Originally Posted by
Timebender
And essentially with James Franco, though that was more of a Star Wars prequel kind of thing... would've been a better movie with someone else IMO.
I had some more thought about a storyline though - so now it's 2025, hoverboards have been banned since the courthouse incident, kids don't dress funny (well, not like the 2015 version of the 80's in BTTF), cars with hover conversions are now flown semi-autonomously for safety reasons (less air to air collisions which had skyrocketed in previous years since one car just "appeared" out of nowhere in the middle of rush hour traffic). Pepsi Perfect was banned as it created catastrophic levels of weight gain in consumers, and crime has dropped to an all time low.
Doc's boys, who are now in their late 20's (Doc ended up settling down in the just after the turn of the century when they were still 8 and 10), found the plans for the flux capacitor while Doc and Clara go on a free trip to Europe. The boys also find photos of the original time machine, notes of the build, etc. They decide to build a new one, using the same kind of car, but converted to electric (and hydrogen fuel cells to generate enough power to get the 1.81 gigawatts),with a cleaner, more modern design.
Unfortunately, the "free trip" to Europe was set up by a small company, run by Biff Tannen's other grandson, a smart, calculating, nerd/fanboy with nefarious intentions of stealing the time machine plans (as he had heard of stories of his grandfather witnessing a flying DeLorean being able to time travel) to get Doc and Clara out of the way. Unfortunately he didn't think about the boys staying behind from the trip so their mom and dad could have some time together.
At least that's where I'd start.
Or something like that.