Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves are back for the latest installment of the “Bill & Ted” trilogy, “Bill & Ted Face the Music,” 31 years after the first film’s release.
In the latest film, William “Bill” S. Preston Esq. (Winter) and Theodore “Ted” Logan (Reeves) are now middle aged and have yet to fulfill their rock and roll destiny. The pair are still best friends, and with help from their daughters (played by Brigette Lundy-Paine and Samara Weaving) they embark on their quest to find the song that will set their world right and bring harmony in the universe.
The film is directed by Dean Parisot (Galaxy Quest), from a screenplay by Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon (Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey) – and produced by Winter, Ed Solomon, Scott Kroopf, Alex Lebovici, and Steve Ponce.
The original film in the trilogy, “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure,” was released in 1989. For Reeves and Winter, jumping back into the roles was different because they had to reframe the characters’ headspaces.
“The film took time to get made, and it went through a lot of iterations with the script that we all worked on together and the writers put a lot of effort into,” said Winter. “It gave me a chance to wrap my head around who this guy was at this age, and me and Keanu spent a lot of time talking about those things. There’s also a familiarity to working with Keanu, the physicality of that, the instinctual nature of the way we riff on the dialogue, that stuff kind of did kick in on its own.”
The first film in the trilogy, “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure,” first premiered in 1989, with the sequel, “Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey,” premiering in 1991. Even though the first film debuted to audiences over 31 years ago, “Bill & Ted Face the Music” still has the charm that audiences fell in love with in the late 80s and early 90s while bringing it into the 21st century.
“The writers did that — the way that they structured the film, the plot of the film, it was all about facing the music and being in the moment,” said Reeves. “I think you see that in one of the opening sequences of Bill and Ted at the wedding ceremony. They’re not playing Van Halen riffs, they’ve expanded their musical excellence — they’ve moved on, they’ve developed from that.”
“Bill & Ted Face the Music” will premiere in theaters and on-demand on Aug. 28. For more information, visit billandted3.com.
