‘Bill & Ted’s’ star wants to talk to you about bitcoin

Tim Sprinkle
Keanu says 'Bill & Ted 3' is in its 'dark period' (Credit: Rex)

Most triumphant news, digital currency fans.

Alex Winter is a New York-based filmmaker who, in early 2013, debuted his first project, a documentary about file-sharing service Napster titled “Downloaded,” at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas.

But to at least one generation of moviegoers, he will always be best known as Bill S. Preston from 1989’s “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure,” which he starred in alongside Keanu Reeves.

This week, Winter launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund his next documentary, a film tentatively titled “Deep Web: The Untold Story of Bitcoin and The Silk Road,” which will seek to expose the seedy underbelly of the secret Internet. Watch the pitch video below:



“In the last 10 years, the digital revolution has swept like a brushfire into every corner of modern life,” Winter writes on his Kickstarter page. “The world we now live in bears little resemblance to even the recent past. And the changes that are coming will disrupt our lives in even greater ways, some good and some harmful. But this tidal wave cannot be stopped, and its path can best be charted by examining the Deep Web; the vast unseen world that lies at the heart of the Internet and is the engine for the entire technological era.”

Winter says that this “Deep Web,” which is not indexed by standard search engines or accessible by average users, encompasses everything from pirated media sites and hidden chat rooms to the online illegal goods exchange the Silk Road, and accounts for as much as 96 percent of all Web traffic. The emerging digital currency bitcoin is a key part of this world, Winter says, because it enables free, untraceable exchange on this often-anonymous hidden network.

It’s the online version of the Wild West.

But enough about the movie. Let’s talk about the prizes!

For one thing, Winter is someone who knows what he’s known for and isn’t afraid to embrace his “Bill & Ted’s” part. Investors who pledge to fund the Deep Web Kickstarter campaign can choose from a variety of rewards from the films (in addition to “Excellent Adventure,” Winter and Reeves also teamed up for a sequel, “Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey,” in 1991). There are autographed copies of the original production screenplay from “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure” for a $65 pledge, and even an invitation to a special screening of the original film in New York City for $200. There will be air guitaring involved, Winter promises.

As of Friday, the project had raised just over $7,600 of its $75,000 goal. The Kickstarter campaign runs until Dec. 20.

Stellar!