I never thought that Back to the Future should have a fourth movie and at the moment, there are no plans to reboot what is probably my favourite franchise of all time. After seeing the movie back in the cinema last year, it because a new cinema highlight for me. BUT what if the most famous time-traveling movie ever (if you disagree with what please tell me in the comments below) was to head to Broadway in a new form?!

Well, this evening, Deadline have announced that the movie could be going to Broadway with some information that the film’s Writer / Director, Robert Zemeckis is in talks with his co-writer, Bob Gale and the man responsible for the awesome score, Alan Silvestri to transition the movie to the New York stage!

For those of you who don’t know, Back to the Future sees Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) and his good friend, Doctor Emmet Brown (Christopher Lloyd) traveling through time in their car of choice from the time, the DeLorean. If you’ve never seen the movie, click here and buy it!

I now have to plan a trip to New York when this opens and hearing Johnny Be Good live on stage will be too good not to see!

More as we get it but please let us know what you think of this rather interesting and unexpected news! I’m just off to book some tickets to New York for next year!

What do you think of the news? Good idea? Bad idea? Tell us in the comments section below.

Source: Deadline

Quite possibly my all-time favourite movie scene has to be Michael J. Fox playing Johnny B. Goode in the original Back to the Future movie from 1985. It’s such an awesome scene with so much emotion and so much comedy playing a song that hasn’t actually been written yet!

Over the Weekend, Michael J. Fox appeared at an annual Parkinson charity event called A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Cure Parkinson’s in New York over the weekend with his replica guitar to re-enact the famous Johnny B. Good scene and it’s amazing! If you’re a Back to the Future fan, this is a MUST WATCH!

Massive respect to Michael for getting up on stage to do this. Such a legend in so many ways!

“This is the Blues riff in B watch me for the changes and try to keep up OK!”

Thanks to Huffington Post, we get a heads up and the pics of which there are more on HuffPo.

ENJOY!

Here’s the original scene from Back to the Future.

It’s amazing how Back to the Future still has such an influence in modern day culture. If its possible to have a favourite film of all time, then this one is probably it for me. College Humour have played on the ending for Back to the Future telling a rather different story to what we saw in the original 1985 movie which was directed by Robert Zemeckis and starred Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Cripin Glover, Lea Thompson & Thomas F. Wilson.

If you like Back to the Future, you’ll like this.

Thanks to LiveForFilms for the heads up.

He’s the first peek at the promotional banner for the new TV adaptation of cult 80’s coming-of-age flick, Teen Wolf, and judging by the image and tagline here (Love. Be Afraid), we’re looking at a very different beast to the Michael J. Fox comedy.

It would appear that the light, playful tone of the original material has been jettisoned and the makers are going for a much darker, edgier feel here. In this version, Scott (Tyler Posey) battles to control his animalistic urges after being bitten, but fears that those urges could end up controlling him!

Sounds like a far cry from Fox’s dilemmas, where all he had to contend with was scratching his high-school crush during a make-out session and winning the basketball championship.

Thanks to Coming Soon

I must have watched the 1985 Michael J. Fox version of Teen Wolf dozens of times. It was one of those movies I must have asked my mum to video off the telly to watch with my friend Steven when I was about 10 and would just continue to watch until the video tape wore out! I wasn’t too sure how I felt about a TV series of the movie being announced by MTV a while back but then I heard that director of Splinter & The Grudge 3 (and one of our first ever friends on Twitter, Toby Wilkins) would be co-directing so I jumped on board with the idea.

The TV series stars Linden Ashby, Tyler Hoechlin, Crystal Reed, Tyler Posey, Colton Haynes, Holland Roden, Robert Pralgo, JR Bourne and Sharon Morris.

MTV debut the series on June 5th following the MTV Movie Awards and this morning I’ve woken up to this brand new trailer for the series. I’m not sure yet when we’ll get it in the UK but we’ll keep you posted.

Synopsis: Scott was just a regular guy until one bite changed his life forever.

Now he struggles to understand who he is and what he might become. Is he more wolf than human – or is it the other way around? Whichever it is, it’s not going to be easy. Scott will try to control his urges, but mostly he’s scared that it’s his urges that could end up controlling him.

TEEN WOLF is the story of Scott as he tries to walk the line between what he wants and what he can’t help from wanting. Will the bite end up being a gift? Or will it be a curse? And what will it all mean for his relationship with Allison – the girl he can’t get enough of? Only time will tell if he should embrace his newfound powers, or if he should fear them.

We’ve not heard anything about the TV remake of classic Michael J. Fox movie, Teen Wolf for quite a while now but MTV (via our friend Toby Wilkins who directed some of the episodes) have just announced the series will air on June 5th in the US straight after the MTV Movie Awards.

Adam posted the trailer for the series a while ago which you can see here. The TV series stars Linden Ashby, Tyler Hoechlin, Crystal Reed, Tyler Posey, Colton Haynes, Holland Roden, Robert Pralgo, JR Bourne and Sharon Morris.

Synopsis: “Teen Wolf,” stars Tyler Posey (“Maid in Manhattan,” “Brothers and Sisters”), as the newly bitten werewolf, ‘Scott McCall,’ Dylan O’Brien as his best friend ‘Stiles,’ Crystal Reed as the mysterious new girl in town, ‘Allison,’ and Tyler Hoechlin (“Road to Perdition,” “7th Heaven”) as the older and possibly quite dangerous werewolf, ‘Derek Hale.’ Always an outsider and often unnoticed, Scott McCall yearns to be recognized in some small way that takes him out of his typical state of high school anonymity. When his best friend, Stiles, convinces him to go into the woods one night to join a police search for a dead body, Scott encounters a creature in the darkness. Narrowly escaping an attack with a vicious bite in his side, the next day brings strange surprises for Scott at school and his life will never be the same.

We’ll update you when it’s coming to the UK.

So, who’s looking forward to seeing it on the small screen?! It has to be better than Teen Wolf Too doesn’t it?!

Ian Gilchrist gives us his thoughts on Ed Zwick’s new film Love & Other Drugs, Adam Lowes spoke to the director and the interview can be found here, and gave his thought on the film here. Read on to find out what Ian thought.

Easily qualifying as one of 2010′s odder romantic comedies, Love & Other Drugs is an awkward and half-hearted attempt to inject contemporary skepticism into a weary formula: call it a faux edgy rom-com.

It’s more watchable than most of it’s ilk, due to the undeniable chemistry of its two leads (Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway) and their great supporting cast, but in the end it’s an unsatisfying experience, even within the limited expectations one should bring to this lightest of genres. Love & Other Drugs lacks the courage of any convictions which might make its cynicism feel like something more than seasoning inadequately sprinkled over a mundane story.

Gyllenhaal and Hathaway make an almost impossibly beautiful couple; as always, she glows magnificently in that way that screen goddesses do, and he exudes a naughty boy-ish allure that is almost palpable.  Gyllenhaal’s effortless charm is the centre of his portrayal of Jamie Randall, the n’er do well son of a successful medical family (his parents are seen in one early family dinner scene which is included to reinforce his black sheep bona fides; the scene is more notable for including the second to last screen appearance of the late Jill Clayburgh, who plays Randall’s mother). Randall has opted out of entering the family business and is a lazy, callow young man who drifts along on his formidable seductive powers.

After being fired from his job as an electronics store salesman, a family connection helps get Randall into the sales training programme for pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, and after completion of his training he is taken under the wing of old hand field rep Bruce Winston (the always entertaining Oliver Platt). Bruce quickly realises that his handsome young protege is his ticket away from the drudgery of the road and in to a top position in Chicago if he can harness and utilise Randall’s star potential to drive their sales.

The film’s major failing is that it treats the ugliness which is the centre of the pharmaceutical industry and Randall’s involvement in it as nothing more than playful story fodder. From the rah-rah Americanisms of Pfizer’s sales training indoctrination (some of it playing like a Stark Industries product presentation a la Iron Man) to the willfully manipulative ways in which the pharma sales reps work to persuade physicians to prescribe their proprietary medications rather than their rivals’, there is a deeply amoral brand of capitalism on display, which Randall gleefully embraces.

While courting a key physician in a blatant attempt to bribe him to prescribe Pfizer’s Zoloft instead of the rival Prozac, he impersonates an intern while the doctor (Huff’s Hank Azaria) sees a patient. The patient, Maggie Murdock (Hathaway), is suffering from early onset Parkinson’s Disease, a degenerative neurological disorder which can be treated but can’t be arrested. In the course of the examination she exposes her breast, and when she discovers afterwards that ‘intern’ Randall is actually a sales rep, she quite rightly attacks him in the car lot before stalking off.

There is something remarkably unsavoury about using Randall’s (and the complicit physician’s) unethical, sleazy behaviour as the mechanism for a rom-com ‘meet cute.’ It feels as if the film’s creators have noted the intriguing ways in which innovative U.S. cable series have darkly re-imagined genre and characterisation, but having two of contemporary cinema’s bigger stars in the leads means that the most they can get away with is a sort of indie-lite approach. The nudity in the film, which is fairly frequent, is clearly included to add credibility, but in fact it is choreographed in such a coy manner (with not so much as a fleeting flash of exposed genitals) that it has the opposite effect of hipness, looking clumsy and obviously blocked to satisfy the actors’ modesty.

Love & Other Drugs is a concoction of ill fitting parts; it’s a studio movie, not a scrappy independent, so it has both eyes firmly on a (mainly female) box office. It tries however to raise itself above the blandness of the mainstream pack by having as its romantic leads a feckless, amoral lothario and a messed up beauty who talks with the machine-gun verbosity of a screwball comedy heroine.  It cheerfully showcases the exploitative practices of ‘big pharma’ without so much as wagging a reproachful finger at the avarice of the industry: it’s simply a comically naughty milieu that Randall needs love to retrieve him from (pegging love as a curative in a film in which Viagra features prominently is another of the film’s clumsy devices).

Perhaps I need to just take a pill and chill though, and not be so demanding of a film as trifling as this one. There is possibly just enough dark shadings here to make it titillating to those who haven’t watched any of the truly inspired contemporary genre re-workings that Love & Other Drugs seems slightly inspired by.

HeyUGuys recently caught up with Hollywood A-list filmmaker Edward Zwick to chat to him about his new feature Love and Other Drugs – a romantic comedy drama starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway which see’s the director abandon his big-budget, socially conscious action epics and return to a smaller, intimate character piece in the style of his earlier work.

HeyUGuys: Did you encounter any struggles in combining the themes of sex, love, illness, and drugs into one movie?

Edward Zwick: It’s been my experience of life that there are always conflicting and competing themes happening at any one moment – that there’s something going on with your family, something happening at work, something going on with your health and part of the juggling act of life is to reconcile all the chaos of that and I was hoping to capture some of that in a film. Some films, particularly in this genre, tend to put these kinds of people into a kind of bubble, where the real world doesn’t affect them at all and they have nothing else to deal with but each other. I find that unrealistic.

Do you know why Parkinson’s in particular was chosen as the disease Anne’s character would suffer from?

In an age where there’s a quick pill for everything, here’s something for which there is no fix. In a love story, the idea that all of our beauty and love is transient, but I felt for a young woman who has to grapple with the fact that it’s going to be much faster gives it a particular poignancy.

Did you do any research yourself about Parkinson’s?

I spoke to lots of neurologists, went to support groups. I’m friends with Michael J. Fox and I read all his books and then spent some good time talking to him about it.

For a mainstream Hollywood feature, the film is very open in terms of sex and sexuality. Did you meet any resistance from the studios over the content?

It was implicit in the DNA of the script and I think they (the studios) may have been expecting something a little more demure but when the dailies came back in I was far enough away in Pittsburgh that I couldn’t hear the gasps (laughs).

Your two leads previously worked together on Brokeback Mountain. Was there already an inherent chemistry between them, or did you have to work at bringing it out?

They worked about six and seven days together on that movie and they obviously liked each other, but what they were doing there didn’t have the same depth and complexity as here. We did begin at a point of familiarity and comfort and that helps.

The film is very similar in scope to About Last Night… Do you encounter any challenges in doing a smaller intimate film again, following all your big, action-orientated pictures?

The challenges are that you don’t have the opportunity to break into a battle scene or a horse charge or a big crowd extravaganza – all you have it’s what in front of you with the two characters and has to be accomplished in the nuances of the relationship and that is the test, but it’s also the joy too.

Were you working your way through your iPod when you decided what songs to use for the movie?

Oh my gosh! The mid-nineties weren’t the greatest period for music but it was actually surprising to revisit songs which evoked emotions in us. For instance, I never though I’d hear The Macarena again, let alone use two different mixes (laughs) but that’s the joy of sourcing music for a relatively contemporary movie, which I hadn’t done in a long time.

You had a big success with The Last Samurai and your feature previous to this one, Defiance, was based in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe. Do you any plans for another historical epic?

There’s one thing we’re working on, which we’re having trouble getting the finance for. It’s called In the Heart of The Sea. It won the Nation Book Award in the US a few years ago and describes a real-life incident whaling boat which was actually attacked by a whale, which inspired (Herman) Melville to write Moby Dick.

Read our review of Love and Other Drugs which is out in UK cinemas today.

With the current fad of recycling 80’s movie favourites for a new audience still in vogue, here’s a product from that era which has been given the small screen treatment instead.

MTV has released the first trailer (via SlashFilm) for a new television series based on the Michael J. Fox film Teen Wolf. In the original, the Back to the Future star played a shy high school student whose transformation into a werewolf also transformed his social standing and popularity amongst his peers. The looks like the makers of the TV series haven’t strayed too far from the original concept, judging by the press release (below).

“Teen Wolf,” stars Tyler Posey (“Maid in Manhattan,” “Brothers and Sisters”), as the newly bitten werewolf, ‘Scott McCall,’ Dylan O’Brien as his best friend ‘Stiles,’ Crystal Reed as the mysterious new girl in town, ‘Allison,’ and Tyler Hoechlin (“Road to Perdition,” “7th Heaven”) as the older and possibly quite dangerous werewolf, ‘Derek Hale.’ Always an outsider and often unnoticed, Scott McCall yearns to be recognized in some small way that takes him out of his typical state of high school anonymity. When his best friend, Stiles, convinces him to go into the woods one night to join a police search for a dead body, Scott encounters a creature in the darkness. Narrowly escaping an attack with a vicious bite in his side, the next day brings strange surprises for Scott at school and his life will never be the same.

If the trailer (embedded below) is anything to go by, MTV appear to have given the material a serious edge, which resembles something along the lines of The Vampire Diaries.

It looks like we won’t be seeing a recreation of the iconic basketball sequence from the film (with the Karate Kid-esque motivational ballad Win in the End on the soundtrack), here in the TV show. Shame.

Last night, a hole host of  stars from one of the most loved movies in the world, Back to the Future were at the New York premiere, 25 years after it was released for the launch of the Blu-ray which came out in the UK on Monday (or Wednesday if you want to get it from Amazon)!

We’ve got a whole host of cool clips that Universal Studios have sent us from the premiere including a press conference with Robert Zemeckis, Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Huey Lewis, and Mary Steenburgen.

We’ve been going completely Back to the Future bonkers over the past 6 weeks or so and we make no apologies for that. HeyUGuys.co.uk was founded by Jon and myself for movies like Back to the Future. As it happens, this website you are now reading this on was going to be called 88mph.co.uk!

I love Back to the Future and as Michael J. Fox says in one of these clips, it just makes people happy when they think about it, quote it or watch it. I hope you’ve enjoyed our coverage and as it probably draws to a close, I hope you enjoy these clips too. Scroll down to view the official press release from last night’s premiere.

Back to the Future 25th Anniversary Blu-ray Press Conference Q&A

New York Premiere

Press release – for immediate release

MICHAEL J. FOX, CAST AND FILMMAKERS REUNITED IN NEW YORK TO CELEBRATE THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY OF BACK TO THE FUTURE FOR THE TRILOGY’S BLU-RAYTM RELEASE

Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Huey Lewis and Mary Steenburgen reunited on 25 October 2010 for the 25th anniversary of Back to the Future.  Universal International Home Entertainment also brought together the filmmakers including Bob Gale, Neil Canton and Robert Zemeckis from the award-winning cinematic franchise to mark the Blu-ray release, available worldwide on 25 October.

Guests were invited to a time-travelling panel discussion and Q&A honouring one of Universal’s most beloved and popular motion picture trilogies, debuting on Blu- rayTM for the first time ever.  The event, held at The Waldorf Astoria in New York, was followed by a special anniversary party which culminated in the cast unveiling an 8ft DeLorean cake, complete with red hot flaming tracks, replicating one of the most iconic scenes from the smash hit first movie.

Now, for the first time ever, the past, present and future collide in eye-popping high definition for a time-travelling celebration featuring new 25th Anniversary restorations for perfect picture and the purest digital sound.  More than two hours of all new bonus features have been added, including an all-new, six-part retrospective documentary featuring never before-seen interviews with the cast, crew and filmmakers, including Michael J Fox, for the definitive Back to the Future experience.

Key quotes from the event:

Leading star Michael J Fox who played Marty McFly said:
“This movie about time is timeless; it has bonded so many generations and will live on way beyond 2015.
It’s been a tremendous privilege and has made so many things happen.”

“To be associated with a film that makes so many people happy like this is a tremendous privilege. I’ve been all around the world and people know the movie.”

Co-star Lea Thompson who played Maggie McFly and Lorraine McFly said:
“It is amazing to be part of something that is still celebrated 25 years later. It was a really great part and it is fantastic to be known for it. This was a great thing to be part of because of its quality.”

Director Robert Zemeckis said:
“If I had to describe Back to the Future in one word, it is “impossible”…. The first Back to the Future film was the hardest film I ever made.”

“Back to the Future II was actually the first time I’d ever used computer generated effects.  Its success boils down to a few things – it’s a universal story about kids and parents, a young guy and his mentor and it’s a love story. It’s what a movie is supposed to do – it’s entertaining, accessible and enjoyable.”

Producer Neil Canton said:
“For me the best moment of the trilogy is bringing everyone back together here 25 years later!”

“There have been plenty of secrets shed over the years about the Back to the Future trilogy but there a whole lot more to be revealed on the new Blu-ray.”

Today is the day we can finally enjoy the entire Back to the Future trilogy in high definition. The trilogy box set not only gives you a wonderful transfer of each film, but it has a load of extras including the holy grail for BTTF fans, footage of Eric Stoltz as Marty McFly.

So, how about winning one of these fine Back to the Future Re-Release posters then?

If you went to see the re-release of Back to the Future in the cinemas earlier this month then you’ll have seen one of these on display, and very handsome they look too.

We’ve got five to give away, to be in with a chance of winning one of these posters all you need to do is answer the following question using the form below:

What speed (in mph) does Doc Brown’s DeLorean have to reach to travel through time?

The small print:

• This competition is open to the UK only
• Only one entry per household will be counted
• The competition will close Monday 1st of November at 23.59 GMT
• The winner will be picked at random from entries received

The usual T&Cs can be found here. Good Luck!

COMPETITION NOW CLOSED

I’ve been loving all the featurettes that are being released for the new Back to the Future Blu-ray which is released in the UK 25th October but I’m a little worried that they might be giving everything away releasing these new featurettes. That said, i know people are desperate to see them which is why I’m posting two more here.

The first focuses on the Test Screenings for the movie and how they struggled with them initially and the second looks at how they created 2015 for Back to the Future: Part II. Both are well worth a watch!

If you’ve never seen Back to the Future before, either wait until Monday and buy the blu-ray or click here and enter our competition to win this very Special Edition. You can also check out our exclusive interview with Bob Gale here.

Test Screenings

Creating 2015

Last weekend, the Scream Awards 2010 hit LA with numerous stars turning up to the event. Not least if them were Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) and Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) to promote the remastered re-release version of Back to the Future.

The duo were introduced by David Slade arriving from 1985 in a DeLorean who ended up looking quite like Eric Stoltz (not sure if that was intentional? See here why if you’re not sure). If you love Back to the Future, you have to watch this footage below cos you’ll absolutely love it!

The Blu-ray is released October 25th and we have the chance for you to win the special edition copy here.

If you want a little preview of the brand new remastered Back to the Future Blu-ray, you’re going to love this. Universal Pictures have just sent us this rather fancy new interactive trailer for the Blu-ray where you can select different portions of the trailer to find out about different parts of the movie. Back to the Future is released 25th October and you can click here to have the chance to win a super duper special edition of the movie.

To celebrate the forthcoming and highly anticipated release of the widely acclaimed Back to the Future Trilogy on Blu-ray™, Universal Pictures International Entertainment has produced a series of interactive promotional assets to be experienced, shared and enjoyed by online users.  This Academy Award®-winning franchise, will release internationally from October 25th, 2010 in eye-popping high definition featuring new restorations for perfect picture and the purest digital sound.

Interactive Trailer
Fans can watch and interact with the trailer to the Blu-Ray release of the Back to the Future Trilogy to discover incredible behind-the-scenes goodies, interviews and character bios from the films. As the trailer plays, more assets become available for the user to click on and experience. The trailer can also be grabbed and shared on social networking sites and profiles.

James Arnold Taylor is a film, TV and video games voice-over artist. He has worked on hundreds of projects, including a large number of film spin-offs for the gaming world and such well-know franchises like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (as the voice of Leonardo in both the video game and for 2007’s animated feature). He’s also cropped up in cartoon favorites like The Spectacular Spider-Man, Scooby Doo and Batman: The Brave and the Bold

He’s currently the voice of Obi Wan Kenobi in The Clone Wars cartoon, the third season of which premieres on Sky Movies HD on 23rd October.

HeyUGuys recently spoke to him at his home studio in LA and were pleased to discover that his passion for the material is partly derived from the fact that he’s a huge fan of the world he works within.

HeyUGuys: How does it feel to be part of the Star Wars universe?

James Arnold Taylor: It’s a fantastic feeling and a dream come true for someone who grew up surrounded by it. I was seven years old when Episode 4 came out and if anyone had told me back then that I would become part of the universe and in the way that I am, I don’t think I would have believed them. I still wake up everyday thinking that this is the coolest job in the world.

Also, thanks to the prequels, having the chance to explore this other side to Obi Wan and being the character who is the glue through this entire Star Wars series is great.

How does The Clone Wars compare to that of your other voice-over work and what were the challenges of taking on a living, breathing character like Obi Wan in this form?

I’ve been really fortunate to be involved in so many franchises, whether it be Transformers, the Final Fantasy video game series, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and now the voice of , but they all come into focus once you get to play Obi Wan Kenobi. Every fan around the world is so familiar with the character and the pressure you could put on yourself to be that voice could be quite overwhelming.

It was a dream of mine since I was a young child to do voice-over in cartoons and in animation and now that I do this on a daily basis, I still tend not to hold that lightly, and take into account that I am voicing a character that both Ewan McGregor and Sir Alec Guinness did such a great job with, and that needs to be honoured properly.

Because this is George’s universe, the network isn’t on our back to make certain concessions and straight-jacket us by saying “we need to have a laugh here and now an explosion over there”. We’re telling the story of the Star Wars saga and we have the freedom to do it the right way. It’s a wonderful work environment.

It’s apparent with Obi Wan that you’re not just trying to mimic McGregor or Guinness, and you’ve attempted to stay true to the character and not just the actors who have played him.

It actually started very specifically as a voice-match for Ewan around the time they were doing Revenge of the Sith and I was doing the voice for the video game version of the film. I had to be really mindful of what he was doing then, but it was that voice-matching which locked me into the character for the folks at Lucasfilm, because I was able to get a grasp of both the light and more dramatic sides to the character, which Ewan was also doing.

Now with The Clone Wars I’ve been given the freedom to make the character my own, so if you listen to what I’m doing now, compared to what I was doing back for the game, there is some difference there. I try to combine a little of both Guinness and McGregor and Clone Wars director Dave Filoni has been a big influence on me in regards to having the opportunity to do that.

How much direction do you get as a voice-over artist, and does it differ from a live-action set?

It’s exactly the same method as far as direction goes. Dave directs all our voice sessions just as it would be if we were in front of a camera. Due to security measures we only receive the script 24 hours before recording, so we don’t really know what’s really going to happen in each episode until we get to set that day.

We’ll all have a run-through with Dave before the recording and I’ll also have the freedom to suggest changes to my own lines if I feel that there is something that Obi Wan may not say in a certain way, so there’s a lot of leeway to get it right before we go on.

How much input does George Lucas have in the production?

George is in there for the entire process, from inception of each story and the development of that, to the look and feel. He does entrust a lot to Dave, but he’ll closely observe what’s going on and he has a hand in making sure that it all stays true to the Star Wars universe, and that the cartoon series isn’t a separate entity to the films.

His involvement actually gives you the freedom to get it right because he’s very open in giving all us a chance to make the necessary changes if what we’re saying doesn’t quite ring true to the characters.

In terms of your own background, how did you start in the industry? Were you a traditional actor who then segued into voice-over work?

Since around the age of four I knew I wanted to work within animation doing voices. For someone who is 5.4’ and looks a little like David Spade, the opportunity to play different types of characters on camera is limited. That side to the industry would never allow me the freedom to do the things I do in the voice-over work.

I knew when I was younger that I had been blessed with the ability to manipulate my voice and to be different people, so I was right at home being a voice actor. I’ve done live-action stuff from time to time, which is a lot of fun, but voice-over is really the thing which I’m most passionate about and love doing. I started at 16 as a stand-up comic and got into radio the year after, and that period was where I really learned my craft.

My first big job was voice doubling for Michael J. Fox on Stuart Little – a great start into the world of animation and I’ve been hooked ever since.

Our thanks to James Arnold Taylor for his time.

The third series of Star Wars: The Clone Wars starts at 5.30pm on Saturday 23rd October on Sky Movies Premiere/HD

Next week the Back to the Future trilogy gets a release on shiny Blu-ray having just completed a limited run in cinemas across the country to celebrate the film’s twenty-fifth anniversary.

Seeing the original film twenty-five years ago was one of my formative cinematic experiences and recently Dave and I had a sneak preview of the film on the big screen and it was a triumphant return for a film that has more than stood the test of time.

Creator, producer and co-writer of the series Bob Gale is still passionate about the trilogy and we got the chance to talk to the man whose chance discovery of his Dad’s high school yearbook provided the spark for one of the most endearing and enduring films of recent years.

HeyUGuys

It must be exciting having Back to the Future coming back into the cinemas.

Bob Gale

I tell you…I saw the movie projected eight days ago and it looks so good, so much better than it did in 1985. When they did the remastering for the Blu-ray they spent over 400 hours doing dirt cleanup, and almost another 200 hours doing colour correction, so the movie looks better than it ever did. You have the print going through the projector, it picks up dirt, gets scratched and with the digital technology these guys fixed almost all of that stuff, and it just looks breathtaking.

HeyUGuys

I saw the trailer [for the Back to the Future re-release] in the cinemas recently and got chills, I remember seeing it in 1985 and it was a seminal moment for me, I can still play Johnny B. Goode on guitar because of the film…

Bob Gale

…Well we’ve got people trying to invent hoverboards, Nike just patented the self-lacing shoes…

HeyUGuys

And people talk about it with such love. Having been the creator of all this, what do you attribute this love of the film to?

Bob Gale

Well, it was a perfect convergence of a fantastic script, of an outstanding, perfect cast, Bob Zemeckis’ great skill – all that stuff came together and at its heart it is a very human, emotional story. Past all the trappings of the special effects and the gimmicks and the action, it is a tender story about a kid and his parents. And there’s a moment we all have in our lives when we are children where we suddenly understand that our parents were children too, and that’s kind of a cosmic moment that everybody experiences, and to my knowledge no-one had ever done a movie about that. Not every joke translates into every language but that core aspect of the story that we’re all in control of our own destiny, I think that all comes together and it’s something that really touched me.

HeyUGuys

There’s a real Twilight Zone feel to the first film in particular, were you a fan of science fiction of that era?

Bob Gale

Oh, Bob Zemeckis and I were both huge Twilight Zone fans. That experience you had watching Back to the Future when you were a kid, I was having those kinds of experiences watching The Twilight Zone every week and Zemeckis too. Another movie that affected us was George Pal’s The Time Machine, so I was a huge science fiction fan, so Ray Bradbury – he helped warp my mind. So, it’s really cool for me to hear from people who say that my work did for them what The Twilight Zone or what Ray Bradbury or Robert Heinlein did for me, it’s great.

HeyUGuys

As a kid, I really enjoyed the action and adventure elements of the film, but there are deeper, more subversive elements and the idea at play. Did you have to compromise those at all to get the film made?

Bob Gale

No, no – we didn’t compromise anything. The movie was rejected over forty times, nobody wanted to make the movie. The time travel aspect was something people were scared off because no time travel movie had ever been a hit and while there was a very nice, sweet comedy – they wanted to do raunchier comedies, so they told us to take it to Disney. So, we heard this half a dozen times or more and finally we were out of studios and Bob and I shrugged and said ‘What the hell, let’s take it to Disney…’ So we did and the executives looked at us like we were out of our minds! They said, ‘Are you guys insane? There are kids…and the Mother in the car…We’re Disney! We can’t touch that. That’s insane.’

HeyUGuys

Just for curiousity’s sake it would be great to see what Disney would have made of the film!

Bob Gale

[Laughs] No it wouldn’t!

HeyUGuys

With the success of the first film, a sequel was inevitable and the final scene suggests you were thinking of that too?

Bob Gale

No, no no no. The end of the first movie is a joke, ‘There’s something that’s got to be done about your kids!’ It’s funny, and the characters get in the DeLorean and go off to another adventure, like the cowboys riding off into the sunset. If we had known if we were going to do a sequel, let alone two sequels, we NEVER would have put Jennifer in the car because they we had to figure what we were going to do with Jennifer! So, she gets knocked out! She’s unconscious for the two movies!

HeyUGuys

When the sequels came up for discussion did you have certain ideas you wanted to explore?

Bob Gale

Here’s what happened – when the studio said they wanted a sequel we had certain parameters. As long as we had Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd we will figure out a sequel – we didn’t know what it would be, but those guys have to be locked in. And we had to go back and get the rest of the cast and they all said yes, except for Crispin Glover. So we had Marty, Doc, Lea Thompson and Thomas Wilson had said Yes, so that was instrumental in saying ‘Wouldn’t it be interesting to create an alternate world of 1985 where Geroge McFly is a tombstone and Lorraine is married to Biff?’ It’s like those Superman comics where Lois Lane is married to Lex Luthor so it was those limitations and those elements that we had to balance.

HeyUGuys

The story of Back to the Future centres around Marty but as the trilogy goes along it seems Doc Brown is at the heart of the story – his ambition, his flawed successes and then, at the end, finding true happiness – would you agree with this, or is this Marty’s story?

Bob Gale

The first is really George McFly’s story if you think about it. He’s the character that undergoes the big character arc, and part of the success is how well drawn the characters are and we thought it would be interesting if Marty and Doc changed places. So in the third movie Marty is the one giving Doc advice – he says ‘We don’t belong here,’ and ‘What’s the right thing to do in your brain, not your heart’ and it is represented where Marty says ‘Great Scott!’ and Doc says ‘This is heavy…’

HeyUGuys

We’re five years away from Jaws 19 and sequels and remakes are doing better business than ever, putting the talk of remakes aside for a moment I believe you’re moving into the video game arena?

Bob Gale

The video game thing is an interesting avenue for us to explore alternate Back to the Future realities – and the budget is obviously a whole lot less than it would take to make a new movie, so it’s a way of giving the real fans something new about Back to the Future which we hope will be in the spirit of the three movies.

HeyUGuys

So, these are all new stories?

Bob Gale

Yeah. We’re not talking about a remake, we’re not talking about a reboot, no Part 4, no 3D, no re-imagining of it…

HeyUGuys

No part for Justin Bieber?

Bob Gale

Oh God! Every once in a while those rumours go round…

HeyUGuys

I think it’s because Back to the Future is the exception where no-one is interested in seeing a remake, people may want to see more of it, but in the middle of these, predominently 80s, remakes going on at the moment, Back to the Future stands up as something which people don’t want to see touched.

Bob Gale

We’ve been so vociferous in interviews about it that people don’t even ask now. ‘No’ really means no. If we changed our minds they’d all be on us like a cheap suit…It’s laziness, in my opinion, that Hollywood is remaking or redoing everything. Wouldn’t it be better to do some original stuff? We’ve all seen those sequels where they’ve gone back to the well one too many times, I’m not going to mention any names… We all know what they are… Has there ever been a sequel made more than ten years after the original installment that really held a candle to the original – I can’t think of an example.

HeyUGuys

And what’s next?

Bob Gale

Beyond the video game stuff, I’m writing scripts but the problem of Hollywood not being so receptive to original ideas and that’s what I like to do. That why I was so delighted that Inception was such a big hit – I had some problems with the movie, but it was original and audiences want that. Maybe having Back to the Future back in the cinemas will lead people to think they need to make something original. Or maybe they’ll just think, ‘Oh MAN! We gotta REMAKE this!’

We want to thank Bob Gale for his time speaking to us.

Photo: DeLorean Time Machine

This is one of the rare times I wish I didn’t work for HeyUGuys so that I was able to enter this competition! One of the grestest movies of all time is getting the 25th Anniversary treatment, and that movie is Back to the Future. The 25th Anniversary Blu-ray box set trilogy is released 25th October and you can order your copy here. We could give you that as a prize but what we’ve been given something even better. Universal Studios Home Entertainment have been kind enough to give us five copies of the Collector’s Tin to give away. You can click the image above to enlarge and scroll down to see the DeLorean model.

If you’ve never seen Back to the Future or either of it’s sequels, then quite frankly you haven’t lived! Universal Studios Home Entertainment know how much we love the movies and have been kind enough to give us five copies to give away to you, our lovely readers!

Back to the Future

From the Academy Award^®-winning filmmakers Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis comes Back to the Future, the original, groundbreaking adventure that sparked one of the most successful trilogies in Hollywood history. When teenager Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) is blasted to 1955 in the DeLorean time machine created by the eccentric Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd), he finds himself mixed up in a time-shattering chain reaction that could vaporize his future—and leave him trapped in the past. Powered by innovative special effects, unforgettable songs and non-stop action, Back to the Future is an unrivaled adventure that stands the test of time.

Back to the Future Part II

Getting back was only the beginning as the most spectacular time-travel adventure ever continues in Back to the Future Part II—the sequel that proves that lightning can strike twice! Picking up precisely where they left off, Marty and Doc (Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd) launch themselves to the year 2015 to fine-tune the future and inadvertently disrupt the space-time continuum. Now, their only chance to fix the present is by going back to 1955 again before it’s too late. From Academy Award^®-winning filmmakers Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis, Back to the Future Part II provides more of the timeless excitement that made Back to the Future an unforgettable adventure.

Back to the Future Part III

They’ve saved the biggest trip for last as the most popular time-traveling movie trilogy ever comes to a rousing conclusion in Back to the Future Part III. Stranded in 1955 after a freak accident, Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) discovers he must travel back to 1885 to rescue Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) before he becomes smitten with schoolteacher Clara Clayton (Mary Steenburgen). Now, it’s up to Marty to keep Doc out of trouble, get the DeLorean running, and put the past, present and future on track so they can all get back to where—and when—they belong. From the Academy Award^®-winning filmmakers Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis, Back to the Future Part III is a spectacular grand finale to the unforgettable blockbuster series.

The Collector’s Tin Edition contains:

• Grey’s Sports Almanac
• Lenticular postcard of family
• De Lorean Bluprrint
• 2 double sided exclusive posters
• Newspaper pages x 4
• 5 Delorean Artcards
• 6 Hoverboard artcards
• Numberplate
• Photo of Doc & Marty with original clock in 1885
• 3 Disc blu-ray

To be in with a chance of winning one of the best prizes we’ve ever had on HeyUGuys, all you need to do is answer the following question using the form below:

What year did the original Back to the Future hit the cinema?

The small print:

• This competition is open to the UK only
• Only one entry per household will be counted
• The competition will close Monday 25th October (release date) at 23.59 GMT
• The winner will be picked at random from entries received

The usual T&Cs can be found here. Good Luck!

Extras Include (in more detail):

• This Collectors Edition Tin Includes A Delorean blueprint, An ‘Outatime’ number plate, The Sports Almanac, Save The Clocktower poster & A Lenticular photo of Marty’s family plus much, much more!
• Tales from the Future: New six-part retrospective documentary featuring interviews with Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Director Robert Zemeckis, Producers Bob Gale and Neil Canton, plus Executive Producer Steven Spielberg including the following: In the Beginning, Time to Go, Keeping Time, Time Flies, Third Time’s the Charm, The Test of Time
• The Physics of Back To The Future
• Nuclear Test Site Ending Storyboard Sequence
• 16 Deleted Scenes
• Michael J. Fox Q&A
• Q&A Commentaries with Director Robert Zemeckis and Producer Bob Gale
• Feature Commentaries with Producers Bob Gale and Neil Canton
• Making the Trilogy: Chapters One, Two & Three
• The Making Of Back to the Future Part I, II & III
• The Secrets of the Back to the Future Trilogy
• Back to the Future Night
• Behind-the-Scenes: Outtakes, Original Makeup Tests, Production Design, Storyboarding, Designing the DeLorean, Designing Time Travel, Hoverboard Test, Designing Hill Valley, Designing the Campaign
• Back to the Future: The Ride
• Huey Lewis and the News “Power of Love” Music Video
• ZZ Top “DoubleBack” Music Video
• Photo Galleries, Including Production Art, Additional Storyboards, Photographs, Marketing Materials and Character Portraits
• U-CONTROL: Universal’s exclusive feature allows viewers to learn more about their favorite film without ever leaving the movie.

COMPETITION NOW CLOSED

© 2010 Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved.

The Spike TV Scream Awards 2010 took place over the weekend to showcase some of the years cinema releases. The awards had a rather impressive turnout with both Hollywood A-List Directors and actors turning out for the show.

My two favourite appearances were that of Back to the Future Legends, Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd coming on stage with a DeLorean and Bill Murray Appearing in his full Ghostbusters get-up!

Kristen Stewart, Jason Rathbone and Nikki Reed were there to accept awards for Twilight: New Moon while Halle Berry was there to present Christopher Nolan with an award for ‘Ultimate Scream’. Sigourney Weaver won the ‘Best Heroine’ award which was presented by Avatar director, James Cameron (who we’ll be meeting in a couple of days to talk us through the new Avatar Collectors Edition).

Finally, Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively accepted the award for ‘Most Anticipated movie’ for The Green Lantern which is out Summer 2011.

The rest of the main awards went something like this:

Best Actress in a Fantasy: Kristen Stewart, “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse”
Best Actor in a Fantasy: Robert Pattinson, “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse”
Best Horror Actor: Alexander Skarsgard, True Blood”
Best Villain: Mickey Rourke, “Iron Man 2″
Breakout Male Performance: Xavier Samuel, “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse”

The 2010 Scream Awards air in a 90 minute special on Tuesday at 9 p.m. on Spike TV in the US. Hopefully many of the clips will be released online for UK audiences to enjoy.

Check out some of the images from the awards and click to enlarge.

Thanks to ‘We’re Going Back‘ for the heads up on what is possibly the coolest trailer I’ve ever seen! As you all know, we’ve been going nuts about the movie over the past 6 weeks as it was coming back to the cinema. It’s not going to be there for much longer so if you haven’t seen it at your local multiplex yet, you really really should (I’m going again tonight!).

The big news is that it’s been remastered and is getting the re-release on blu ray after being completely remastered. Back in 1985, Michael J. Fox filmed a teaser trailer for the movie which might as well have been called Nike to the Future after all the coverage that his shoes get in this trailer, and then the movie that followed.

To promote the 2010 scream awards where Michael J. Fox, Elizabeth Shue and Lea Thompson will reunite on stage, Fox has re-shot the trailer it’s it’s entirety and you can see it below. This really has made my day and I hope it makes yours too.

I’ve placed the original trailer first with the re-shot version below it.

P.S. If you want to buy your own DeLorean, head over the to this auction right here where you can do just that!

We’ve made it no secret that we love everything and anything to do with Back to the Future. Many people may not know that Michael J. Fox wasn’t originally intended to play Mart McFly in one of the best movies ever made. In fact Eric Stotz was first in line to play the time travelling hero in the movie. He even shot for five weeks before director, Robert Zemeckis realised that he just wasn’t proving the comedy angle that was required for the Back to the Future that we now know and love.

After five weeks, Zemeckis showed producer, Steven Spielberg the footage they had collected and Spielberg agreed to change the actor to Michael J. Fox with both of them persuading Universal Studios to shoot those five weeks worth of scenes again.

Watching back now, Eric Stoltz must feel rather sad that it asn’t him that got to play the iconic character but then, i guess he’s had 25 years to get used to it! One of the special features on the brand new blu ray which is being released 25th October is the following featurette which shows Eric Stoltz in many of the scenes that you’ll be familiar with.

In other news, I’ve had word from Universal Studios that the theatrical re-release of the movie is fast approaching the £1m mark at the box office. If you’ve not been to see the movie at your local cinema yet, make sure you do as it’s been completely remastered and looks and sounds phenomenal! I’m going again tomorrow night and am very much looking forward to it!