Producer Frank Marshall: No Going Back To Back To The Future

Frank Marshall is something of a Hollywood legend. Aside from being one half of a super-producing duo with his wife, Kathleen Kennedy (Star Wars), his name graces such titles as the Indiana Jones franchise, Gremlins, The Goonies, The Color Purple, Empire Of The Sun, Cape Fear, The Sixth Sense, War Horse and Jurassic World. He was also executive producer on the Back To The Future franchise, and it is his comments about that film series that gained the most attention when he recently spoke to Yahoo! Movies.

The purpose of the interview was actually to promote the DVD and Blu-ray release of Jason Bourne, but when the subject of Hollywood’s obsession with re-visiting old material arose, the conversation inevitably turned to Back To The Future – one of the most popular film franchises of the 1980s.

“Yeah [we won’t reboot Back To The Future], as long as I have my say. No, that one exists just like E.T. – we’re never touching those. I love watching it. But how about we almost got the Chicago Cubs victory right?!”

Frank Marshall refers to the tendency of Back To The Future fans to point out all the things that the franchise accurately predicted in its storylines. The plot of the trilogy begins with teenager Marty McFly and the adventures he has when he’s accidentally sent 30 years into the past by an eccentric scientist, who has turned a DeLorean into a time machine. In the second instalment, McFly travels from the 1980s to 2015 and back again, before the third instalment sends him back to 1885.

These days, it is inevitably Back To The Future Part II that receives the most attention. Aside from the unlikely baseball result to which Marshall refers in his quote, fans of the film also note the apparent similarities between President-Elect Donald Trump and the character of Biff Tannen (hairstyle and all), who manipulates his way to being a millionaire through realty deals, and is generally deeply unpleasant to those around him – particularly women.

But, fans can rest easy now that Frank Marshall has confirmed the previously stated sentiments of director Robert Zemeckis – there will be no Back To The Future reboot.