Back to the Future cast today - from disease tragedy to five marriages

It was in the summer of 1980 that screenwriter Bob Gale found his dad’s old high school yearbook in his parents’ basement - and wondered if they’d have been friends.

“Was my dad one of those rah-rah, school spirit kind of guys that I couldn't stand?” he wondered. "What would have happened if I'd gone to high school with my dad - would I have had anything to do with him or not?”

Gale, whose feature films so far had flopped, returned to Los Angelesand mentioned the idea to writing partner and director Robert Zemeckis. Zemeckis made a wisecrack about what Gale’s mother might have been like at high school - and Back to the Future was born.

The huge summer blockbuster, released 40 years ago on July 3, 1985, spearheaded one of the greatest sci-fi trilogies ever made.

From self-lacing trainers and hoverboards to a modified DeLorean, which time travels at 88mph, the movie captivated 80s teens and still holds a nostalgic place in the hearts of millions.

But Back to the Future nearly didn’t make cinema screens at all.

The two writers signed a development deal with Colombia Pictures. The script’s first draft had Marty as a video pirate who sold bootlegged VHS tapes of Hollywood movies.

His time machine was a kitchen fridge running on Coca-Cola - until the writers predicted problems if kids copied him - opting instead, for a beaten up, modernised DeLorean car.

But Colombia studio bosses were unimpressed by the script.

Then Gale claimed Disney told him: “Are you guys out of our minds? This is Disney, and you’re giving us a movie about incest!”

Over the next three years 40 different film studios rejected the script. “Everyone was pooh-poohing it and saying nobody’s going to see this movie,” said Gale.

READ MORE: "I lost my mum on 7/7 - but only discovered she was dead 3 days later on TV announcement'

With just two box office flops - I Wanna Hold Your Hand and Used Cars to their name, the duo also wrote the Steven Spielberg’s least successful film, 1941.

Eventually, Zemeckis broke off to direct Romancing the Stone, with Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas.

A huge hit, he became a hot Hollywood property and Universal Pictures took on Back to the Future, with Steven Spielberg, who had always loved the script, as executive producer.

First, Universal’s president Sidney Sheinberg wanted some revisions. First, he wanted the movie to be called Spaceman From Pluto - because of the comic book shown by the boy when Marty crash lands the DeLorean in the barn.

Gale recalled: “Every single person at Universal loved the title Back to the Future except for Sid. So we went to Steven (Spielberg) and said, ‘What are we going to do?’

“Steven wrote a memo back to Sheinberg saying, ‘Dear Sid, thanks so much for the humorous memo. We all really got a big laugh out of it’. “Steven knew that Sid was too proud to admit he’d meant it seriously. And that was the end of it.”

There were other objections from the studio. One was to the car.

Universal at first insisted on a Ford Mustang, as the company had offered to pay for the placement, but Gale refused. “I said, ‘No, no no, Doc Brown doesn’t drive a f***ing Mustang. It has to be a DeLorean.”

But the most momentous mistake was the casting of Marty. Their first choice had been Michael J Fox, who was busy working on his sitcom Family Ties. John Cusack and Johnny Depp auditioned, but the role went to Eric Stoltz.

Then, six weeks into filming - almost halfway through the schedule - Gale recalled: “The humour just wasn’t coming through with Eric.”

Director Robert Zemeckis had to fire Stoltz, recalling it as "the hardest meeting I've ever had in my life and it was all my fault. I broke his heart."

Reshooting Stoltz’s scenes added $4 million to the movie's budget.

The new Marty, of course, was Michael J Fox, who the movie would turn into a global star.

Family Ties agreed to release him on condition that the TV show took priority - with Fox filming both simultaneously.

Zemeckis recalled the actor’s exhausting schedule, saying: “Michael never slept. We shot the daylight exteriors at the weekend, but the whole shoot was pretty much at night. All I remember is never seeing any daylight.”

Fox somehow squeezed in guitar lessons, so he could play Johnny B Goode not for note at the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance - one of the movie’s most memorable scenes.

Gale recalled his favourite day on the set being the night Fox started.

“Just seeing how excited he was to be there and knowing that he really was Marty McFly,” he said. “He had this infectious energy. On that first night of shooting with Michael J Fox we knew this was really good.”

However, Stoltz can still be glimpsed in one scene, when Marty punches Biff in Lou’s cafe. There’s a blurred glimpse of Stoltz’s face - kept because it was deemed better than Fox’s reshot version.

After 100 days of filming, shooting wrapped on 20 April, 1985 - with an August release date planned.

Spielberg remembered the first preview, saying: “Except for ET, it was the greatest preview I ever sat through.

“The audience just never stopped laughing and never stopped applauding every set piece. By the time the lights went up, the preview audience owned Back to the Future.”

The rapturous reception prompted Sheinberg to move the film’s release to July - when it smashed box offices around the world, becoming the highest-grossing film of 1985 and spent 12 weeks at the top of the US box office chart. It also won an Oscar for best sound effects editing.

Huey Lewis and the News, who wrote the film’s soundtrack including No1 hit The Power of Love, were propelled to global fame.

Sequels followed in 1989 and 1990 and it continues to win new fans with a hit West End musical.

As Gale said: “There’s something very special about this story that everyone can identify with, the idea of trying to imagine what your parents were like when they were kids - that just touches everybody.”

Where is the cast now?

Michael J Fox - Marty McFly

Went on to star in a string of huge films including Teen Wolf, The Secret of My Success and The Frighteners. He also starred in his own sitcom Spin City and voiced Stuart Little in the film franchise.

In 1998 he revealed his Parkinson’s diagnosis, becoming a leading voice for research into the disease. Aged 64, he has been married to Tracy Pollan since 1988 and they have four children.

Christopher Lloyd - Doc Brown

Enjoyed a long career in film, playing Uncle Fester in The Addams Family, Commander Kruge in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and voiced Rasputin in Anastasia

Now 86, he has been married five times, and most recently wed his real estate agent Lisa Loiacono in 2016.

Lea Thompson - Lorraine Baines-McFly (Marty’s mum)

Went on to star in the sitcom Caroline in the City from 1995 to 1999 and the teen drama series Switched at Birth. Competed in Dancing With the Stars in 2014.

Now 64, she’s been married to her Some Kind of Wonderful costar Howard Deutch since 1989 and they have two daughters, Madelyn and Zoey.

Crispin Glover - George McFly (Marty’s dad)

Appeared in What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Charlie's Angels, Alice in Wonderland and Hot Tub Time Machine.

Aged 61 and now the author of over 20 books, he has his own publishing company.

Claudia Wells - Jennifer Parker (Marty’s girlfriend)

Shunning the limelight to start a men’s clothing brand, the 58-year-old briefly returned to acting in 2011 with a small role in the independent science-fiction film, Alien Armageddon.

Thomas F. Wilson - Biff Tannen (George’s bully)

Appeared in the Back to the Future TV series, before starring in TV show Freaks and Geeks.

Aged 66, he has been married to wife Caroline Thomas since 1985 and they have four children.