“It’s funny,” says Screenwriter Chris Matheson, taking us back to 1984 - a time where bagging gig tickets required actually leaving your house and dude-duo Bill and Ted were nothing more than an in-joke shared with his friend and co-writer Ed Solomon. “Back when Ed and I first wrote Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, we were waiting in line for Springsteen tickets and even though we hadn’t really finished the first one, I remember talking about the second one. We just liked the characters so much we started to plan what a second movie would be,” he smiles, fondly recalling early ideas for 1991’s bigger, darker sequel Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey. “They’ve been our alter-egos for a long time. We know these guys.”
He’s not wrong. To fully understand the inner-workings of time-traveling chosen ones Bill S. Preston Esq (Alex Winter) and his Wyld Stallyns bandmate Ted Theodore Logan (Keanu Reeves), you first have to understand the deeply ingrained relationship they share with their creators Matheson and Solomon. Having met in their early 20s, the pair’s sympatico humour made them fast friends, with Bill and Ted emerging somewhere between improv class and chuckle-filled downtime. Their fascination with the idea of two airhead teens with hot takes on big issues (usually ‘excellent’ or ‘bogus’) birthed a boundary-blurring relationship that spanned stand-up stages, in-character letter writing and long-distance phone calls, and eventually two feature films, starting with Director Stephen Herek’s Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.
These days Herek’s franchise-starter may be considered a cult classic but back in 1989, critics weren’t so kind. Thankfully, audiences were - so much so that a sequel was fast-tracked just months after Excellent Adventure’s debut. For Matheson and Solomon, this was great news. Overjoyed their characters had resonated with viewers, the duo now had the chance to extend their universe with another big-screen journey through time. Little did they know, the powers-that-be had their own ideas for the future of their treasured alter-egos. “When Excellent Adventure came out, nobody took it seriously on a critical level,” remembers Solomon. “Critics just pounded us like we were glorifying stupidity - or we ourselves were idiots - which, by the way, we are idiots but there was no way of knowing that from the movie,” he says with a smile, “but then audiences took to it and that was incredibly reaffirming and rewarding.”
He’s not wrong. To fully understand the inner-workings of time-traveling chosen ones Bill S. Preston Esq (Alex Winter) and his Wyld Stallyns bandmate Ted Theodore Logan (Keanu Reeves), you first have to understand the deeply ingrained relationship they share with their creators Matheson and Solomon. Having met in their early 20s, the pair’s sympatico humour made them fast friends, with Bill and Ted emerging somewhere between improv class and chuckle-filled downtime. Their fascination with the idea of two airhead teens with hot takes on big issues (usually ‘excellent’ or ‘bogus’) birthed a boundary-blurring relationship that spanned stand-up stages, in-character letter writing and long-distance phone calls, and eventually two feature films, starting with Director Stephen Herek’s Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.
These days Herek’s franchise-starter may be considered a cult classic but back in 1989, critics weren’t so kind. Thankfully, audiences were - so much so that a sequel was fast-tracked just months after Excellent Adventure’s debut. For Matheson and Solomon, this was great news. Overjoyed their characters had resonated with viewers, the duo now had the chance to extend their universe with another big-screen journey through time. Little did they know, the powers-that-be had their own ideas for the future of their treasured alter-egos. “When Excellent Adventure came out, nobody took it seriously on a critical level,” remembers Solomon. “Critics just pounded us like we were glorifying stupidity - or we ourselves were idiots - which, by the way, we are idiots but there was no way of knowing that from the movie,” he says with a smile, “but then audiences took to it and that was incredibly reaffirming and rewarding.”
“I’d say within a month of the first movie coming out, there was talk of a sequel,” Matheson tells SFX. “It was obvious they wanted us to do a continuation of the first movie. That is, let’s make it an English report and send them into Huckleberry Finn, Romeo and Juliet or Crime and Punishment and watch what happens. It just felt too familiar and we wanted to do something that excited us. When it comes to comedy, if it feels familiar, it’s just not going to be funny.” Solomon agreed: “We were like ‘please God no,’” he laughs. “It was the same movie done again and we didn’t want to do that. That’s when we had the idea: why don’t we just kill them and send them to hell? Nobody ever does that.”
“That seemed really funny to us,” laughs Matheson. “To have them go to heaven and deal with God and play games with Death and have Ted possess his dad - suddenly a bunch of scenes started occurring but there was resistance on the part of the studio. They were much more favourable towards the English report.” This wasn’t surprising. After all, why mess with a winning formula? Throw in the film’s working title Bill and Ted Go To Hell and Nelson Entertainment’s foolproof follow-up was quickly becoming much darker than they anticipated. Thankfully, Matheson and Solomon had the film’s stars in their corner. “Alex and Keanu got behind us. They wanted to do our version where they die and play their dark selves,” reveals Solomon. “They really liked the idea of hell and death,” adds Matheson. “The guys wanted to do this version, so we got to do it.”
True to their word, Matheson and Solomon doubled-down on the weirdness. Directed by Peter Hewitt, Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey saw the duo swiftly off-ed by a pair of evil robot Bill and Teds created by their nemesis and disgruntled ex-gym teacher Chuck DeNomolos (Joss Ackland). From there they faced their greatest fears in Hell, met their maker in Heaven and worked with Death (William Sadler) and a super-smart martian named Station to fix future history, realise their world-saving destiny and ride Kiss anthem God Gave Rock And Roll To You right into the credits. Weird? Undoubtedly.
“We had the opportunity to write something which was a little bit radical for people to accept,” reflects Matheson. “To have evil robots who kill Bill and Ted, spit on their dead bodies and go out of their way to run over cats? It’s pretty dark,” he laughs. However according to Matheson, this darkness was a key factor for the film’s leading men. “Alex and Keanu are delightful guys and both have a lightness of spirit to them but they also have a dark, heavier side to them too. That’s what makes them interesting and why they’re so good as Bill and Ted. They’re not trivial,” he reasons. “I think they loved playing evil guys.”
“That seemed really funny to us,” laughs Matheson. “To have them go to heaven and deal with God and play games with Death and have Ted possess his dad - suddenly a bunch of scenes started occurring but there was resistance on the part of the studio. They were much more favourable towards the English report.” This wasn’t surprising. After all, why mess with a winning formula? Throw in the film’s working title Bill and Ted Go To Hell and Nelson Entertainment’s foolproof follow-up was quickly becoming much darker than they anticipated. Thankfully, Matheson and Solomon had the film’s stars in their corner. “Alex and Keanu got behind us. They wanted to do our version where they die and play their dark selves,” reveals Solomon. “They really liked the idea of hell and death,” adds Matheson. “The guys wanted to do this version, so we got to do it.”
True to their word, Matheson and Solomon doubled-down on the weirdness. Directed by Peter Hewitt, Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey saw the duo swiftly off-ed by a pair of evil robot Bill and Teds created by their nemesis and disgruntled ex-gym teacher Chuck DeNomolos (Joss Ackland). From there they faced their greatest fears in Hell, met their maker in Heaven and worked with Death (William Sadler) and a super-smart martian named Station to fix future history, realise their world-saving destiny and ride Kiss anthem God Gave Rock And Roll To You right into the credits. Weird? Undoubtedly.
“We had the opportunity to write something which was a little bit radical for people to accept,” reflects Matheson. “To have evil robots who kill Bill and Ted, spit on their dead bodies and go out of their way to run over cats? It’s pretty dark,” he laughs. However according to Matheson, this darkness was a key factor for the film’s leading men. “Alex and Keanu are delightful guys and both have a lightness of spirit to them but they also have a dark, heavier side to them too. That’s what makes them interesting and why they’re so good as Bill and Ted. They’re not trivial,” he reasons. “I think they loved playing evil guys.”
As for Station? “That originated as a typo,” reveals Solomon. “It was about two in the morning and we’d deleted a whole chunk of scenes set in a police station. For some reason we deleted everything except the word ‘station’ which was just floating on the screen. We were so punch-drunk we started saying ‘Station’ in a martian voice, then we started doing entire sentences with just the word ‘station’,” he laughs. “We just dug our heels in and said no matter what, we’re going to have a martian named Station in this movie.” For Matheson, that night still brings back fond memories: “We only communicated with the word ‘station’ for about ten minutes. We were really tired and thought it was hilarious. We were howling with laughter because it seemed like such an unfunny word but super funny to us. We thought: that’s got to be the name of the martian.”
Jokes aside, the process of creating Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey remains a bittersweet experience for Matheson and Solomon, marking a crucial moment in their friendship. “I think the push and pull on Bogus Journey led to an imperfect script,” admits Solomon. “In particular we never solved the third act. We didn’t put Bill and Ted at the centre, we just threw in all these other elements and didn’t quite get it to congeal. Part of it too was the fact that it was a giant rush,” he continues. “We started filming in January and it was released in June so we didn’t have time to hone and refine it.” Matheson has similar thoughts: “I’d say it gets pretty slipshot from the time they get back into their own bodies. Pete Hewitt really nailed it with that Kiss song but that final chunk... Ed and I are still a little uneasy with it. We stumbled there for a while.
“It’s an interesting one for Ed and myself, because we wrote the first one at a very peak moment of our friendship,” continues Matheson. “Pretty quickly we found we were comically-speaking kindred spirits and there was a lot of joy in the creation of Excellent Adventure. We’d been best friends who just laughed together and then we became ‘professional writing partners’ and that’s a very difficult transition. Bogus Journey is much darker, partly because mine and Ed’s friendship was in a different place. We could still write our weird alter-egos but with a darker colour to them,” he reasons. “It’s always fun inhabiting these characters,” says Solomon. “It was harder having studios give us marching orders and people who we didn’t feel understood the internal human element of Bill and Ted tell us how to do it - but being inside the characters is always really fun.”
As Matheson and Solomon prepare to embark on trilogy closer Bill and Ted Face The Music (rumoured to shoot in early ‘19), their air-guitar-loving alter-egos continue to be a force for good for these long-standing best friends. “We never expected that thirty years later they would’ve grown in cultural fondness,” smiles Solomon. “Wherever I go, Bill and Ted is the one thing people care about on the deepest level. It’s the one that has the most meaning for people and to be honest, it’s the one that has the most meaning for Chris and me. I feel so grateful people have embraced these characters because they were such a joy to embody.” For Matheson, the feeling’s mutual: “Bill and Ted has been a wonderful thing to experience and share with Ed,” he says candidly. “We built them from the inside out. We know them and we feel them and we have always felt these guys. That’s been very meaningful.”
This feature originally appeared in the May 2019 issue of SFX Magazine.
Jokes aside, the process of creating Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey remains a bittersweet experience for Matheson and Solomon, marking a crucial moment in their friendship. “I think the push and pull on Bogus Journey led to an imperfect script,” admits Solomon. “In particular we never solved the third act. We didn’t put Bill and Ted at the centre, we just threw in all these other elements and didn’t quite get it to congeal. Part of it too was the fact that it was a giant rush,” he continues. “We started filming in January and it was released in June so we didn’t have time to hone and refine it.” Matheson has similar thoughts: “I’d say it gets pretty slipshot from the time they get back into their own bodies. Pete Hewitt really nailed it with that Kiss song but that final chunk... Ed and I are still a little uneasy with it. We stumbled there for a while.
“It’s an interesting one for Ed and myself, because we wrote the first one at a very peak moment of our friendship,” continues Matheson. “Pretty quickly we found we were comically-speaking kindred spirits and there was a lot of joy in the creation of Excellent Adventure. We’d been best friends who just laughed together and then we became ‘professional writing partners’ and that’s a very difficult transition. Bogus Journey is much darker, partly because mine and Ed’s friendship was in a different place. We could still write our weird alter-egos but with a darker colour to them,” he reasons. “It’s always fun inhabiting these characters,” says Solomon. “It was harder having studios give us marching orders and people who we didn’t feel understood the internal human element of Bill and Ted tell us how to do it - but being inside the characters is always really fun.”
As Matheson and Solomon prepare to embark on trilogy closer Bill and Ted Face The Music (rumoured to shoot in early ‘19), their air-guitar-loving alter-egos continue to be a force for good for these long-standing best friends. “We never expected that thirty years later they would’ve grown in cultural fondness,” smiles Solomon. “Wherever I go, Bill and Ted is the one thing people care about on the deepest level. It’s the one that has the most meaning for people and to be honest, it’s the one that has the most meaning for Chris and me. I feel so grateful people have embraced these characters because they were such a joy to embody.” For Matheson, the feeling’s mutual: “Bill and Ted has been a wonderful thing to experience and share with Ed,” he says candidly. “We built them from the inside out. We know them and we feel them and we have always felt these guys. That’s been very meaningful.”
This feature originally appeared in the May 2019 issue of SFX Magazine.
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