'Bill & Ted 3' Production Still Moving Forward According To Alex Winter

Not long after the first official synopsis was released and Bill and Ted Face the Music looked like it was going to become a reality, franchise star Alex Winter spoke at the Television Critics Association this week and told fans that, despite co-star Keanu Reeves's well-publicized reservations, the project is still moving forward a the same pace as it was.

Reeves had warned fans not to get too worked up over the long-delayed film, since the same old obstacle -- getting money lined up for the production -- had not yet been fully resolved. Still, Winter told an audience at a panel for Eli Roth's History of Horror, that should not be taken as new information.

"We're still in pre-production," Winter said, according to Slashfilm. "It's still the same. Early 2019 is still the same. I'm still being told to hold those dates. That's all I know."

The threequel, which will see a middle-aged Bill Preston and Ted Logan trying to figure out why the future they were promised has still not happened,

"What I keep telling everyone is I don't trust a movie as being made, frankly, until, literally, I'm watching it on cable two years after it's done," Winter said. "Not even while we're shooting it. To be fair to Reeves, his point is just anything can go wrong at any point. We made the first movie and it was shelved for a year and a half. We were like it's done, never going to come out, no one's ever going to see it. It's a pain in the ass. It's not ever not a pain in the ass. Nothing has changed in a radical way. If it is, that'll be news."

Bill & Ted 3 screenwriter Ed Solomon, who has been working on the project for almost 10 years alongside Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, recently revealed that they have Dean Parisot (Galaxy Quest) lined up to be the film's director.

The movie is centered around a middle-aged Bill and Ted going back in time to encounter their younger selves in footage from the original Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. That includes the legendary George Carlin, who played Rufus in the two existing films.

You can find the current synopsis below.

"They return to that scene at the Circle K when Bill and Ted first meet themselves, only now they're watching their younger selves and looking at the exuberance and joy that they had at that time in their lives. And they see Rufus, they see George Carlin..."

Word has been for some time that studios seem hesitant to back a Bill & Ted film that isn't a complete reboot-- but they are equally reluctant to throw money at a reboot, since much of the film's nostalgic appeal is wrapped up in Reeves.

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure was released in 1989 and brought in a bit over $40 million dollars. Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey brought in slightly less at $38 million. Each was created on a relatively modest budget, and were big enough commercial hits to spawn toy and comic book lines as well as an animated series.

Despite the hurdles to clear along the way, it seems clear from the internet reaction to each new wrinkle in the Bill & Ted Face the Music saga that there is still interest in seeing the duo return to the big screen. Whether that interest is enough to convince backers is another thing entirely.