'Back to the Future' Writer Says Iconic '80s Movie 'Wouldn't Be Made' In Today's Climate

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'Back to the Future' Writer Says Iconic '80s Movie 'Wouldn't Be Made' In Today's Climate originally appeared on Parade.

Few films remain as closely associated with the 1980s as Back to the Future. Among the most remarkable movies of the decade, Robert Zemeckis' 1985 sci-fi comedy continues to remain as culturally relevant today as it did nearly half a century ago.

In spite of its unwavering success across contemporary pop culture, however, Back to the Future's original screenwriter has said that he seriously doubts the movie would ever get made in today's social climate.

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Speaking with The Guardian to commemorate the film's historic 40th anniversary, screenwriter Bob Gale specifically cited the unusual friendship between Michael J. Fox's teenage Marty McFly and Christopher Lloyd's elderly Dr. Emmett Brown as a particular area of concern for most studio executive todays.

"Oh man, the film wouldn’t even be made today," said the 74-year-old Gale, who co-wrote each entry in the trilogy alongside director Robert Zemeckis. "We’d go into the studio and they’d say, what’s the deal with this relationship between Marty and Doc? They’d start interpreting pedophilia or something. There would be a lot of things they have problems with.”

Interestingly, in the time it was originally in development, Gale said that the story for Back to the Future was unsuccessfully pitched to Hollywood studios over 40 times within the span of four years.

Only after Zemeckis made a name for himself off with 1984's Romancing the Stone did the film finally come to fruition, with producer Steven Spielberg recognizing the potential behind the movie.

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As most fans of the classic 1985 comedy know, Back to the Future revolves around Fox's ordinary high school student who travels back in time from 1985 to 1955 in an eccentric inventor's DeLorean time machine. Accidentally altering the timeline and possibly erasing his own future, Fox's character races against the clock to make sure his parents end up dating, all the while trying to return to his own historical setting.

'Back to the Future' Writer Says Iconic '80s Movie 'Wouldn't Be Made' In Today's Climate first appeared on Parade on Jul 3, 2025

This story was originally reported by Parade on Jul 3, 2025, where it first appeared.