At a Parkinson’s Disease Charity event over the weekend, Michael J. Fox re-enacted his iconic scene from Back to the Future in which Marty McFly travels back in time to help his parents bone and ends up stealing rock n roll from black people. At A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Cure Parkinson’s event at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York, the 50-year-old busted out an identical Gibson ES-345 with retrofitted Bigsby vibrato (both introduced after 1955, incidentally) to guitar-synch along to the Chuck Berry classic. According to the DailyMail, he actually learned the song back in 2008 when he played it at the same event with The Who, but HuffPo says he was just pretending to play this time.

Meanwhile, the event just so happened to take place on the 56th anniversary of the Enchantment Under the Sea dance. Other attendees to the event included Ricky Gervais, Rachel Ray, and Julianna Margulies, and it was considered a great success as not even a single person shouted requests for “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin On.”

I’m sorry.

UPDATE: Now with video

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(The Fading Photograph with original McFly Eric Stoltz — thanks for the tip, Videogum)

Yesterday, Back to the Future was in the news when for the first time, some of the footage of original Marty McFly Eric Stoltz was released.  Stoltz had been the original lead before Zemeckis had him replaced five weeks into shooting because he sucked so bad creative differences.  Another part of the story you probably didn’t know is that when they hired Michael J. Fox, they had to fire the actress who played McFly’s girlfriend — Melora Hardin, aka Jan from The Office — because she was too tall.  Hardin talks about it in in this interview (thanks for the tip, Joel):

We heard a rumor that you were originally cast to play Jennifer Parker on Back to the Future. Is that true?
Yeah, I was. It was a real small part in the first one and then a bigger role in the second one that Elisabeth Shue ended up playing. When I got it, it was a two picture deal, so it was going to be both films and Eric Stoltz was originally cast to play McFly, so I was going to play his girlfriend. And then they let Eric Stoltz go and I was too tall for Michael J. Fox. They called me in very regretfully and said that it wasn’t going to work out, which was sad. I was like 17 and, of course, shed some tears over that.

Now that it has become such an iconic movie, do you ever wonder what would it have been like to have been in it?
Sure. I guess it had the potential to kind of change everything for me, but I don’t know. It didn’t really do anything for the girl who played the small part and then was recast.

Especially since she’s “the girl who played the small part.”
(Laughs.) Exactly. So, I don’t know. I don’t think it would have been bad for me, that’s for sure. But who knows how good it would have been.

Hardin’s part went on to be played by Claudia Wells (5’4″ – only an inch and a half shorter than Hardin, according to IMDB), who was in turn replaced by Elisabeth Shue in the two sequels, when Wells had to quit after her mother was diagnosed with cancer.  But it was clear that God had had a plan for Hardin when she went on to star 2010′s Knucklehead, about a retarded MMA-fighting church orphan. (more Back to the Future comparison pics below)

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Here’s something you probably didn’t know unless you’re a huge nerd (my term for people that know something I didn’t):  Marty McFly in Back to the Future was originally played by Eric Stoltz.  Stoltz is a fine actor in his own right (I’ll always remember his manic drug dealer, Lance, in Pulp Fiction) but Zemeckis didn’t think he was right for McFly and had him replaced with Michael J. Fox– five weeks into production.

Details of the shocking Hollywood switch and never-before-seen footage of Stoltz as McFly are part of the extras package for the “Back to the Future 25th Anniversary Trilogy” to be released on Blu-Ray on Oct. 26. [and which will receive a limited engagement theatrical run courtesy of AMC]
Zemeckis says the casting change was “this horrific decision; it was heartbreaking for everybody.”
Executive producer Steven Spielberg said that Zemeckis consulted him before pursuing the casting change.

“(Zemeckis) showed me the first five weeks of shooting that he had put together,” Spielberg said. ” And he said, ‘I just don’t think we’re getting the laughs I was hoping we would get.’ ”

Spielberg said he realized his director “was absolutely correct.” [THR]

To understand just how ballsy this is, imagine telling your boss you screwed up and wasted five weeks of work.  It’s impressive for everyone involved that they cared that much.  And it makes it all the more insane that someone watched Paul Walker in the dailies for The Fast and the Furious and thought, “Eh, f*ck it.  This movie’s about cars, right?”

(Picture is unrelated)
This one doesn’t sound all that interesting at first, but read between the lines a little.  The story is that Jerry Bruckheimer paid seven figures for the rights to a short story called “Shake.”

The origin of Jay Haas’ story was a new site called Popcornfiction.com that he recently created for TV and film writers to showcase their pulpy short fiction. Among the contributors are Craig Mazin (“Superhero Movie”), Scott Frank (“The Lookout”), Jeff Lowell (“Over Her Dead Body”) and Nichelle D. Tramble (“Women’s Murder Club”).  [Thank God, I'd been searching for new stuff from the Over Her Dead Body guy -Ed.]

Bruckheimer apparently visited the site, loved Haas’ story of an FBI agent chasing a killer while he begins to lose control of his own body and bought the idea for a potential Disney film.

As Zack Morris would say, time the f’ck out: Did they really just report that Disney is making Parkinson’s Disease Cop?  I’m trying desperately not to make a Michael J. Fox joke here, and it took every ounce of restraint not to use this as the banner pic (please forgive me, Jeebus, it’s your dad’s fault for making me this way…), but the honest truth is that there’s a hole in my heart where Michael J. Fox movies used to live.  And if it takes a tasteless Jerry Bruckheimer movie to fill it… I guess I can live with that.  The twist?  The killer is the cure!