‘Blu’ to the Future: Bob Gale hints at ‘Back to the Future’ Blu-ray release at recent screening

Celebration, Florida — Back to the Future on Blu-ray was hinted at multiple times this past Saturday by Writer/Producer Bob Gale to a crowd of more than 350 fans who traveled from all across the nation to attend a rare Back to the Future screening and cast reunion near Orlando.


Gale was in town over this past weekend participating in the 5th Annual Celebration Exotic Car Festival benefiting the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Central and North Florida. On Saturday, April 19, he joined actors Christopher Lloyd, Claudia Wells and Jeffrey Weissman on stage in a 50-minute “Inside the Actors Studio”-type discussion and audience Q&A session preceding a special screening of Back to the Future which was sponsored by BTTF.com.

Saturday's unsuspecting audience was taken by surprise when Gale announced at the onset that they would not be watching the movie on 35mm film, but rather would reviewing the digital master from which the Blu-ray transfer will be taken from — the first time the classic movie had ever been digitally projected on the big screen.

"What you're going to be seeing today is the digital master for the upcoming High Definition Blu-ray version of Back to the Future," declared Gale. "I dont' know when it's coming out yet, but I was involved in the mastering of this tape, so I can tell you that it looks absolutely beautiful!"

Later in the discussion, an audience member asked Gale the eventual question of whether the infamous Eric Stoltz footage would be seen on Blu-ray.

"No, we get that one a lot — why wasn't it included on the old DVD and why it won't be on the new one. It's because Eric Stoltz is a working actor," Gale explained. "We made a mistake putting him in the movie — it's not his fault. But seeing the footage makes him look bad, and it doesn't make us look too good either. We don't want to put something out there that's gonna make somebody look bad. We didn't destroy the footage — it's still out there and we know it has historical significance. But maybe in another 20 years we can put that out there, but we don't want to anything out there that's gonna hurt somebody."

As the Q&A session drew to a close, one last audience member inquired as to whether Back to the Future...The Ride would be included on the eventual Blu-ray Disc.

"I think they're talking about that," admitted Gale. "I haven't been directly involved with this, but I've sent a few emails to people at Universal suggesting that might be a really good extra feature on there, so we'll remind them again."

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