We Don't Need Roads: The Making of the Back to the Future Trilogy (29 page)

“His memory was so good,” Michael J. Fox’s guitar coach Paul Hanson says. “I attributed it to the fact that he had to memorize lines all the time being an actor. He could have actually had a career as a guitar player.”

“They came up with the idea that it’d be cool to have me in it,” Huey Lewis says. “I thought,
Nah
. The band was doing great. I was becoming a rock star. I kind of resisted for a while.”

Drew Struzan illustrated dozens of concepts, including the one shown here, before settling on the iconic one-sheet for
Back to the Future
of Marty staring at his watch in disbelief.

Tom Wilson gets his old-age makeup touched up during the
Back to the Future Part II
shoot.

Jason Scott Lee, whose face is not visible, along with Ricky Dean Logan and Darlene Vogel shooting the hoverboard stunt sequence on the futuristic Hill Valley courthouse square.

John Bell’s concept art for the Mattel hoverboard. “It just kept getting whittled down because . . . they didn’t want to blow a lot of money reproducing intricate designs,” he says.

A number of different techniques were used to create the illusion of functional hoverboards. When the actors’ feet were obscured, they were often put on actual skateboards.

Neil Canton and the Bobs.

From left, Robert Zemeckis, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and Neil Canton on the
Part II
set. Lucas also visited while
Back to the Future Part III
was in production in Sonora.

Tom Wilson, Lea Thompson, and Lisa Freeman.

From left, Tom Wilson, Robert Zemeckis, Charles Fleischer, Michael J. Fox, Dean Cundey, and Neil Canton.