As much as we’ve always wanted a third Bill & Ted film, it will be bittersweet to see the Wyld Stallyns without their biggest champion. They never would have even graduated high school in Excellent Adventure if not for Rufus. And he was there to make sure they got a “Battle of the Bands” spot in Bogus Journey. But sadly, the great George Carlin passed away in 2008. And even though the original script for Bill & Ted Face the Music included a scene with him, budget constraints mean a CGI George Carlin will not be appearing in the film.
Orion Pictures
Bill & Ted Face the Music director Dean Parisot told Polygon that they originally planned to have a sequence with a CGI re-creation of George Carlin in the film. It would have taken place outside the Circle K convenience story where strange things are always afoot. The scene would have utilized unused footage of Carlin shot for 1989’s Excellent Adventure. In the new film, Bill and Ted would have traveled back to the night they first met Rufus for advice on how to finally write their Utopia-bringing song.
Unfortunately, budget and shooting schedule concerns meant they couldn’t do it. He said the film could afford to rebuild the Circle K set, but the old footage would have required creating a CGI George Carlin. That would have been “incredibly expensive, and very difficult to pull off in a convincing way,” according to Parisot. They just didn’t have “the time or the money” to do it. Even though it was a “a great scene.”
The scene was important to the plot, though. So instead, the duo will get a keepsake of Rufus’s that provides the same advice he was meant to give them.
And the film will still pay tribute to the late comedian with a brief appearance as a hologram. A voiceover artist even provided him with a line of dialogue. Both moments should provide fitting tributes to the Wyld Stallyn’s biggest, and most important, fan.
Bill & Ted Face the Music premieres in theaters and On Demand on August 28.
Featured Image: Orion Pictures
