'Back to the Future, Complete Screenplay', Flip Thru & Review

0:00Jawad MirHow the screenplay is done with annotations and kind of referring back to the stuff that we have saw… seen growing up, and it's, it's a treat to read Back to the Future 2, the way it ends. You know, Marty McFly comes back, "But I'm back. I'm back from the future." And the camera dollies out, and the music kicks in, and to be continued. With full color pictures, you know. Storyboard of the chase, which happens pretty much in all three films. And, yeah, I mean, this is, this is really cool. Hey, everyone, welcome back to Kingdom of Dreams Podcast. This is your host, Jawad Mir. Today, I'm going to be going through this book, Back to the Future: The Complete Screenplay by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale. It comes out next month, October 21st, and Inside, Edition was kind enough to send me a copy. I also had a conversation with, screenwriter Bob Gale. That episode is gonna go live this week.

1:01Jawad MirAnd do check that out, because there's a lot of fun conversation and new details in there. For now, I'm just gonna go through this book. So Back to the Future: The Complete Screenplay, and it is an incredible piece of book. Great retro kind of a texture. So it starts off like a regular screenplay would, and it literally leads into... The whole book is a combination of the screenplay, which is one page, and then there's behind-the-scene pictures and a whole bunch of other information that kind of goes along with it. This is Robert Zemeckis, and this is Bob Gale, and, these are the script pages. So this is how the book is broken down. On one side you have all this imagery, all this text pertaining to the film, the script, and, along with a lot of notes and annotations by the screenwriter. This is, you know, I don't need to tell you guys this, but it's one of the most amazing trilogies ever made, especially a time machine one, because there hasn't been anything like this. I think even films that are made by, filmmakers on the actual book, H.G.

2:04Jawad MirWells' Time Machine, don't come as close to this, because this is a combination of everything. And one of my most amazing memories from this film, from this trilogy I should say, was I actually accidentally saw the second one first, and then I saw the first, and then I saw the third. This book, the screenplay I should say, is something that all of you must have, whether you're Back to the Future fans or not, whether you're into films or not. Because it really gives you an inside look at how the screenplay is done with annotations and kind of referring back to the stuff that we have saw… seen growing up, and it's, it's a treat to read. It's, I've gone through most of it. I haven't gone through all of it, but I don't think it's been ever done like this before. So it's just really cool, and we… Bob Gale and I, who spoke on the podcast last week, which I'm gonna be putting out this week. We talked about a book like that's never been done like this before. You know, there have been screenplays, which I have here, a bunch of them. And then there was a Jurassic Park official script book that came out, which was great in itself, but it wasn't necessarily like the Back to the Future one.

3:13Jawad MirYou know, it has storyboards, it has, the script in there. But there's just something missing in there that is not, missing from this particular book. Nothing against this book. I love this book. I've spoken with the author, James Mortram, many times, who's written Jurassic Park: Ultimate Visual History, which is also by Inside Edition. So if you haven't got that, Lost World… Sorry, Jurassic Park and Jurassic World, do check that out. These are great pieces of books. And, then you have... So I'm, I'm actually what I'm excited about, to be honest. This is fantastic. I love the storyboards, I love the annotations, but I'm more interested in Back to the Future 2. Not because this isn't great. This is one of the best films ever made. But there's just that personal connection that I have with Back to the Future 2 and kind of it being like a futuristic tale, especially the most memorable thi… memorable thing for me from Back to the Future 2, is the Jaws 19 part. And then the way it ends, the second part, where, you know, Marty McFly comes back, "But I'm back. I'm back from the future." And the camera dollies out, and the music kicks in, and to be continued.

4:16Jawad MirThat feeling and that letter that Marty McFly gets from Doc Brown from the 1800s, that moment is very cool and, you know, again, you don't see that happening ever again in any kind of movies. And look, this is, these are the notes right here, annotations. And then I think it's Bob who wrote here, "Haven't I told you ever before not to come here?" Then he scraps it off. So these are like sort of fixing the dialogue that a lot of screenplays, if not all the screenplays, go through. You kind of put them, you know, those notes in the margins instead of rewriting, and that's kind of happens when they're shooting script. Like when you're on location, you're on the spot, and you're kind of going through and making changes because it's not working for a certain actor or the dialogue is not really in sync with the scene. And that does happen. On paper, it may sound great, but, you know, on screen during the set, it sounds totally different. I don't wanna, I don't wanna ruin the book for you guys, so I'm just kind of skimming through it. This is a scene where, Brown, Doc Brown says, "I've had enough of your practical jokes for one evening.

5:19Jawad MirGood night, future boy." With full color pictures, you know. Storyboard of the chase, which happens pretty much in all three films. And, yeah, I mean, this is, this is really cool. I, you know, I'll, I'll read something from you here. The director's cut. We… Director's cut. I just kind of randomly opened this. It says, "We have often been asked if there will be a director's cut of the movie, which we understand to be a, to mean a version with various deletions, like this one, restored. But I released the version of the movie protected from the alter… alteration by the Library of Congress due to its inclusion in the list of films with historic and/or cultural differences as a director's cut. All the, all of the deleted scenes material was removed by us without any notes and suggestions. In fact, this is the only cut of the movie that a studio ever saw. The audience response on its first studio test screening was so overwhelmingly positive that Universal's President Sh… Scheinberg told us not to change a single frame. No filmmaker has ever received a better studio note than that." That is so true.

6:20Jawad MirAnd I think filmmakers like Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, maybe at, you know, later part of their career, they probably didn't get any studio notes. Maybe they did, but they at least had that power. But for Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale, who's had on… who had only done rom… well, Robert Zemeckis had only done Romancing the Stone, alone. But before that they collaborated with, he collaborated with Bob Gale on Used Cars, I Wanna Hold My Hand, I Wanna Hold Your Hand, 1941, which was directed by Steven Spielberg. And, yeah. So I highly recommend that you guys get this book, screenplay I should say, because it is one of a kind, and I'm really hoping, and it depends on you guys. I'm really hoping that when the 40th anniversary of Back to the Future II comes, which is four years from now, and Back to the Future III, which is five years from now, or six years from now, if my memory serves me right, then they release the Back to the Future II and III versions. Because this is phenomenal.

7:20Jawad MirI mean, look at these. Look at these storyboards. Now for all I know, they might already be online because Back to the Future has such a big community. For me, it's a really new thing. This is the scene that I was talking about, the ending, when Marty McFly goes back to the future. Which is kind of repeated in part two. Yeah. I strongly recommend that you guys check this out, and voila. Roads. Where we are going, we don't need roads. I hope you enjoyed my look at Back to the Future complete screenplay, which comes out October 21st. You can order it from Amazon and down at the link below. Talk to you guys soon.