TV & Movies
Home Alone Director Chris Columbus Does Not Approve Of The Disney+ Reboot
"It's a waste of time as far as I'm concerned."
Home Alone is Christopher Columbus' film, and he has to defend it. The Home Alone director said Disney+'s upcoming reboot is a "waste of time" during an interview with Insider celebrating the 30th anniversary of the 1990 holiday classic. He also made it clear that he didn't see the point of retelling the story when the film franchise still plays such a significant role in pop culture. "Nobody got in touch with me about it," Columbus said, before calling the reboot "a waste of time as far as I'm concerned."
The director continued by asking the outlet "what's the point" of remaking such a beloved film for the streaming service. "I'm a firm believer that you don't remake films that have had the longevity of Home Alone. You're not going to create lightning in a bottle again," Columbus explained. "It's just not going to happen. So why do it? It's like doing a paint-by-numbers version of a Disney animated film — a live-action version of that."
The director's felt that since "it's been done," it'd be better to come up with "something original." Of course, Columbus noted that he could be "accused" of doing the exact same thing by making Home Alone 2, which he described as "basically a remake of the first Home Alone." Even so, he defended that choice while still expressing reservations about the upcoming reboot.
"Does it need to exist?" he said of his sequel. "Yes, because some of those stunts make me laugh really hard, but I just don't believe it should be done."
It's not just the Disney+ reboot that Columbus is opposed to. During the interview, he also slammed Ryan Reynolds' R-rated remake, Stoned Alone, which will center on a "20-something stoner who misses his flight to go skiing over the holidays and opts to stay at home and get high," only to find himself defending his home from burglars, a la Kevin McAllister (Macaulay Culkin).
"There's going to be a Stoned Alone with Ryan Reynolds. God only knows what that will be," Columbus said, dismissively. "Listen, have fun. I just feel, do something new. Life is short."
The director is far from the only person who has shared his disinterest in seeing a Home Alone reboot, as fans announced plans to boycott the Disney+ series when it was first announced in August 2019. However, in December of that year, Variety reported that Ellie Kemper and Jojo Rabbit star Archie Yates had been cast as brand new characters — rather than the McAllister family, as many originally thought — which has likely helped win some Home Alone diehards over. The pair will be joined by comedian Rob Delaney for what has been described as a "reimagining" of the iconic film "for a new generation."
Culkin hasn't commented on either one of the proposed reboots (UK paper The Sun reported in April that the actor would make a cameo in the Disney+ series), but he has been incredibly open about the film's lasting legacy over the years. "Christmas is my time of year. I get recognized 10 times more between the months of November and January. I have no idea why," he joked to Us Weekly in November 2019, before explaining that there are pros and cons to his holiday-centric fame. "Me being on TV every two seconds [is] a beautiful curse/a tricky blessing."
