Back to the Future

[kostgard]

Oct 23, 2015 13:51:20 GMT -4 luminosa said:

This is one of my top 25 favorite films ever!
So many great things about the movie. I also love a young Billy Zane as one of Biff's cronies.

I think Eric Stoltz could have been good as Marty. I'm curious as to why they didn't like him. That being said, MJF OWNS this part.

From what I remember, he just didn't bring the right touch of humor that they were looking for. Also, they REALLY wanted from MJF from day one, but he was busy with Family Ties. I'm sure when the director mentioned that he wasn't so sure about Stoltz's performance some assistant flipped through a calendar and was all, "Well, guess who's done shooting his TV show for the season?" and the rest is history.

Christopher Lloyd has also said while he was fine with Stoltz, he had a much easier/more natural chemistry with MJF, so the right decision all around.

[luminosa]

Oct 23, 2015 18:46:03 GMT -4 kostgard said:

Oct 23, 2015 13:51:20 GMT -4 luminosa said:

This is one of my top 25 favorite films ever!
So many great things about the movie. I also love a young Billy Zane as one of Biff's cronies.

I think Eric Stoltz could have been good as Marty. I'm curious as to why they didn't like him. That being said, MJF OWNS this part.

From what I remember, he just didn't bring the right touch of humor that they were looking for. Also, they REALLY wanted from MJF from day one, but he was busy with Family Ties. I'm sure when the director mentioned that he wasn't so sure about Stoltz's performance some assistant flipped through a calendar and was all, "Well, guess who's done shooting his TV show for the season?" and the rest is history.

Christopher Lloyd has also said while he was fine with Stoltz, he had a much easier/more natural chemistry with MJF, so the right decision all around.

Aww. I have a soft spot for Eric Stoltz. Aside from being one of my
Mom's celebrity crushes for as long as I can remember, I met him six or seven years ago. He was directing an episode of something I was working on and he came in to our department one day. The day that I was passed out on the floor sick, too sick to even take myself home. He made me laugh bc he asked if I was okay and if I needed medicine...or cocaine! Haha.

[Deleted]

The producers and director talk a little bit about it here. There is a little bit of footage with Eric Stoltz and he does seem more intense then Michael J Fox although it is silent so its hard to really get a feel of what his performance would have been like. I didn't realize he had shot for 5 weeks before getting fired. That seems pretty deep into a shoot. I feel bad for him, apparently he was crushed. Especially when it went on to become a huge hit. But I can't imagine anyone else but Fox in the role.

[ladytrentham]

MJF did have some overlap with the Family Ties shooting schedule. I forget exactly where I read it, but he described doing a full day's work on FT; trying to sleep in the back of the car on the way to the BTTF set; doing a full night's work on BTTF; then trying to sleep in the back of the car on the way to the FT set;... For a couple of weeks or so.

[Spinderella]

That's right, he was working the final half of the season for Family Ties while shooting BTTF. I think his daytime shots were all done on weekends. If you look back, you'll find that the daytime ones are almost all on the Universal Studios backlot, Whitter High School (when kids are not there, natch) and the McFly house on-location.

I couldn't imagine that kind of work load! But I've seen footage of Stolz and where I don't mind him, he was far too serious as Marty. He just didn't have the proper timing or physicality that MJF has/had. This was a VERY pratfall-ish film and Marty had a quirkiness to him that required the actor to be spry and clever, but also funny.

ETA: Poor Biff couldn't really escape the Universal Studios lot, could he? Spends the remaining half of the 80s into 1990 there and then returns for a long stint on Ghost Whisperer which was entirely filmed on the very.same.lot., clock tower, shops, houses and all. Wonder why he never frequents (like ever!) any reunion or BTTF cast meetups? Ouch.

[GirlyGhoul]

He's probably afraid he'll get manure dumped on him if he goes anywhere near the rest of the cast! LOL!

And I agree with Eric Stoltz just not having that Marty McFly essence that made the character who he was. MJF had a kind of manic energy about him which was necessary for his situation (I mean. He was on a deadline after all. His siblings heads were disappearing by the minute!!) But while I don't begrudge MJF eventually getting the lead over Eric, I do wonder if they were giving him any direction or notes expressing what they wanted from the performance. Because if you've ever seen the overdose scene in Pulp Fiction, Stoltz is completely capable of displaying manic energy while also being funny.

Although, that scene was even more frenzied and panicked than anything Marty had to go through, so maybe when they gave the direction for Stoltz to give Marty more energy- he full on gave them "OMG! Marcellus Wallace's wife is O.D'ing on my carpet!!!" instead of "OMG! My mom's gotta kiss my dad at this dance or else I won't exist!!"

Hard to say.

[Mugsy]

Michael J. Fox also had the fan base from Family Ties to help sell the movie, whereas Eric Stoltz was a nobody, so to speak.

I remember some (kinda dumb) people saying they didn't like BTTF2 because it didn't make sense to them. How could there be three Martys at the same time? Explaining it just confused them more. I was hella impressed by the construct of making that movie - seeing the same scenes from the first movie but from a different perspective, having to recreate all those scenes to be exactly the same.

As movie nitpickers note, producers often can't get a costume the same in a movie when shooting a scene on two different days; the level of detail required to duplicate everything two years later is impressive.

[kostgard]

Oct 28, 2015 2:35:56 GMT -4 Spinderella said:

ETA: Poor Biff couldn't really escape the Universal Studios lot, could he? Spends the remaining half of the 80s into 1990 there and then returns for a long stint on Ghost Whisperer which was entirely filmed on the very.same.lot., clock tower, shops, houses and all. Wonder why he never frequents (like ever!) any reunion or BTTF cast meetups? Ouch.

He does seem a bit over it. He's got a handout that he gives fans who approach him that pre-answers all their questions.

[Deleted]

Oct 28, 2015 23:39:49 GMT -4 kostgard said:

Oct 28, 2015 2:35:56 GMT -4 Spinderella said:

ETA: Poor Biff couldn't really escape the Universal Studios lot, could he? Spends the remaining half of the 80s into 1990 there and then returns for a long stint on Ghost Whisperer which was entirely filmed on the very.same.lot., clock tower, shops, houses and all. Wonder why he never frequents (like ever!) any reunion or BTTF cast meetups? Ouch.

He does seem a bit over it. He's got a handout that he gives fans who approach him that pre-answers all their questions.

He also has a song.

[Spinderella]

Oct 29, 2015 6:30:30 GMT -4 @roisin54 said:

Oct 28, 2015 23:39:49 GMT -4 kostgard said:

He does seem a bit over it. He's got a handout that he gives fans who approach him that pre-answers all their questions.

He also has a song.

BRILLIANT!

The role of Marty was always MJF's. He just couldn't get out of his contract from Garry Goldberg to film it. The entire script was with him in mind, so I can imagine that when Stolz was filming they just felt that they weren't ever going to make this work. Once Goldberg agreed after much begging to let him go (and knowing that Family Ties came first), he asked MJF to read the script and let him know. I love that MJF just picked up the script then let it drop on the desk and say, "I love it! I'll do it. It's the best script I ever read." Awesome.

And the rest is...history!