The First Bill & Ted Movie Was Originally Way Different

While the Bill & Ted franchise, which recently saw the release of the third movie Face the Music, is a classic feel-good series, it almost had a very different story. And it involved a homeless man, a van, and a dog.

In Bill & Ted's Most Excellent Movie Book by Laura J. Shapiro, it's revealed that the first script for Excellent Adventure was quite a bit different. "Originally, the phone booth was a van, driven by Rufus, a 27-year-old homeless sophomore who lived in his van, accompanied, by his dog, Dog-Rufus," Shapiro writes.

The idea of Rufus being a man in his late-20s who couldn't get past the tenth grade living in a van with a dog named after him sure does shake things up. However, it takes that whimsical element away of Rufus being this wise being from the future.

However, while the script was being developed at Warner Bros., a few things changed. Because Back to the Future had already been released, executives wanted to distance a time-travelling van from the iconic Delorian, so the van was changed into a phone booth. It's also important to note that none of the Americans involved with the movie were familiar with Doctor Who--who uses the TARDIS, which is disguised as a phone booth, to travel through time.

Bill & Ted's Most Excellent Movie book is available now on Amazon. The book primarily covers Face the Music and features behind-the-scenes pictures and stills from the first two movies. Writers Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon write the foreward for the book, which delves into the characters and worlds from the Bill & Ted movies.

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