Why Disney was so disgusted by ‘Back to the Future’
The greatest thing that ever happened to Back to the Future, regardless of its status as a classic equally adored by several generations, was director Robert Zemeckis and producer Bob Gale keeping hold of the rights to the property.
Had the duo not decided to retain control, then the franchise would have been gifted with at least one sequel, reboot, or remake by now. Disney has repeatedly shown itself happy to repurpose any brand with name value over and over again, with the company’s initial disgust and ultimate rejection of Back to the Future potentially proving to be a blessing in disguise in the long run.
Of course, nobody could have predicted the time-travelling adventure would turn out to be one of the most beloved studio movies in Hollywood history. Zemeckis wondered if it would ever get made at all when various drafts of the screenplay were rejected more than 40 times, often by the same studios on numerous occasions.
Thanks to the success of Romancing the Stone in 1984, the relatively unproven director had a certifiable box office hit and a Golden Globe win for ‘Best Picture – Musical or Comedy’ under his belt. It allowed him to return to Back to the Future with his reputation enhanced. Even at that, though, finding a willing production partner still proved tricky.
One of the most questionable plot points in the film revolves around Lea Thompson’s Lorraine McFly inadvertently getting the hots for her own son. That moment, in particular, proved a bridge too far for the staunchly family-friendly Disney, who didn’t want to be associated with such risqué material.
“This was before Michael Eisner went in and reinvented it. This was the last vestiges of the old Disney family regime,” Gale would tell CNN of the fruitless meeting, “We went in to meet with an executive, and he says, ‘Are you guys nuts? Are you insane? We can’t make a movie like this. You’ve got the kid and the mother in his car! It’s incest. This is Disney. It’s too dirty for us!'”
Fortunately, Zemeckis ended up with an ace up his sleeve in the form of Steven Spielberg, with the two becoming friends and collaborators when he and Gale penned the screenplay for 1941. As the latter revealed, “We wrote two official drafts, and it was the second that we took around to everybody. One person who was very interested in that draft was Steven Spielberg.”
Fortunately, Spielberg’s Amblin had recently been welcomed into the fold by Universal, but even though Romancing the Stone had created serious interest in Zemeckis’ next project, loyalty came first. “Being the loyal guy he is, he says, let’s go back and give it to the guy who wanted to make it in the first place, Steven,” Gale recalled. Just like that, Back to the Future had a new home and was finally in development, and the rest was soon history.
