Bill & Ted 3 remains a very distinct possibility, and fans will hopefully soon hear "news that will stick." The update comes from original Bill & Ted stars Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, and screenwriters Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon.

The first film in the franchise, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, was released in 1989 and presciently tapped into slacker/stoner culture, offering a slightly airier take on Back to the Future. Reeves and Winter starred as the two titular best buds, who find a time-traveling phone booth that lets them explore the distant past (and hopefully pass history, graduate high school, and become rock stars, all while honing their extraordinary air guitar prowess.) The film was followed by 1991's Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey, which finds the aspiring rock stars back to their old time traveling tricks, battling robots, and befriending Death (played masterfully by William Sadler).

Related: Keanu Reeves Offers Bill & Ted 3 Plot Details

In a new Entertainment Weekly feature, the screenwriters reiterate their working title for the film: Bill & Ted Face the Music. The plot involves an older, not-necessarily wiser Bill and Ted struggling to compose music that will transform the world into an idyllic utopia. Meanwhile, the two best friends are in their fifties and married (not to each other). They have kids, too. Solomon suggests the film will be "kind of like A Christmas Carol with Bill and Ted." Meanwhile, he adds this morsel for fans to chew on: “We are hoping to close a deal with some financiers,” he says. “Hopefully within the next month or so, we’ll have news that will stick.” You can check out a photo of present-day Winter and Reeves channeling their characters for EW's feature, below.

Earlier this year, Matheson revealed that the Bill & Ted 3 script has already gone through a number of drafts and that a finished version is currently in the bag. He took great pains to emphasize that Bill & Ted 3 is a labor of love and not some cynical cash grab, saying he and Solomon wrote the script purely on spec because they wanted to get the story absolutely right. Dean Parisot (Galaxy Quest, RED 2) remains attached to direct the film, for the time being.

Time will tell whether Bill and Ted will, in fact, miraculously shuttle back into the public consciousness via zippy time-traveling phone booth. After all, rumors of a Bill and Ted 3 have been swirling through the industry for over a decade, almost all of which have been spurred on by the former stars. The script was reportedly finished in 2011. In 2010, Reeves suggested he wanted to see Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, and Werner Herzog direct the third Bill & Ted film. In the past, he's also waxed poetic on alternate timelines in the Bill & Ted universe.

More: Bill & Ted 3 Would Bring Back William Sadler as Death

If Bill & Ted 3 is ever to get off the ground, time may be of the essence. As Winter tells EW, "Now we have to make the third one. Before the apocalypse!”

Sources: EW