Back To Back
I just read Casseen Gaines' We Don't Need Roads: The Making Of The Back To The Future Trilogy. Most of the book deals with the first film, since that was the blockbuster that came out of nowhere, establishing the world of BTTF.
The movie has a lot of dramatic irony, where we know what's going on while the characters don't. And that how the book works, at least for the original. No one could know the film they were working on would turn out so big.
They finally got it set up at Universal and--this was what I wanted to know about most--it almost died before it was completed. Zemeckis wanted Michael J. Fox, then a TV star on Family Ties, for the lead of Marty McFly. However, though producer Steven Spielberg was friends with Family Ties creator Gary David Goldberg, Goldberg wouldn't even show the script to Fox, much less let him out of his contract.
They cast Eric Stoltz as Marty. Zemeckis and Gale wouldn't have chosen him but Sid Sheinberg, head of Universal, was a champion, since he'd seen Stoltz's leading work in Mask, not yet released. They shot with Stoltz for over a month and it just wasn't working. Zemeckis and Spielberg convinced Sheinberg to let them fire Stoltz (paying him his entire salary) and work out a deal for Fox. A lot of films would have been shut down for good, but Sheinberg believed in the team.
The recasting probably made the difference, but it must have been nerve-wracking. It's bad enough to fail normally, but this would have been extra-special failure, spending millions more just to flop. But, as we know, the rest is Future history.
posted by LAGuy @ 9:00 AM
5 Comments:
You may not remember this LA Guy but sometime in early 1985 I think (I sort of remember this conversation happening at Mathews House). I had purchased a copy of USA Today which had a section on the movies planned for release in the summer and later that year with just the title and short descriptions. You had asked for the section afterwards (I think you mentioned you wanted to read something interesting instead of Torts or Civ Pro). I recall seeing a blurb for Back To The Future in the section and thought I would like it (I honestly thought it was more of hard scifi time travel flick from the summary and not a comedy) and I believe you were unimpressed with the concept.
For the record, like most people, I quite liked BTTF despite it not being what I had imagined. I didn't rush to see the sequels though
Fascinating. I honestly don't remember any of that. Though it does bring me back to a time when it was hard to get information about popular culture, and you were happy to get something like a piece in USA Today.
I don't remember how I felt about the basic idea, though, until you know the specifics of the plot, time travel is a pretty common sci-fi trope.
I do remember seeing the film when it came out (back when hit movies played for months). It was released in August--the book explains the reshooting meant it had to come out in the dog days of summer. Even back then I'd heard a bit before its release that it was apparently something special. Fox was no movie star at the time, but the film made him one.
It may have made him a star, but it sure does not look like he's starred in much. Take away back to the future and family ties, and he's done a bunch of stuff like The Good Wife--lots of fun, but it's because he's Michael J. Fox--of Family Ties and BTTF.
Back To The Future and its sequels were Michael J. Fox's big hits, but his stardom helped turn other films into money makers, such as Teen Wolf, The Secret Of My Success and Doc Hollywood. The second one isn't bad, and the last one is pretty good. It also allowed him to star in some dramas that took chances, even if they didn't make money: Light Of Day, Bright Lights Big City, Casualties Of War.
By the early 90s, though still a leading man, his name didn't mean as much on the marquee, as witnessed by the failures of Life With Mikey, For Love Or Money and Greedy. By the mid-90s he was still appearing in major titles, though not always in the lead: The American President, Mars Attacks!, The Frighteners.
In 1996, he retreated back to TV, starring in the reasonably successful Spin City. He's been working since, mostly in TV, while also having significant medical issues to deal with.
Did you gild the lily? Should you have ended it, "But, as we know, the rest is history."
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