted scenes are in there, the stuff that we changed, stuff that we thought we were going to do that we didn’t do. It’s chock full of stuff like that.”
Among the biggest reveals is that Jeff Goldblum was seriously considered for Doc Brown before Christopher Lloyd landed the role. Gale said the casting was close, adding that viewers can get a sense of what Goldblum’s version may have felt like by watching him in Jurassic Park.
“Jeff Goldblum came in. We loved Jeff. He was great. And it was close [between him and Christopher Lloyd]. Ironically, Jeff Goldblum plays Doc Brown in Jurassic Park, right? That’s how his Doc Brown would have been. You can watch Jurassic Park and say, ‘Ah, that’s how Jeff would have played it.’”
Will there be a ‘Back to the Future’ Sequel?
For anyone hoping the book is a sign that another sequel is on the way, Gale was very clear. He and Robert Zemeckis are not interested in making Back to the Future Part IV, particularly without Fox as Marty. Good.
“The most important one is: who wants to see a Back to the Future movie without Michael J. Fox? Nobody wants to see that. And he can’t do it. And do we even want to see Marty McFly at age 60? We don’t want to see that, either. So, let’s leave well enough alone.”
The standard edition of Back to the Future: The Complete Screenplay arrives October 20, timed to Back to the Future Day, with collector’s and limited editions also available through Insight Editions.
via Collider