2015 is both the 30th anniversary of Back to the Future and the year that Marty McFly traveled to in Back to the Future Part II. Which means that a lot of this year will be devoted to questions about whether or not the film’s predictions have come true. Questions made easier by this new glut of concept art to go with what we’ve already seen.
https://gizmodo.com/go-back-to-the-future-with-original-hoverboard-and-delo-5510016
Newsweek has an interview with “future consultant” Tim Flattery and concept artist Edward Eyth. Flattery said that it was the filmmakers’ vision, more than accuracy, that motivated the style:
With [screenwriter] Bob Gale and Bob Zemeckis, they wanted a future that made those things they dreamt of as kids attainable, like flying cars.
There’s always going to be an entertainment factor that goes into what you’re designing. [But] no matter what, you’re designing to support the story. And you’re designing to support the director’s vision. Those things are most important.
Eyth, on the other hand, was concerned about his designs for the smaller bits of technology looking dated come 2015:
We were highly motivated to make it so we didn’t look like fools in 25 years. We knew that when we see movies like Metropolis, when they’re speculating about the future, it can be so far off. We weren’t that far off, I guess, on a number of occasions.
While Newsweek has some of Eyth’s concept art up in their article, Eyth has put up even more on his website. Here are some particularly great ones:
