Hit director, and direct hit: Eric Stoltz as Marty McFly

I originally wrote the following as a comment on a YouTube video entitled ‘Eric Stoltz as Marty McFly in Back to the Future’ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wudNasQbv0).

The reason this footage exists is because Michael Fox was not the first choice to play Marty McFly, despite what people want to believe. Gale admitted that they ‘had to push back the starting date twice and even had an open casting call, trying to discover somebody’ (Kagan 2003, p. 70). ‘We had to make the movie by a certain day, and if we didn’t make the movie by a certain day, they would cancel the movie’ says Zemeckis. This implies the Stoltz version had an earlier deadline (i.e. May 1985), or else why the rush to start filming? An earlier release date would have negated much of the holiday box office competition; from the script, the tone of the Stoltz version is notably more dramatic and naturally at odds with the lighter, more comedic orientation of traditional summertime films. Note the Fox version was released the day before 4 July.

Spielberg comments about how he himself could and should have delayed the start date for Zemeckis until Fox was available at the start of 1985 (Sanello 2002, p. 167). Under pressure from studio executives, the filmmakers couldn’t take the gamble unless something went ‘wrong’ during production that would enable a casting change. The hectic schedule led to fewer takes, delays filming several scenes and no scope for reshoots as evidenced by the call sheets. One call sheet lists eight and a half pages of script to be filmed in one day – even for an experienced director, that simply isn’t possible. Zemeckis knew the project was in trouble from the very beginning. Discussing Eric Stoltz in 2016, Gale states that ‘by the time we were into the fifth week, we realised this is not working – this is not going to turn out well’ and that the footage itself is ‘not very good’. Gale lies when he talks about five weeks of filming with Stoltz. The Ultimate Visual History book confirms it was seven weeks. The published call sheets indicate that nearly every major scene in the film was finished, albeit to a slapdash quality; the exceptions being the high school dance and the 1985 town square scenes.

C. Thomas Howell confirmed (GMFB 2017) that he was Marty McFly, ‘cast, ready to go, rehearsing for two weeks’, before Stoltz became his replacement because of a strong test screening of Mask. If Fox was the first choice (which he wasn’t) when filming started in November 1984, they could have filmed the second unit footage first while they waited until he was available in January 1985. Coincidentally, the published call sheets allocated an additional eight weeks (two months) to the filming of b-roll footage. Stoltz was fired seven weeks into an eight-week schedule. Back to the Future was set to wrap by 28 February 1985. The film would have overrun its schedule by at least two weeks had they not made the change, not the three days referenced in the Visual History book. Howell saw Stoltz the morning he was fired; ‘he looked like he’d just been run over by a truck’. Stoltz was accompanied by John Philbin since both starred in The New Kids, released on 18 January 1985. Once Stoltz was fired, the deadline was extended. The deadline for the Fox version was originally in August 1985. It was advanced to July on the strength of a test screening.

In the DVD extras, Zemeckis states that he was likely never to work as a director again if Back to the Future flopped at the box office. Spielberg agreed. At the time, Zemeckis was viewed as box office poison with no clout in the industry. The Films of Robert Zemeckis (1998) confirms this – ‘After Used Cars, we wrote Back to the Future, and there was that three-year span where I couldn’t get a job directing’. Realising his error, Zemeckis quickly retorts with ‘oh, I couldn’t get … I wasn’t offered anything that I wanted to direct until Romancing the Stone’. It was acknowledged that Romancing the Stone was a surprise hit, not a guaranteed one. Zemeckis knew that if Back to the Future was less of a hit than Romancing the Stone, his career would be doomed. Out of Stoltz and Fox, only the latter could guarantee a hit because of his role in the popular television series Family Ties. Stoltz at the time was relatively untested since Mask was unreleased, and to Zemeckis, he was not worth the risk.

Gale has stated repeatedly that he only ever got to view the footage when there was a ‘complete’ version of the film available to view. According to the official story, this point was reached on 30 December 1984. There is significant conjecture regarding Stoltz’ final scenes; Christopher Lloyd alluded to the Twin Pines Mall scenes, whereas Crispin Glover stated it was the alternate 1985 seen at the end of the movie. There was evidently a determination to complete the film with Stoltz before he was fired, or else why continue in the wrong direction for seven weeks? The schedule delays, the lacklustre quality of takes and the filmmakers’ own doubts meant that Back to the Future was a project that had run out of both time and money. Replacing Stoltz was the only way the film could be completed in its entirety and ensure Zemeckis a future career in film. Zemeckis proved his arrogance and ego when he later stated ‘you can never make creative decisions because of corporate reasons’ (The Films of Robert Zemeckis 1998).

In the brief clips shown, the scene with Stoltz in the town square is filmed very differently from the Fox version; this is all intentional. The shot draws the audience’s attention from the travel agency immediately to Stoltz who is prominently fixed in the centre of the screen; this contrasts with dubious claims that Zemeckis stated ‘there’s a hole in the middle of our screen’ when viewing the Stoltz footage (Gaines 2015, p. 23). Moving from left to right, the strange world around him appears to spin before regaining composure after Marty dodges an approaching car and arrives at the trashcan. The feeling evoked is one of ironic disorientation since it is an antithesis to this Marty’s acquiescence with 50s culture, especially his Elvis Presley/John Travolta Greaser-inspired attire. The Stoltz version was clever, the Fox version was comedic. Note how Spielberg stutters as he offers his reason for the sacking of Stoltz – ‘we weren’t getting the laughs we were hoping we would get’.