Per screenwriter Ed Solomon, Bill & Ted Face the Music will begin filming this week. The news was revealed on social media with specific details about the upcoming production. Directed by Dean Parisot, Bill & Ted Face the Music marks the third installment of the science fiction comedy series.
In the 1989 film Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves star as two slackers named Bill S. Preston, Esq. and Ted ‘’Theodore’’ Logan, respectively. As they struggle with a history assignment, a futuristic machine shows up in their California hometown and transports them back in time to meet with historical figures. Produced for $6.5 million, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure earned over $40 million at the box office and inspired a 1991 follow-up, Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey. While the sequel had a larger budget at $20 million, it nearly doubled its production costs in ticket sales and became another hit. In terms of pop culture, both films established Reeves as a Hollywood star approximately 10 years before The Matrix trilogy elevated his career even further.
On Twitter, Bill & Ted Face the Music’s co-writer, Solomon, revealed that production begins on July 1. He lists the crew call as 7:30, with shooting scheduled to begin at 9:00 (presumably in the morning). This is surely exciting news for long-time fans as this particular film had been in development hell for almost a decade. In January 2018, Solomon confirmed that a script had been completed with original co-scribe Chris Matheson, the son of iconic science fiction writer Richard Matheson (I Am Legend). In recent years, Solomon wrote the screenplays for both Now You See Me and Now You See Me 2, along with the HBO murder mystery Mosaic, directed by Steven Soderbergh (one of the co-producers for Bill & Ted Face the Music). Check out Solomon’s Tweet below.
Bill & Ted Face the Music added new cast members in June 2019. First, Samara Weaving (Ready or Not) and Brigette Lundy-Paine (Atypical) were cast as Bill and Ted’s daughters, respectively. On June 19, Anthony Carrigan (Gotham, Barry) was cast as the main duo’s “relentless adversary.” Earlier this week, Saturday Night Live’s Beck Bennett joined the cast, while original cast member William Sadler was previously confirmed as the leads’ friend and bandmate, Death.
Despite Reeves’ immense fame and reputation for choosing unique roles, it’s difficult to predict if Bill & Ted Face the Music will be a massive box office success. After all, Reeves’ co-star, Winter, has been out of the spotlight, at least in terms of feature film acting. However, Winter has indeed established a documentary directing career over the past five years, so perhaps that experience will help with the overall narrative cohesiveness for Bill & Ted Face the Music.
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Source: Ed Solomon
