International audiences have become an incredibly important factor in modern Hollywood, with many studio executives hesitating to green light projects that they think will go over the heads or be ignored by non-American movie-goers. For years it was this element that led to Paramount Pictures keeping Anchorman 2 on the shelf, and now it appears that yet another anticipated project has fallen victim: Bill and Ted 3.
Speaking with Coming Soon, star Keanu Reeves revealed that he is still excited about the idea of reprising his role as Ted 'Theodore' Logan, but that a fear of lacking international appeal is holding things up. The script is still being worked on, but there is a worry that the production can't get the budget that it needs. Said the actor,
"It didn't help that the first script that they brought in was probably budgeted at $150 million dollars. I don't know if Bill & Ted carry that much weight. Part of the argument is that it's not that popular internationally, that's where so much of the funding for movies comes from these days. They've worked on the script and the budget, just trying to get the right script and then get the business side wrapped up, financiers and rights, all the show business stuff"
Funding is obviously a pretty key factor, and Bill & Ted 3's future entirely depends on it, but the good news is that everything else seems to be in place. Galaxy Quest director Dean Parisot is still interested in directing, original writers/creators Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon have written the script, and the plot that Reeves describes in the interview is fantastic. The movie is set years after Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey and finds Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted getting crushed by the pressure of writing a song that will save the world. Their wives and children leave them behind, and there is a threat that the entire universe will unravel if they don't get the song done by a certain point in time. Added Reeves:
"Everything is going to change, and dinosaurs are gonna walk the Earth. Jesus is playing baseball! All sorts of weird things start unraveling and wormholes are twisting. We have to kind of bring order back, and it's connected into bringing our families together by writing a song."
There are a lot of franchises from the 1980s/1990s that I would hate to see modern sequels to, but Bill & Ted definitely isn't one of them. Hopefully this project finds a way to get made, and soon.
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