With Bill & Ted back in the pop-culture consciousness thanks to rumors of a threequel, here is an interesting bit of trivia. Remember how they went to France and befriended Napoleon?
Well, originally, it wasn't Napolean… it was almost Hitler!
Last week was Keanu Reeves' birthday, September 2nd (mine too!), and in honor of the occasion Bill & Ted creator Ed Solomon tweeted out some original notes from 1994 about the movie:
https://twitter.com/ed_solomon/status/1036332483921551360
The core of the movie is intact, although originally the duo did not travel in a phone booth, but rather a "time van" they got from their 28-year-old friend Rufus (the part that would eventually be played by a not-28-year-old George Carlin), There were a few differences, as AV Club points out:
Instead of first traveling to France and scooping up Napoleon, Bill and Ted accidentally travel back to Nazi Germany and pick up none other than Adolf Hitler who accompanies them back to San Dimas and “develops a friendship” with their classmate Randolph. Even in these early stages, Solomon and Matheson were able to recognize that a buddy film involving Hitler may have been in poor taste.
Solomon acknowledged they gave up on the Hitler idea pretty quickly:
https://twitter.com/ed_solomon/status/1036351094207787008
Overall, things worked out for the better with Napoleon and movie history was made.
After years of delays and budgeting issues, Alex Winter ("Bill" S. Preston Esq.) and Keanu Reeves ("Ted" Theodore Logan) made it seem like the movie was right about to head into production. The movie was in pre-production and looking to secure financing from MGM. A few weeks ago, Keanu Reeves, while promoting another film, told Yahoo! Entertainment that he wasn't so sure if the film would get made. “I don’t know if it’s a reality,” Reeves cautions. “We’ve been trying for a long time to get that film made, and it still has its challenges.” While Reeves was unsure, co-star Alex Reeves and creator Ed Solomon have reassured fans things are still moving forward.
