With the modern trend of old franchises heading back to the well LONG after their last installments (Rocky, Rambo, Indy) there has been some whispers recently about the possibility of the Delorean time machine revving up it’s engine again for another trip Back To The Future. However, as the good folks over at Moviehole point out, this isn’t going to happen:
Gale (The producer), talking at the 5th Annual Celebration Exotic Car Festival benefiting the Make-A-Wish Foundation, opened the floor with, “Let me answer one question before anyone asks it, which is, ‘Is there ever be a Back to the Future Part IV?'”, Gale began, before answering, “No.” (According to BTTF.com) Gale’s announcement didn’t go down well. The crowd apparently went a little sour on him upon hearing that Marty and Doc wouldn’t be back.
“Well now, wait a minute now. We’ve all seen sometimes where they make one too many sequels and you say, ‘Maybe they shouldn’t have done that.’ I’m not going to name any names of movies, but you know what they are!,” quipped Gale. “But more importantly, as I’m sure you all know, Michael J. Fox is not in the best of shape with his Parkinson’s,” he went on to explain. “The idea of making another Back to the Future movie without Michael J. Fox — you know, that’s like saying ‘I’m going to cook you a steak dinner and I’m going to hold the beef.’ You can’t do that.”
“The filmmakers – we all love the three Back to the Future movies just the way they are,” added Gale. “I’m sure Universal would love it if we were to say to them, ‘Hey, let’s do another one,’ but we don’t think we could ever make a fourth one that would live up to how great the first three are, so we’re going to leave well enough alone.”
i can appreciate where Gale is coming from and I respect his decision. Don’t get me wrong, if there were a fantastic script on the table with a Back To the Future story that just HAD to be told, then I’d be totally down with that. But make that decision based on a script… don’t base a script on a decision.
That’s what Indiana Jones 4 was… a script based on a decision. They first decided there was going to be an Indy 4… and THEN came up with a script. Instead, they should have waited to see if there was a great script that HAD to be told, and then made the decision to go ahead and make it. The result was still an entertaining Indy 4 movie… but overall disappointing and not worthy of the Indy name.
Plus… would anyone alive right now go see a Back to the Future 4 without Michael J Fox? No… I didn’t think so.
