Back to the Future (franchise) Back to the Future (franchise) The "Back to the Future" franchise is an American science fiction–adventure comedy film series written and directed by Robert Zemeckis, produced by Bob Gale and Neil Canton for Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, and distributed by Universal Pictures. The franchise follows the adventures of a high school student, Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox), and an eccentric scientist, Dr. Emmett L. Brown (Christopher Lloyd), as they use a DeLorean time machine to time travel to different periods in the history of Hill Valley, California. The first film was the highest-grossing film of 1985 and became an international
Back to the Future to direct "Romancing the Stone" instead, which was a box office success. Now a high-profile director, Zemeckis reapproached Spielberg with the concept. Agreeing to produce "Back to the Future," Spielberg set the project up at his production company, Amblin Entertainment, with Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall joining Spielberg as executive producers on the film. The script remained with Columbia until legal problems forced them to withdraw. The studio was set to begin shooting a comedic send-up of "Double Indemnity" entitled "Big Trouble". Columbia's legal department determined that the film's plot was too similar to "Double Indemnity" and they needed the