The saga of Bill & Ted 3 has been long and convoluted. Keanu Reeves first indicated a script was in the works back in 2010. After several false starts, a script emerged in 2013, but it took three more years for the project to secure a director and a studio to back it. According to Ed Solomon, co-writer of Face the Music, the film had difficulty getting financing because studios wanted a reboot of Bill & Ted, rather than a sequel. Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure came out in 1989, and its sequel, Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, hitting in 1991. Asking for a reboot rather than a sequel wasn’t unreasonable, but the Face the Music team remained resolute about their vision.
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In Face the Music, Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted (Keanu Reeves) are middle aged dads still trying to write the song that will save the universe. Their teen daughters are best friends, but their wives want them to get real jobs and stop trying to make the music thing happen. Into this suburban situation comes a visitor from the future, who reveals that Bill and Ted have a little over an hour to write a song that “will save reality as we know it.” Why not just time travel into the future and take the song from themselves, they ask. And thus, a new excellent adventure ensues.
After Bill & Ted, Keanu Reeves went on to star in hits like Point Break and Speed, but became a megastar as Neo in The Matrix trilogy. Alex Winter took a different path, moving on from acting to direct documentaries including Downloaded, about Napster and the phenomenon of downloaded music; Relatively Free, on activist Barrett Brown; and most recently, Zappa, about the iconic musician Frank Zappa.
The news of Face the Music’s release date came via Ed Solomon, who tweeted it out along with a new trailer.
Bill & Ted Face the Music opens in cinemas and on demand on September 1.
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Source: Ed Solomon/Twitter
