Back in the early 1980s, young filmmakers Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis had suffered collaborative flops. Determined to make a successful film together, they co-wrote a script that was rejected over 40 times by film studios.
That was until Zemeckis directed the successful Romancing the Stone and Universal Studios were interested in a development deal. But just what was this movie script?
The film in question was Back to the Future, which faced major production problems. The two Bobs wanted Michael J Fox to play their lead Marty McFly, who accidentally travels back in time to 1955 and risk undoing his own existence when his high school age mother fall in love with him. However, he was bound to TV sitcom Family Ties and Eric Stoltz was cast instead. But after a few weeks, it was clear to the Bobs that he wasn’t right for the role and a deal was done to get Fox shooting the movie at night, re-filming what they’d already filmed with Stoltz.
The iconic sci-fi comedy, co-starring Christopher Lloyd’s inventor of the Delorean Time Machine Doc Brown, ended up being a box office smash hit. The movie was praised by critics and became the highest-grossing film of 1985, before spawning a franchise including two sequels and an award-winning musical. Today, Back to the Future is considered one of the greatest movies ever made, often making the Top 10 of the best films of all time polls.
Back to the Future is on BBC One at 2:45pm this Sunday afternoon and will be streaming on BBC iPlayer afterwards for a limited time only.
