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‘Bill & Ted 3’: It’s Now Or Never
These days franchises, sequels and reboots are taking over Hollywood. And while most are just cash-grabs, there are a lot of filmmakers who are fighting to create “art” because it’s something they believe in.
Say what you will about the long-gestured second sequel to Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, but both Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter have been dedicated to making it a reality since its inception. Even when Reeves was the biggest star in Hollywood he would openly campaign to return as Ted “Theodore” Logan in a third film.
Shit, there’s been a director attached for several years: Galaxy Quest‘s Dean Parisot.
After traveling through time, and going to both Heaven and Hell, Bill & Ted have yet to transport through dimensional time and space – something that could wrap up this heavy metal comedy franchise. And even with various incarnations of the script, there’s been no serious fan clamoring to see it made. And the financiers behind it clearly don’t have faith in it.
With that said, it’s now or never for Bill & Ted 3.
2015 is all about returning franchises, remakes, reboots, spinoffs, and giant crossovers. And with Keanu Reeves having a career renaissance, thanks to John Wick, 2015 is the year Bill & Ted 3 has to happen.
Winters echoes this sentiment in a new interview with Yahoo! Movies where he basically says it’s do or die for Bill & Ted.
“We’re really close. We’re just about there,” Winter said, before cautioning: “In Hollywood parlance, [that] means we’ll either be shooting soon, or it’s never going to happen.”
His passion is shared when asked if he’s sick of being asked about it:
“We’re trying to get the movie made, so how could we be sick of it? It’s really been us driving the whole thing, me and Keanu and [writers] Chris [Matheson] and Ed [Solomon]. So we’re producing it and we’re actively trying to get it made. We’re not tired of it, but I think for our fans, we are eager to stop talking about and actually shoot the damn thing.”
Picking my favorite between Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure and Bogus Journey is like picking between apples and oranges. And although no sequel will ever compete, it would be a blast to see two failed rockers attempt to save the planet one last time.
Wyld Stallyns for life.
Sam Neill, the New Zealand actor best known for his role in 1993’s Jurassic Park, has passed away this week at 78 years old. In a statement shared on Neill’s Instagram page this morning, the actor’s family said that his passing was “sudden and unexpected.”
Neill had been diagnosed with a rare blood cancer in 2022, but stated the following year that he was in remission. The family notes that he “remained cancer free” at the time of his passing.
The family statement reads, “It is with immense sadness that the whānau of Sam Neill share the news of his passing on Monday 13th July, in Sydney Australia. Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterised his whole life. The loss was sudden and unexpected but blessed by the fact that Sam remained cancer free.
“They would like to express their deepest gratitude to the staff at St Vincent’s Private Hospital for their incredible care. More details will be shared later, but for now, on behalf of the family, we ask that you respect their privacy as they navigate this immeasurable loss.”
In addition to his iconic role as Dr. Alan Grant in the original Jurassic Park and the sequels Jurassic Park III and Jurassic World: Dominion, Sam Neill left an indelible mark on the horror genre with memorable roles in Andrzej Żuławski’s Possession, The Omen: The Final Conflict, John Carpenter’s In the Mouth of Madness, and sci-fi horror favorite Event Horizon.
Sam Neill’s vast resume in film and television began in the early 1970s and also includes the films Sleeping Dogs, Enigma, The Good Wife, A Cry in the Dark, Dead Calm, The Hunt for Red October, Memoirs of an Invisible Man, Hostage, The Jungle Book, Snow White: A Tale of Terror, The Horse Whisperer, Bicentennial Man, Daybreakers, Escape Plan, and Thor: Ragnarok.
Sam Neill is survived by his four children and eight grandchildren.
Steven Spielberg said in a statement to Variety, “I owe a debt of gratitude to Roger Donaldson, Gilliam Armstrong, Graham Baker and Phillip Noyce for casting Sam Neill in the roles in which he was so brilliant that brought him to my attention and led to his playing Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park. Sam was exceptionally collaborative. It was a stretch for him to play a character who acted as though children were messy and smelly because this was the opposite of the loving father he was to his children. I adored making all the Jurassic movies with him.”
Spielberg adds, “Along with Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum, we will always have our Jurassic family and Sam will never be forgotten by us or his many millions of fans around the world.”
Sam Neill in ‘Event Horizon’
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