Excellent! “Bill & Ted Face the Music,” the reunion film where Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves reprising their roles as the beloved time-traveling slackers, will open nationwide on Aug. 21, 2020.
Production is set to begin this summer on the third film in the franchise, Hammerstone Studios announced on Wednesday. Orion Pictures will release the movie through its United Artists Releasing banner.
Winter and Reeves released a brief announcement video from the Hollywood Bowl that the movie is “actually, hopefully” happening. Watch it above.
“Bill & Ted Face The Music” follows the events of 1989’s “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure” and 1991’s “Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey,” with the now middle-aged best friends William “Bill” S. Preston, Esq. (Winter) and Theodore “Ted” Logan (Reeves) setting out on a new adventure to fulfill their rock and roll (Wyld Stallions) destiny to bring harmony to the universe through the power of their music. Along the way, they will be helped by their families, old friends and a few music legends.
Dean Parisot (“Galaxy Quest,” “Red 2,” “Fun With Dick and Jane”) is directing the time-traveling buddy comedy based on a screenplay by Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon, who are returning to the franchise.
Scott Kroopf is producing alongside Alex Lebovici and Steve Ponce on behalf of Hammerstone Studios. Steven Soderbergh will be executive producing along with R. Scott Reid, John Ryan Jr., Scott Fischer and John Santilli. Production legal will be handled by Rosen Stapleton Law Group.
“Face the Music” was announced in May 2018, but even then Reeves had commented that he was uncertain if the film would be a “reality.”
“We’ve been trying for a long time to get that film made, and it still has its challenges,” Reeves said. “I really love the characters, and I think we have a good story to tell/ Part of it is show business stuff — financing, rights, deals. Nothing creatively.”
Reeves will next be seen in “John Wick: Chapter Three” and in the Netflix rom-com “Always be My Maybe.” Winter’s next project is a documentary on the life of the legendary rock artist Frank Zappa and another called “Showbiz Kids” for HBO and Bill Simmons’ Ringer Films.
The previous “Bill & Ted” films were box office successes, becoming cultural touch points for a generation and garnering a rabid cult following in the process.