"Hey Nic, that dude you like so much has made another movie", those were the exact words from my longhaired, guitar playing boyfriend back in 1988. Ironically enough I was talking to him from a phone booth somewhere in southern France, wearing his Megadeth t-shirt and not having any idea yet what the film (Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure in this case) was exactly all about. Faith No More and The Red Hot Chili Peppers were my favorite bands and I regularly went to underground rock concerts and festivals. Reading the following you can understand that the whole "Bill &Ted thing" was pretty familiar to me. In the years that followed; the metalhead and I went both our separate ways. I’m no longer "the girl with the earplugs in, sitting next to the drummer during rehearsals in the small garage of the Van Gastel family on a saturday afternoon" but a hard working 29year old female with her own futureplans. I'll never forget goofy Bill S. Preston with his adventures and funny exclamations. While in that period all my other friends melted at the sight of Keanu Reeves, Alex stole my heart with his cute smile and witty comments.

Cast :

• Alex Winter - Bill S. Preston, Esq
  Granny Preston and Evil Bill
• Keanu Reeves - Ted (Theodore) Logan
  and Evil Ted
• William Sadler - Grim Reaper and
  English Family Member
• Joss Ackland - Chuck De Nomolos
• Pam Grier - Ms. Wardroe
• George Carlin - Rufus
• Amy Stock-Poynton - Missy
• Jim Martin - Sir James Martin
• Hal Landon Jr. - Captain Logan
• Annette Azcuy - Elizabeth
• Sarah Trigger - Joanna
• Chelcie Ross - Colonel Oats
• Robert Noble - Bach

On July 12, Bill and Ted are coming to DVD, only this time in a special DVD Box set. The box set contains both movies (Excellent Adventure and Bogus Journey) plus a third disc of extras. The bonus disc is titled "Bill & Ted's Most Excellent Collection Non-Bogus Disc" and includes the following extras:

• Bill & Ted: In Conversation with Chris & Ed (an original feature)
• The Most Triumphant Making-Of documentary
• An Interview with Guitarist Steve Vai
• An Air Guitar Tutorial with Bjorn Toroque and The Rockness Monster
• The Hysterical Personages of Bill & Ted (in 3 Minutes or Less)
• One Sweet and Sour Chinese Adventure To Go (the first episode of the animated series)
• Bill and Ted's Excellent Comic Book; plus
• Miscellaneous Radio Spots
  

  Here follows a review of some of the special features on the third (bonus disc) of the DVD set

  1. The Original Bill & Ted in Conversation with Ed and Chris
  Here Ed Solomon and Chris Matheson, the writers of the movies, are interviewed. They tell us how the concept for the first movie (Excellent Adventure) was born and how the personages of Bill and Ted were created. Ed and Chris had been friends for many years and toying around with the idea to make a movie about these two lovable yet ignorant teenage boys with their own way of unique way of speaking before the script was written. The original script was written in 4 days and was subjected to many rewrites during the process of the trying to pitch it to the studios. Eventually De Laurentis picked it up and the movie was made. Ed and Chris had never met Keanu and Alex before while they were casting for the movie until they ran into them at the McDonalds in Phoenix one day. When they heard them interact with one another they instantly knew that these guys had to be the main characters for their movie. “Bill and Ted are both very delightful characters to work with” says Ed, "and in a personal way these two boys are a the idealized version of the friendship beween me and Chris."

2. The Most Triumphant Making of Documentary
Now, this is by far the most interesting part of the disc. Here we get to SEE Alex again and hear him talk about the Bill and Ted experience. It also features interviews with Stephen Herek (Excellent Adventure director) and Scott Kroopf (the producer) and Peter Hewitt (Bogus Journey director). “The B&T movies are about being a kid, and not diving into adulthood at very early age” Alex says.

It starts of with the making and production of Excellent Adventure. Alex and Keanu met in the waiting room at the casting agency and they immediately clicked. They had a lot in common and the same interests. Primarily Alex was casted as Ted and Keanu as Bill. He was also glad they got George Carlin for the role of Rufus, because he had been a huge fan of his and he fit really well in the project. Excellent Adventure was mostly shot in Arizona and Italy, and there’s a funny anecdote there which I can relate to quite well since I was in Rome very recently. The scene in EA where they get Sigmund Freud, was shot in Rome at the Piazza Venezia. No one had been there since Musolini and his government left in the 40’s. The film crew had put up all kinds of signs on the spot which freaked out the Romans, who thought Bill & Ted had invaded Rome. There’s also a funny story how Bill and Ted and all the historical figures had to be crammed into the phonebooth and they show how the scenes with the phonebooth and the effects were shot. At first writers and the producers of the film were afraid the movie would go straight to video, but when they tested it with an audience it worked out really well.

When Excellent Adventure turned out to be such a big succes, Ed and Chris started talking about a sequel almost immediately. Originally the script for the sequel was titled “ Bill and Ted go to Hell” and the most important thing for them was to get everybody on board for the sequel. It had to be weird enough and far out enough to do it twice. Bogus Journey is definitely darker than Excellent Adventure. They got Peter Hewitt to direct the sequel and he gave it a more complex tone and contributed more elaborate shots (the hell scene, for instance) which makes the second movie more diverse from the first movie. As you know, Alex also plays Granny S. Preston is this film and Bill Sadler plays Death in the persona of The Grim Reaper, which he played really well. They also discuss the music for Bogus Journey which is very good and pretty remarkable as well. Of course there are the appearances of Faith No More’s Jim Martin and Primus bassguitar player Jim Thompson in the film and Kiss contributed the song “God Gave Rock and Roll to You” at the end credits of the film. ”I’m a huge music fan and a lot of my filmwork is music driven,” Alex explains. At the time he just came from New York where he was a DJ at a radio station at NYU.

The most frequently asked question: Will there ever be another movie?
Alex and Keanu have been discussing this idea several times but according to Alex it depends on two things, a) do you really want to do it again at the risk that would not be as good as it should be and muddling with two very sweet movies and b) He and Keanu are both in such different places in their lives right now and Alex hasn’t acted in 10 years. “It may happen, and in theory it’s hilarious, but it’s taking that leap from theory to practice”.

One thing is for sure, Alex has good memories of both movies and a lot of fun making them: “The sincerity of both movies is so genuine that it holds good memories for the persons involved”.

3. Interview with guitarist Steve Vai
In this segment Steve explains how he used to play air guitar as a kid and what his first introduction to filmwork was. A friend of his who was working studios at the time brought him into the film project called Bogus Journey. Steve explains how he came up with the idea for The Reaper Rap and The Reaper song. He also tells how the Battle of the Bands segment at the end of movie had to be re-shot several times and that there was an unbelievably tight time schedule to get the music on film right and to get the movie released.

4. Air Guitar Tutorial with Bjorn Turoque and The Rockness Monster
Here the air guitar champs The Rockness Monster and Bjorn Toroque explain the techniques of playing the air guitar and the difference between playing the guitar and playing air guitar. Included in this segment is a “ten steps to become an air guitar champ” tutorial, which is interesting if you want to become a competitive air guitar player.

5. Hysterical Personages of Bill & Ted
Biographies of all the historical personages Bill and Ted meet in both movies with rare photos of the actors in these roles. Very educational and enjoyable particulary the part in which the narrator tells how the Neanderthalers were discovered and how their extinction still remains uncertain till this day.

6. One Sweet and Sour Chinese Adventure to Go
This is the premiere episode of the animated Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure series. A treat for most Bill and Ted fans, since the animated series has not been seen or released since it first aired in 1990.

7. The Linguistic Stylings of Bill & Ted, Video Dictionary
A short extra which explains the meaning of Bill and Ted's idiom and phrases.

8. From Scribble to Scipt
Here you can read the original hand-written notes by Ed and Chris for the movies, and you can see how the film took shape.

Articles & Interviews
with Alex & Keanu

Starburst Magazine March 1990

preview of Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure