To All BTTF.com Readers:

I'm not quite sure where to begin with this.  There are several angles I'd like to approach this letter from, so I'll start by introducing myself.  Sort of.

As regular fans of this website are no doubt aware, BTTF.com is an excellent, if not wholly professional and woefully underappreciated, homage to one of the defining movie series of the past thirty years.  Its designer Stephen Clark does an incredible job maintaining a focal point for everything related to Back to the Future — from its design right down to the nifty little opening sequence.  This website has been also been generating quite a bit of buzz over the past six to eight months as rumors of several Back to the Future projects have broken here.  Are they merely products of Mr. Clark's imagination? Window dressings for the true Back to the Future fan?  Nuggets of truth sandwiched between lies and obfuscation?  For the past six to eight months, BTTF.com fans have trusted Mr. Clark to pass along the truth, and Mr. Clark has trusted me to provide him with that.

Yes, I am the so-called "Deep Throat" of this website, slipping hints here and there of BTTF goings-on here in sunny California.  I've been inspired to write this letter in much the same way I felt obligated to set things straight back in 1999 about the supposed "Roswell 1948"-themed treatment for BTTF4.  In many ways, I feel like I've done a disservice to this website in general, as the machinations of the film industry are far too fickle and shifting for the casual (or rabid) movie fan to understand.

Back to the Future is one of those projects that, if it ever comes to the light of movie screens again, will have had a long and tortuous journey back there.

I more than willingly hide behind my anonymity (although 99% of people on the Web do), yet only for personal reasons.  I can tell you several things about myself (other than my name), if you care.  Up until late last year, I was a senior script coordinator at Amblin Entertainment.  I worked my way up from being a lowly script reader (beware you English majors — this could be your future!) to someone who works intensively with the producers and directors on any given project.  This is where I became familiar with the BTTF4/5 project.  If you look at Mr. Clark's archives, you might see how this project came about.  For all intents and purposes, BTTF4/5 was an experiment from Day One.  Never an official, contracted project, BTTF4/5 came about because of Universal's interest in mining their old franchises — Quantum Leap, Magnum, P.I., just to name a few.  Since BTTF resides at Amblin, it was our job to informally shepherd the project to the proper higher-ups.

I won't bore you with the specifics (since I've already passed them on before), so let me get to the point of why I'm writing you a letter.  Now that I'm at another (closely related) movie house with a higher salary, I can sit with considerable ease as opposed to my clandestine persona a few months back.  (Yes, I'm kidding — I've committed several breaches of my contract already.) Whatever the case, I understand the frustration, the anger, and the excitement of teasing movie information — even the slightest little morsel — out of some obscure source.  Years ago, for me, it was anything and everything about what would later become Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.  For four years, I yearned to grasp onto something tangible about Indy 3, yet to no avail.  (This was way before the Internet, mind you.)  I can associate with what one of the fundamentals of this site is all about — culling every bit of information about BTTF4 to feed you: the Starving Fan.  I know, I've been there — I still am there, to certain extents.

Since the Internet has successfully bridged the gulf between viewer and creator, sites like this can pose problems.  Case in point: my "scoops" concerning the BTTF4/5 project.  This project is officially "in development," although you'll get nowhere fast looking for solid information about it.  Amblin, Universal, writers, producers, directors, actors, prospective key grips — anyone — are pretty much paid to deny the existence of this project.

That's fine — the time will come, although not as soon as I was informed.  To be honest, I'm not sure where BTTF4/5 stands anymore.  I don't have the sort of connections I used to over at Amblin.  I'm a fallen Amblinite, I guess.  There are tons of other projects at just about any studio that would drive the common fan into hyperspace, but they never make their way to the surface — even though Harry Knowles willingly commits the fallacy that he can dig up anything about anything.

The Back to the Future fan holds a special place in my heart.  This series is a celebration of great moviemaking, as well as our own humanity and history.

I've given Mr. Clark just about everything I can over the past year.  Between this and the fact that I'm begetting more confusion and frustration with this info than anything else, I've decided to stop writing altogether.  Steve is in an unenviable position — caught between choosing to believe in an unconfirmed "me" and the incredulity of his readers.  Steve and I, however, have developed a great rapport, if not a genuine friendship because our mutual love and respect for these films.  I hope (like you all do) to see something solid surface about this film series very shortly, as I know the projects mentioned here are just as genuine.  You'll just have to wait and see for  yourselves.  Sooner than later, it'll all come to pass.  It's an odd grey area for a popular film franchise to be in, and the people involved are (thankfully) being careful with its development.  It's in good (and familiar) hands.

I hereby hand the reins back over to Mr. Clark.  This will be my first and last letter to you.  I'll be sitting behind you in the theaters when BTTF4 finally hits theaters.  As for this website, keep encouraging Steve — he deserves every accolade for the great work he does here.  As for me?  I'm disappearing into the night as quickly as I came.  I'm out of the Back to the Future business altogether now and I'm just like anyone else — expectant and hopeful that the future adventures of BTTF will take us to the limits of imagination and into our own humanity.

Take care.  I appreciate your time.

STUART LITTLE 2:  It's now official — Columbia has greenlighted a sequel and hopes to release it by Christmas 2001.  Budgeted at approximately $100 million (as was the original), filming is expected to begin as early as this summer.  No word yet as to whether Michael J. Fox will be voicing the title character again, but we can only assume he will be.  He has recently expressed an interest in the sequel because of the ease of the work.

— Stephen Clark

Got a scoop? We're always looking for credible inside sources with links into the Hollywood circuit. Anonymity is guaranteed, so tell us what we don't know!