Robert Zemeckis pitched a Back to the Future musical movie to Universal Pictures, but the studio wasn’t interested.
The 72-year-old director helmed the franchise from its 1985 debut to its conclusion five years later, and has now revealed he considered revisiting the series to make a musical version of the first film, though Universal has since shot that idea down.
During an appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Zemeckis said: “I would like to do the Back to the Future: The Musical [movie]. I would love to do that. think that would be great. I floated that out to the folks at Universal. They don’t get it. So, [there’s] nothing I can do.”
While the Forrest Gump filmmaker toyed with the idea of making a musical, Zemeckis reiterated this would be the only way he would make another Back to the Future flick.
Back to the Future: The Musical
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When host Josh Horowitz asked whether a direct sequel was possible, the director said: “We’ve always felt that, ‘This was enough’ and that we had to live with it just being the three movies.The musical is more of a companion to the movies than a remake. It’s sort of like another … it’s a whole other thing. It’s a celebration of the movie basically.”
While he joked Universal have been asking him “every six months” to make more Back to the Future films, Zemeckis revealed the studio has consistently approached him about doing more with the franchise.
He explained: “They say, ‘Is there anything else we can do here?’ And we have to say, ‘Yeah there are different things that might work.’ But to remake the movie or suggest that there is a Back to the Future 4 … it just isn’t in the cards.”
Even if another Back to the Future doesn’t happen, Michael J. Fox — who starred opposite Christopher Lloyd as Mary McFly in the trilogy — previously said he was at peace with Hollywood potentially rebooting the series without him, but stressed Zemeckis and his co-writer Bob Gale wouldn’t be interested in working on another film.
He told Variety: “I think Bob and Bob have been really smart about that. I don’t think it needs rebooting because are you going to clarify something? You’re going to find a better way to tell the story? I doubt it.”
