If you were sitting on your couch enduring the awful MTV Movie Awards pre-show tonight, then you probably heard them mention a fire at Universal Studios near where the Awards were being held. It seems this was much more than a simple grease fire, and a lot more was threatened than MTV’s night of vapid product placement. In fact, the AP reports that this was a “large fire” which tore through the Universal back lot, and destroyed what to any movie buff is without a doubt hallowed ground. Back to the Future’s iconic Hill Valley courthouse square is no more, as is one of the King Kong exhibits.
Not only was the Hill Valley set burned to a crisp, but Universal lost a stunning 40,000 to 50,000 archived videos, including copies of every film Universal has ever made and classic television shows like Miami Vice and I Love Lucy. Hold on, don’t panic. They have backup copies stored elsewhere.
But they don’t have a backup of the Back to the Future courthouse, the clock tower once climbed by Doc Brown in the middle of a lightning storm as part of a desperate bid to send Marty McFly back to the future. They don’t have a backup copy of the courthouse where Biff Tannen’s grandson and his gang of hover board thugs were defeated by Marty McFly, thus protecting his future son from extended jail time. It was the square where Marty first appeared, dazed and confused in his futuristic life vest, the place where he kissed Jennifer after beating the clock to return home from the past. It’s gone. One of the most iconic places in all of film history is gone forever. It’s a truly sad day in movies.
http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Back-To-The-Future-Clock-Tower-Destroyed-By-Fire-9023.html
