Bill & Ted would never have existed if not for an improv session between Ed Solomon and Chris Matheson, writers beyond the Bill and Ted movies (A Goofy Movie, Charlie's Angels and Imagine That, among others), who stumbled upon the personalities of two dumb but goodnatured reflections of 1980s teenage culture.
Solomon and Chris created the duo (originally a trio: Bill, Ted and Ed – before Ed was cut) and wrote both films. After Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves were cast as the Theodore Logan and Bill Preston Esquire, they owned the characters during the few early 90s incarnations that managed to spin off from the original movie.
Now, 19 years after the last Bill & Ted movie, news comes that a third film in the series has reached early development. There's a new adventure, be it excellent or bogus, in the future for Bill & Ted. Alex Winter is on board, Keanu Reeves has said he's game and Solomon and Matheson have holed up somewhere with an idea that they like to start development.
Here's what we know about the third Bill and Ted movie [ComingSoon on Bill & Ted 3]: “Winter [suggested] the film will take place in proportionate real time to the original, meaning that the as-of-yet-untitled story will be set roughly two decades after 1989's Excellent Adventure and it's 1991 sequel, Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey. "
Adam Winter has spoken to MTV [Adam Winter on MTV] to hint a bit more: “The essence of what we've always wanted to do is to make a 'Bill & Ted' movie," he said. "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? That's what we're doing."
Knowing that the tonal specificity to Bill and Ted will be a hybrid product of the chemistry between Reeves and Winter meshed with the original impetus of Matheson and Solomon, a pitch for Bill & Ted 3 can never be anything beyond an educated guess on what themes from the original story will be kept and what elements from the Bill & Ted world have been based on real life exploits of the past two decades. What's important to comment on? What's the tone of an older Bill & Ted? Can 90s slackers compete with Hipster Millennials?
It's been so long since Bill & Ted have graced the screen, so a new plot doesn't immediately jump to mind. There are questions and concerns that are instantly raised thanks to the blueprint we were provided for a Bill & Ted sequel: Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey.
Time Travel is secondary. Bogus Journey is centered around the death of Bill & Ted, a way to show that Bill & Ted's happy-go-lucky personas can handle the biggest questions of life without digging too deeply into ant sort of mythology. The plot of Bogus Journey hinges on evil Bill & Ted robots and Chuck De Nomolos from the future, but features less time travel than Excellent Adventure. If Bogus Journey is about Bill & Ted tackling death, and Excellent Adventure is about Bill & Ted tackeling history, then the third Bill & Ted should have a plot that allows Bill & Ted to present the lighter side of...
Um – Internet? Bingo. And why not let Bill & Ted take on the internet in some sort of way? If the next film is going to take place after a real-time gap from Bill & Ted's resurrection in 1991, than the internet is one of the scars human kind has carved into the face of history. It would be irresponsible to forgo a few internet jokes and boring to make it solely about the internet and connectivity. Technology as a whole is going to play some part in Bill & Ted 3, it's just a question of how overt it is. My suggestion about how to broach technology while keeping a touchstone to the original series (one that can't hide in the open anymore): let the Phone Booth travel through/into or otherwise interface with the 'net. If only someone had told them it could do that...
Where's Rufus? George Carlin is undeniably dead, not to mention that characters from the future are hard to justify from an aging standpoint. You couldn't really have an old George Carlin as Rufus because Rufus exists in the 2600s and was on duty looking a certain way. With time travel in the mix, it would seem odd that Rufus forgot about his next Bill & Ted mission for twenty years. Dealing with Rufus is going to be tough either way. They need a new sidekick character AND a new character to tie them to the future, where Bill & Ted's fate is the fate of the world, unless our sidekick characters are...
The Babes? Elizabeth and Joanna are the biggest problem with a third Bill & Ted. There are indications that they are important in the future and undying love seems to be a trait both Bill & Ted share (or they are classically chivalrous, which I wouldn't mind). The Babes are a problem because they have always been part of Bill & Ted's ideal world, meaning any plot that put Bill & Ted in a situation where they have to act needs to also threaten The Babes or take them out of the equation. Which direction to take can be narrowed down even further with a simple question...
What Happened To Wyld Stalyons? This has to be the most important question about the future of Bill & Ted. It represents the one thing that Bill & Ted were passionate about in both films and the music of Wyld Stalyons ends up changing the future into a place where we're all excellent to each other (except Chuck De Nomolos). The entire second movie hinges on a Wyld Stalyons performance and the band includes The Babes. Some of you might have noticed that the music industry is struggling to survive as a business since the internet has come around. Has it occurred to any of you that Wyld Stalyons wouldn't be selling big with their guitar rock these days? Has it occurred to Wyld Stalyons?
The titular Heinous Venture, I propose, be the task of giving the newest Wyld Stalyons record away for free. Sometime in the 1990s, Bill & Ted were signed to a record label and Wyld Stalyons had a hit record. Then, Britney Spears (or her fictional equivalent) happened, rap happened and Wyld Stalyons didn't rise to the instant superstar status that Bill & Ted likely expected.
The Babes spun off into their own respective musical fads (I'm both in love with and abhor the idea of one of them getting into rap, hip hop or nu metal) – they're still with Bill & Ted, they've just developed side careers in between Wyld Stalyons albums. The band is till together, but The Babes have other things to do than hang out all the time.
...and the internet and file-sharing and all that it's brought with it happens and Wyld Stalyons gets dumped off their label while The Babes' side-projects stay on. A few years pass.
When we pick up with Bill & Ted, their playing local gigs and barely scraping enough money together to feed themselves, living with Missy, Bill's step-mom, while The Babes are making as much money as they can in Europe on tour.
Events transpire in the first act that make Bill & Ted realize that Wyld Stalyons needs to evolve beyond late-80s guitar rock. This is the change that the rest of the movie reflects: the world might change, but Bill & Ted are always Bill & Ted. The characters may have started as caricatures of a certain era's youth culture, but now they are characters we haven't seen in two decades. We can't assume they changed while we haven't been watching, the Bill & Ted we see for the first few scenes need to be the Bill & Ted we remember. The entire movie is about bringing them up to speed.
Bill & Ted write and record a new album and it's the greatest thing ever. They figure that if 1 in 5 people in the country have the album, soon everyone will have heard it. Everyone MUST hear it!
And just like that, the Phone Booth returns (possibly by warping through the internet), a gift from the future holding whatever Rufus replacement exposition people who are getting paid more than me to think up have thought up already.
Also right on cosmic-fate cue, our villain from the future returns. This is a new villain, an electronica villain. His evil plan is to play large concerts in big cities that draw the music listening public away. He's the last leg an event promoter can stand on: A Summer Festival Act. Maybe he's Lady Gaga. Oh damn. Now I really want it to be Lady GaGa as herself.
The villain and Bill & Ted use race around the country having musical/historical battles. The Phone Booth allows Bill & Ted to use historical figures to their advantage. This could be as thematic as having Lead Belly be a side character that talks to people about the soul in music that bests consumerism, or it could be more gag-based, like fetching PT Barnum to draw a crowd. Using a road movie structure allows Bill & Ted to interact with all modernity outside San Dimas and the Phone Booth allows them to move about quickly.
Really, this is a pitch for a first act. The “Bill & Ted-ness” of Bill & Ted will come from Solomon, Matheson, Winter and Reeves, which is to say this is a movie about the characters and the issues they interact with, not the plot of the film.
That said, if they end up just using the Phone Booth to travel to a non-modern era and have the story take place there, they might has well have made another animated series. The Bill & Ted movie needs to justify its existence.
