After nearly three decades writing and producing films, Bob Gale takes a journey down the mysterious path he's been preparing himself for quite some time — directing.

by Stephen Clark

Writer-producer BOB GALE was born and raised in University City, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. As a boy, his interest in film was sparked by Walt Disney's animated features, and the young Gale taught himself to draw by copying pictures from Disney picture books. In school, he excelled in creative writing, especially short stories. While attending University City High School, he combined his writing and drawing talents by creating and publishing three issues of his own comic book. Fascinated with the idea of telling a story with pictures, he changed mediums and began making 8mm movies with some of his friends.

As much as he enjoyed filmmaking, Gale never thought of it as more than a hobby until his first year in college. He had enrolled in the engineering school at Tulane University, but after a semester, he realized that an engineering career was not for him. A neighbor in the dorm told him that there were film schools in California. Curious, Gale wrote away for catalogs, and when next September rolled around, he was attending the University of Southern California.

At the USC Cinema School, Gale met Robert Zemeckis, a fellow student who shared Gale's feature film goals. The two were drawn to each other by a respect for each other's talents, and their similar cinematic taste. Gale aspired to write, while Zemeckis aspired to direct, and it seemed natural for them to combine their talents for their mutual benefit. Upon graduating in 1973, the two collaborated on a low budget horror script (Bordellow of Blood) which they attempted in vain to get off the ground.

At the same time, Gale continued pursuing writing on his own, just as Zemeckis attempted looktng for other ways to direct. While observing on the set of McCloud, Zemeckis learned that the TV series was short one script for the season. He immediately informed Gale, and the two knocked out a two-hour script in 10 days which they submitted to the show's producer. The script met with favorable response, but Universal wanted to tie its sale to a seven-year television writing contract. Unwilling to tie themselves up for seven years, Gale and Zemeckis rejected the offer; their script was instead optioned but never made. However, the experience enabled the two young men to obtain an agent, which in turn gave them added credibility around town.

They brought their next script, a feature, to fellow USC alumnus John Milius, who had just completed writing and directing The Wind and the Lion at MGM. Milius was impressed enough with the script to get them a development deal for an original screenplay of their own choosing. Thus in May 1975, 1941 was born. Milius showed the completed script to his friend Steven Spielberg, who was so impressed with it, he decided that he wanted to make it upon completing Close Encounters of the Third Kind, then in pre-production.

Meanwhile, Gale and Zemeckis developed a new script called I Wanna Hold Your Hand. Spielberg read it and came aboard as Executive Producer to give Zemeckis his first directing shot. Gale became associate producer of the Beatles-inspired comedy, which opened to excellent reviews but disappointing box office revenues.

Zemeckis and Gale then wrote Used Cars for executive producers Spielberg and Milius. The film went into production in 1979 with Zemeckis directing and Gale producing. It was released in 1980, and has increased in popularity through continued runs on cable television.

In September 1980, the duo began writing Back to the Future for Columbia, with the intention of directing and producing it themselves. Two drafts and six months later, Columbia passed on the project and the "two Bobs" tried to get the project off the ground at other studios, but no one was interested. Even while writing other projects, they kept submittiing Back to the Future, pitching it, trying to raise independent financing for it, and everything they could think of to get it made.

In May 1984, after Zemeckis had directed the successful Romancing the Stone and Gale had written and produced a television pilot based on Used Cars, they decided to give Back to the Future another shot. They brought the script to Spielberg, who had read the script in 1981 and had always liked it. Spielberg was eager to have the project made under his Amblin Entertainment banner, so a deal was set up at Universal Studios, and after another rewrite, the movie started shooting in November 1984 with Gale co-producing and Zemeckis directing. Released the following summer, Back to the Future was the most successful film of 1985, and the pair were nominated for an Academy® Award for Best Original Screenplay.

After writing several unproduced screenplays over the next two years (including The Shadow), Gale began writing the sequel to Back to the Future in late 1987. This ultimately became Back to the Future Part II and Back to the Future Part Ill, which began production in February of 1989. The films were released in November 1989 and May 1990 respectively.

Gale executive produced the animated Back to the Future series which ran on CBS an Saturday mornings from 1991-1993. During that same time, Gale and Zemeckis worked on some rewrites for another script they had written together in the past. When the film went into production, they served as the executive producers. Trespass, an action-suspense drama directed by Walter Hill starring Ice-T and Ice Cube, was released Christmas 1992.

In early 1993, Gale wrote and directed "House of Horror" for the HBO television anthology series Tales From the Crypt, which premiered as the Halloween episode later that year. Gale also scripted a big-budget, adventure/fantasy for director Paul Verhoeven and Cinergi Pictures called After the Visitation, but so far the script has not been optioned.

In 1994, Gale broke new ground in Hollywood by writing and directing the very first interactive film ,Mr. Payback, for Sony New Technologies in association with Interfilm, Inc. The film was released in February 1995, in approximately 25 newly retrofitted interactive Interfilm theaters, but it was never released in wide release due to the required $50,000+ each theater had to spend to upgrade their screens with the necessary interactive equipment. Viewers were able to sit through three showings of the twenty minute film (compiled from two hours of footage), with no show ever being shown the same way twice. Gale's reliable and faithful friend Christopher Lloyd, as well as Wendie Jo Sperber, agreed to appear in the film under Gale's direction.

Other than creating and producing an arcade video game called "Tattooed Assassins" in early 1995, Gale kept a low profile after Mr. Payback was released until the Fall of 1997. In October 1997, he signed a seven-figure deal with Disney to script several films for the studio.

Since that time, Gale has kept busy by writing several arcs to popular comic book characters, including "Batman", "Ant-Man", and "Daredevil", all of which have been widely received. During this time, he also continued to script several film & television projects, currently still in development.

In September 2000, Gale stepped behind the camera to direct his first feature-length film, Interstate 60, reuniting him with producer Neil Canton and giving him the opportunity to direct several old friends he'd met along his 25+ year career, including Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, and Kurt Russell. The film is expected to be released theatrically sometime in 2002.

In late August 2001, Bob took a brief break from his post-production duties on the film to speak with BTTF.com about his past, present and future.

On to the interview...