Co-Creator Of Back To The Future Details Origins Of The Films
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Bob Gale, the Co-Creator of the 'Back To The Future' movies, who is in Philadelphia to attend Comic-Con discussed the origins of his signature films with Chris Stigall on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT, including the fact that the character of Biff was loosely based on Donald Trump.
Gale said the basic outline of the film was something he had been working on for a long time.
"The specific idea was mine. [Robert Zemeckis] and I had always talked about trying to figure out how we could do a time travel movie. We were fascinated by the fact that everybody always predicts the future incorrectly. We were promised a future with flying cars and all kinds of great gadgets and the Porky Pig house of the future in Disneyland's Tomorrow Land and the Futurama at the World's Fair and we never got all that stuff and we said wouldn't it be cool if we could figure out a way to put that in a movie."
He explained how everything came together during a trip back home.
"In the Summer of 1980, I was visiting my parents back in St. Louis and I discovered my father's high school year book in the basement. I attended the same high school that he did. He was the President of his graduating class. I had no idea. I'm looking at this picture of my father being this very straight political guy. I think, oh my God. Was he one of those guys? I couldn't stand the President of my class. If I had gone to school with my dad, would I even have been friends with him? That's when the bolt of lightning, if you will, struck. I said, there's that time travel movie. Kid goes back in time and ends up in high school with his dad."
Gale also clarified comments he made previously on whether or not Biff's character is modeled after Donald Trump.
"He was one of the influences, yeah. I did give an interview and I said that. There were a lot of other guys that I mentioned in that interview. Of course, they zeroed in on Trump. Listen, anybody like that, who gets a whole bunch of money, who has a big ego, they're going to put their name and their picture on everything that's there. If you go to Vegas, Bob Stupak's casino, Steve Wynn's got his signature on his. This is what they do. Colonel Sanders even has to have his picture on the chicken."
