In the long history of cinema, there have been some great duos: Laurel and Hardy, Martin and Lewis, Cheech and Chong. But the zaniest may have come from a little film in 1989 that involved time travel, a hot step-mom, and a big history presentation at San Dimas High School. Of course, that duo I’m referring to here is Bill and Ted.
These two awesome dudes entertained us in their Excellent Adventure and then two years later in a Bogus Journey. And it looks like they’ll be back for another go-round. Yup, according to reports by Hollywood Life, a third movie is in the works and both Alex Winters and Keanu Reeves have signed on to reprise their roles.
“It’s exciting to come back to the characters,” Winters said. “The fun thing about them is that they’re ageless. You play them in terms of who they are spiritually.”
This is great news for Bill and Ted fans. If you fall into that category, you probably know every detail of their movies, including what Napoleon said when he spoke in French. But here are a few other things you might not know. For example, were you aware that Winters and Reeves worked together on another film? Reeves narrated Deep Web, which was produced by Winters. This documentary tells the story of the man responsible for creating Silk Road, the online drug market.
Did you also know that there are Bill and Ted video games? The first came out in 1991 for Nintendo. The plot involves “time-space rebels” who have kidnapped several historical figures and it is up to Bill and Ted to rescue them and get everyone back to their correct time. It sounds like fun, but according to this Something Awful review, you’re probably better off just re-watching one of the movies, or maybe their Saturday morning cartoon. For a much more entertaining game featuring these righteous dudes, head on over to Betfair’s arcade section. In Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure slots game, you help the guys spin to match familiar folks from the movie, including Rufus, Abraham Lincoln, Genghis Khan, and even the bodacious princesses.
Will we get to see any of those characters in the new movie? So far, details are scarce, but we do know that Rufus will sadly not be able to make an appearance due to the passing of George Carlin. William Sadler, who played the Grim Reaper and may reprise his role, thinks the new film would be missing a lot without Rufus, according to this VC Post post.
Another issue that could be a problem is the fact that the budget for the third installment is reported to be huge: around $150 million, Reeves has said. Fans shouldn’t get their hopes up too high yet, as funding so far has been difficult. While no release date has been set, Winters is confident the film will be made. “We’re producing it and we’re actively trying to get it made,” he said. “We are eager to stop talking about and actually shoot the damn thing.”
So, what do you think? Are you excited to join Bill and Ted on another adventure?