Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, writers talk Bill & Ted Face the Music details

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

In the not-so-distant past, Ed Solomon and Chris Matheson, who wrote BILL & TED'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE and BILL & TED'S BOGUS JOURNEY, began work on a script for a third installment of the most triumphant franchise. Since that time, the movie has yet to secure a studio, though Solomon and Matheson appear determined to reunite the Wyld Stallyns (Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter) for yet another adventure.

While participating in an interview with Entertainment Weekly magazine, Solomon, Matheson, Reeves, and Winter shared in delivering a few promising developments about the would-be film. In what we know so far, the third installment featuring the hapless duo will be titled BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC, and will focus on Rufus' (George Carlin) promise at the end of Excellent Adventure that the Wyld Stallyns music would go on to inspire a peace throughout the world.

While speaking with EW, Solomon told the outlet that Face the Music is “kind of like A Christmas Carol with Bill and Ted. Looking at their lives, and really kind of rediscovering what they’re about.” Wow, I don't know about you, but I think that sounds like the perfect setup for this project. With that being said, one has to wonder why the film has been stuck playing Battleship with William Sadler's Grim Reaper in development Hell for so long.

According to Reeves, “Chris and Ed came to us in 2007 with the idea of doing it. They pitched us an idea. It sounded great.” Simple, right? “In show business,” Reeves says, sounding defeated, “There’s show and then there’s business.”

“We’ve been to the altar a few times,” Solomon then chimed in with regard to the arduous process of developing a film. “We get rejected right about the ‘now you may kiss the bride’ part of it.” He then goes on to explain that they've written the script on-spec, which comes with its own set of challenges right out of the gate. “We wanted to get it right,” Solomon explains. “We wanted to have it be something that we — all four of us, Chris and I, Alex and Keanu — could stand behind, and know we’re doing this for the right reasons.”

And now, after a lot of patience and hard work, BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC stands to find the franchise's bodacious characters looking in on key moments in their most influential lifetime. “You’re told you’re gonna save the world,” Matheson reamarks. “And now you’re 50 and you haven’t done it. Now they’re married, and it affects their marriages, and it affects their relationships with their kids, and it affects their everything.”

“Everybody’s a little older now,” adds Reeves. “A little afraid.”

“There’s certain comparisons,” as Winter see it. “A rock band that never goes to the place it thought it was going to get to. Having that moment in their life of going: ‘Do we try to get there, or give up the dream?'”

“Indomitable spirits confronted with, ‘Is this the end?'” Reeves interjects. “Of course, there is a little caveat in that someone comes from the future and says: ‘Not only do you have to save the world, you have to save everything.'”

In getting back to their discussion about the movie actually getting made, Solomon told EW that “We are hoping to close a deal with some financiers,” Solomon says , determinedly. “Hopefully within the next month or so, we’ll have news that will stick.” With this bit of promising talk, Winter steps in to say “We went out and found a director. “Dean Parisot, who we love, did Galaxy Quest, which is a masterpiece.”

Solomon was also sure to let it be known that Steven Soderbergh believes in the project and is on board to produce alongside Scott Kroopf, the original producer of the first two Bill & Ted movies. He also reiterated that Willaim Sadler is set to return as the Grim Reaper while "a few other delicious cameos" are in-the-works as well.

“The whole trajectory of getting the next one off the ground has been pretty much exactly like the experience of getting the original. Going to every studio, and they’re like, ‘What the eff is this?’ It’s this kind of independent spirit, and the films have an anachronistic quality to them that’s a big part of what they are, fundamentally. I’m really happy that this one is the same. It doesn’t feel like some stale knockoff that a studio would have immediately gone, ‘Oh, this feels right. We have rebranded very successfully,'” says Winter, who in the years since Bill & Ted has become a accomplished filmmaker himself.

Lastly, as a way of wrapping up their time with the entertainment outlet, Reeves confessed to EW that “I love the characters so much — who they are, the spirit of their voice that Chris and Ed have given [them],” Reeves gushed. “You can’t go wrong with: ‘Be excellent to each other.’ And: ‘Party on!’ I mean, it might actually be the beginning, one of the first examples of contemporary modern apocalyptic art.”

“Now we have to make the third one,” declares Winter. “Before the apocalypse!”

We hope to bring you some most excellent news concerning the development of BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC real soon. For now, we'll have to place our trust in the powers that be to see this thing done, and done right. Be excellent to each other, my friends, and party on!