Back to the Future Trivia

[Mirage]

I never saw this coming from a million miles away... I would have totally blown this on any trivia game... only to be completely blindsided with a harsh dose of one of the craziest thing's I've heard of in movies.... I bet none of you knew what you are about to read...

I was just doing some research on www.IMDB.com and found out a very interesting and disturbing tidbit about the movie Back to the Future.

Crispin Glover, The actor who played George McFly in the first movie apparently refused to take on the role again in the sequels, so instead it was played by Jeffrey Weissman who wore prosthetics to make him look like the character from the original.

But wait, there's more! Crispin Glover (BTTF1) sued Stephen Spielberg for using his likeness and clips of him in the sequels, and won!

Even so, I have to give props to Stephen Spielberg on this one. For whatever that lawsuit ended up being, it had to have been well worth keeping the character's look and feel in the sequels. Heck, it was done so well that I didn't even know this until I was randomly looking up if anybody from that movie had gone on to do other movies I've seen.

At first I was thinking, wait a minute, this is an error, but then I found this that confirmed the swap, to my disbelief:

Excited by the chance to explore more adventurous projects, he turned down an offer to reprise McFly in Back to the Future Part II (1989). The producers brought the character back to life by splicing together archived footage and new scenes (using an actor in prosthetic makeup). Glover, who hadn't given permission for his scenes to be recycled, sued the film's producer, Steven Spielberg, and won. The case prompted the Screen Actors Guild to devise new regulations about the use of actors' images.

Source: http://imdb.com/name/nm0000417/bio

And on a side note, remember Biff? Well, he mostly paints now, so I'm sure many of you here will be interested in checking out his site. http://tomwilsonusa.com/ he has a lot of cool paintings there of mostly toys and games. He is also a voice in many Sponge Bob Square Pants episodes.

 

[Bunny_roses]

wow I didn't know that either. Interesting info

 

[leopard22]

Oh, how the mightly have fallen - Biff painting? What up wit dat?

Holy smoke, I had no idea about the Marty McFly character lawsuit and fake in the sequels. I wonder why he didn't want to be in the sequels - it's not as if there were million-dollar projects out there crying for him to star in as I recall. Everyone was just raving about Michael Fox I think - maybe that's why? :-/

 

[Mirage]

Well, looking back, he's been in nothing super popular since then, so I think it was probably a big mistake on his part.

This probably explains the lack of George McFly in the sequels. He was in them somewhat, but he was dead for most of the second one except for one quick scene in the first future timeline. (And he's hanging upside down lol, so maybe that's why, to help hide the fact that it's a different actor).

I think it would have been stupid to have him look totally different in the sequels, so I think the money they lost in the lawsuit was well worth it to keep the consistency of the movies. I don't think most people even noticed this, which is really funny if you think about it. Talk about pulling a fast one on the fans, lol!

 

[MenInTights]

I'm sure Tom (Biff) is a nice guy, but I can't look at his website photos without getting a little nervous. He played the bully so perfect and it brought up memories from high school. I'm sure with all the nerds around here at least someone else can relate. lol.
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Oh come on, No one agrees?
I was the ONLY geek in High School around here?!? I've some of your profiles.
:lol:

 

[leopard22]

Nerds? Here? No way Jose ... umm ... Spence.

I never noticed the different George person either. My faux pas in saying "Marty" in my earlier post ... must be because Michael Fox that got all the press in that one (either that or I was just not awake, which is more likely). I think Andrew's right about the upside down part in the sequel as some of the reason why no one noticed a different actor.

Actually Crispin Glover's has been in some good movies since then, but not as a character that I even remember. I had to go to his filmography to even find out what he has been in and that amazed me ... I didn't realize he was in so many films. Sounds a bit strange in person, however, IMHO.