If the '80s were directly transposed to the 2020s, the 2023 A Christmas Story would be set in 1980 and the 2026 Stand by Me...
If the ‘80s were directly transposed to the 2020s, the 2023 A Christmas Story would be set in 1980 and the 2026 Stand by Me would be set in 1999.
In 2025’s Back to the Future, Marty McFly travels back to 1995.
I think I’ve mentioned this before, but there are persistent rumors floating around Hollywood that Universal wants to do a Back to the Future remake the instant Zemeckis is cold in the ground (he has it in his contract that they can’t do a remake as long as he’s alive), but multiple attempts at a screenplay have been aborted due to “the 9/11 problem”.
Even if you did write your way around the 9/11 issue, the general slowing of technological and social change in more recent decades means I don’t see how a BTTF remake could even function. It’s like, Marty travels back to 1995 and invents… what? The Backstreet Boys? It just doesn’t work.
Although if Trump wins in 2024 they’d pretty much have to do the remake, for no other reason than to do the “who’s the President” gag again.
Yeah, the fact that the 80s to 50s time travel story gives you dozens of opportunities for culture shock humor while the 20s to 90s story barely gives you anything is one of the strongest evidences for the stagnation of social change.
Though you know what would be hilarious? Completely reverse the dynamic of the first film by having Martine (in the remake it has to be a girl) be an uptight, judgemental puriteen who has to go back and time and learn from her parents how to let loose and chill out. Then she brings the secret of 90s cynical, disaffected adolescence forward to the 20s.
Now that I think of it, “time traveler teaches uptight modern feminist to chill out and have fun” is actually just the plot of *Austin Powers*, so maybe what we actually need is an *Austin Powers* remake.