“We’re going back… to the future!”

You wouldn’t think there would be much need to go back to the Back to the Future trilogy anytime soon. After all, Universal did a pretty kick ass DVD release the first time around, ignoring those minor pan and scan translated to widescreen editions, of course. Since they fixed those, however, the DVD release is one of the better trilogy box sets out there.

But then there’s that pesky format change going on. So will we see a high definition version of Back to the Future? That future sounds pretty promising according to writer/producer Bob Gale, who recently attended a charity benefit benefiting the Make-A-Wish foundation. Part of the event was a screening of the movie, the first reveal of a digital master for the Blu-ray version of Back to the Future.

Preceeding the screening was a Q&A with Gale and several others involved with the movie (including Doc Brown himself, Christopher Lloyd), where Gale stated he did not know when the Blu-ray release would be coming out, but that he was involved in mastering the high definition version of the film – a good sign. According to BTTF.com (who sponsored the screening), Gale talked about what may and most likely wouldn’t be a part of the release – footage from Universal’s Back to the Future - The Ride may find its way onto the Blu-ray release, but don’t expect to see that long hidden Eric Stoltz footage anytime in the next 20 years: ”Seeing the footage makes him look bad, and it doesn't make us look too good either. We don't want to put something out there that's gonna make somebody look bad.”

Universal only hinted at their library of Blu-ray releases scheduled for the rest of the year in last week’s press announcement. Could Back to the Future be a part of those plans? Too bad we don’t have the DeLorean handy to find out. We’ll just have to wait until the future becomes the present to find out.