Our second source, whom worked on both USH and USF's Rides, corroborates the same story:

"As for the future of BTTF the Ride, I must say that it would be a financial disaster to replace that ride. It remains popular. It is just about to open in Osaka, etc. There is no other configuration of that building I can think of, unless they want to redo the cars and turn it into one of the other attraction concepts you listed. I will do a little digging just to see what, if anything, is being developed as new attractions. Universal has recently changed hands to a French Company that as of yet is not putting any efforts to expand the existing Recreation Division. That is my assessment without checking with friends."

I'm satisfied with the testimonies from these two sources who worked on the attraction first-hand to assure us that the attraction's not going anywhere, but just to make sure absolutely sure, we have some additional reports from a couple of anonymous park employees.  First up, is this report from "Kilgore":

"All rumors are crap. BTTF The Ride will be at USH for quite a while. All USH is doing for The Mummy Returns (opening in May) is re-hashing the Grinch maze from Christmas (which used leftovers from USH's failed "Halloween Horror Nights IV"), which itself was a poor re-hash of the Chicken Run maze from summer, all of which have been "created" inside the old "Victoria's Station" (briefly known as "Marvel-Mania"). To get the rights to The Matrix or X-Men — don't make me laugh! They're too cheap to promote their own movies, let alone one from another studio."

Ouch!  Well, here's a report from "nojimmyoc", who's less critical and also has some interesting insight to why ...The Ride won't be going anywhere, as well as information regarding the "World of Cinemagic" special effects show and why the Lyon Estates columns were recently refurbished:

"I don't really believe it.  We are not zoned to be a theme park. We are zoned as a movie studio and tour. The residential neighbors around us ALWAYS vote down any improvements that do not fall into the category of "showing how movies are made."  BTTF The Ride really increased park attendance, and Jurassic Park The Ride did even more. That is probably going to be it. We have not been allowed to add other recent ideas to the park. We can now only add additions to the backlot tour (if enclosed in a sound stage like King Kong or Earthquake), or new shows, or a new attraction ONLY IF it "shows how movies are made" and if it is an enclosed building.  We can adapt more soundstages, but they are too valuable as rental stages. So I really doubt that BTTF The Ride will be torn down. I do know that of the new attractions being planned — a temporary Mummy Returns maze (with props on display), a Woody Woodpecker kidzone, and an Animal PlanetShow — none of them are supposed to go into that space."

"Universal had recently closed the Cinemagic show which features BTTF until mid-April because of earthquake retrofitting for sound stage #32. Well, it looks like it will reopen on Friday, March 30th. There are definitely some changes on all three sets. There is an official NEW script for the pre-show and the set one (BTTF) segment. I do not work at Cinemagic so I am not 100% sure EXACTLY what changed, but I am told the only real changes in set one are in the suggestions for ad-libs; Eastman Kodak is again the sponsor, and they have to be mentioned again; and a couple of sentences may have been re-worded a little, but the informational parts haven't really changed."

"By the way, the reason the Lyon Estates columns were refurbished, is because Steven Spielberg was working in on the movie A.I. on stage 747, which is right next to the signs. He said they needed to be either cleaned up or removed, because the trams go right past them on the way to the Red Sea. When he wants something done at Universal, it usually gets done. At the moment there are no plans to use them in any upcoming projects, but at one point they were being considered as a set piece for a recent episode of NBC's Providence."

Back to the Future 4 still in consideration?

What's a "Back Talk" update without some kind of info about BTTF4? Luckily, we have a bit of information from a few readers to pass along, but first let me make it clear that you should take these unsubstantiated claims with a grain of salt until something more than hearsay comes along so that we may be able to back up these reports with some valid proof.

First of all, we have this report from "Brian", who has provided some supposedly recent quotes from Robert Zemeckis & Bob Gale:

"Robert Zemekis recently spoke for nearly two hours at the Santa Barbara City College in Santa Barbara, CA. I was invited by a friend of mine but unfortunately could not make the trip. Anyway, this is what he told me. Someone asked him about the DVD's, to which he replied that he wasn't sure when they'd be released and there would be no commentary done by him (though he would be doing commentary for Cast Away.) Now this next bit of info isn't much, but it does contradict what Zemeckis supposedly said concerning a new film previously. When asked about the possibility of a fourth film, he replied "As you know, I swore off sequels but...you never know." Granted that's a little vague but after reading previously that he had stated a definite "no" I think this is really good news and shows that he's at least considering it."

"I was really interested in Zemeckis' comment seeing how it is almost the same comment that Bob Gale gave me a while back when I talked with him at a comic book signing in Santa Barbara.  Gale's answer was something along the lines of "Everybody asks me about that [BTTF 4]. I wouldn't say never." Now with Zemeckis showing similiar optimism...maybe the 4th film is closer than we think."

Next, we have "Matthew" who claims another script has recently been turned in:

"I have had word from my Uncle who works at Universal that an official script has been submitted for review. My Uncle holds a high position at Universal, but obviously told me in confidence. The word is that the official script was submitted on January 28th.  The suggestion from my Uncle is that the script is for a prequel to the story.... personally I can't imagine how they can explain that... any ideas??  I shall try and find out some more information ASAP. But I have no doubt that we are looking at a continuation to BTTF very soon."

And finally, we have "JMan", who says some new time machine concepts were recently spotted at Universal:

"My Dad recently applied for a job at Universal and went for an interview in L.A. He called me and told me that he had seen concept designs for a newly designed time machine. He said "It looks really cool, it's more rounded out. It sort of looks like a Masda Miata, or a Honda del Sol." He asked one of the executives that was interviewing him, "Whats that?", and he was told, "Oh, just some concept designs.  We might make another Back to the Future movie"."

As I said, we have nothing more than "He said - She said" reports at this point, which are obviously nothing we can track down to confirm.  Until we see a copy of this script or of these time machine concept sketches ourselves, I must remain skeptical — sorry.  I've been burned one too many times by reports seemingly being legit that went nowhere, thus we'll just have to wait and see if there really are plans on the near horizon for another film.  Only time will tell...

BEHIND THE SCREAMS:  Tom Wilson stars in this independent comedy currently shooting in Los Angeles.  Filming is scheduled to wrap on April 5th.