Well, I finished reading the 1st draft of Back to the Future and I have to say, I’m glad this wasn’t the flick that was made. There’s a lot less personality and heart in this version and Marty is a bit of a douche. Eric Stoltz could have played this version of Marty, but I don’t think Michael J. Fox would have had the same effect.
It’s amazing the differences that happen between 1st, 4th, and Final on this script. But I think what is more amazing are the sequences that exist from 1st to the final film with dialogue intact. Zemeckis and Gale had created an incredible backbone for the film, but I’m glad it took a few years for the film to get greenlit. Zemeckis became a much better director, practical special effects advanced, and the script morphed into one for the ages.
And hey, remember that sequence in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull with Indy at the bomb site getting in a fridge. That basically came from the 1st draft of BTTF. That’s the time machine in this version, ran by Coca-Cola! That’s how Marty makes it home. So the script has that going for it, which is nice.
When Marty does get back to the future (this version was dated in 81, so the story happens in 82 and 52) he finds that the Professor has basically changed the world with Coca-Cola as a fuel, and created flying cars amongst other amazing gadgets which make the world better. Although, it does appear the world has mostly stalled out culturally without rock’n’roll ever being invented (Marty’s fault). Happily this leaves room for Marty to successfully ape all the songs he learned from the previous timeline that have never been written (The American Dream). George McFly has become a middle weight boxing champ after knocking Biff out, and poor Biff is the McFly family’s security guard, working for 50 cents an hour.
Damn, I’m ready to watch the movie all over again.
The Husky Idler 