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After 27 years, Bill and Ted are on their way back to close the time loop in a new film, 

, Bill and Ted "find themselves as middle-aged dads still trying to crank out a hit song and fulfill their destiny." If your memory is as hazy as 

, you'd be forgiven for not recalling that, through 

and up until the tail-end of the franchise's second film 

, Bill and Ted were decidedly heinous at creating music, despite the fate of the Earth depending on them, like, not being. Old habits die, it seems evident, with 

 difficulty.
"We have been working ten years to get this done in the right way," co-creator and co-writer Ed Solomon 

 last month, Keanu Reeves (Ted) said the film was first pitched to him and co-star Alex Winter (Bill) in 2007 and is now, while still in pre-production, currently being shopped at Cannes.
Where 

 centralized a parody of Ingmar Bergman's 

 — pitting the dudes against a pale-faced Death over games of Clue, Twister and Battleship — the new film, Solomon says, is "kinda like 

 with Bill and Ted." The pair are now middle-aged family men, perhaps still kicking around San Dimas. The difference this time is that — in a very post-Marvel upping of the ante — it's not the Earth that needs saving, but the entire universe.
In the years since the two films made them stars, Keanu Reeves has been conspicuously busy portraying, among other things, a 

, to great success. Alex Winter moved into directing television and documentaries, including 

 from 2013, which examined the effect of piracy and downloads on the music industry.
The original films' soundtracks were hair-metal worship at its finest — just look at the 

 from one of the film's premieres back in the day to see a who's-who Los Angeles' louchest, enjoying a pre-grunge sunset. Can the world still be saved by sweet licks? A glance at our surroundings would suggest the answer is an emphatic probs-nah. Maybe the dudes pivot to DJ'ing this time around?  Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Andrew Flanagan

Author

The most-excellent pair of Californian almost-rockers return after more than 25 years in order to -- well, save the universe.

Excellent! Bill and Ted set to return as dad rockers

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