Earlier this month, Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York director Chris Columbus offered his blunt thoughts on the upcoming Home Alone reboot for the Disney+ streaming service, and now, the director has further expanded upon his opinion on rebooting or remaking films.
In an interview with ComicBook.com to promote his new movie, The Christmas Chronicles: Part Two, Columbus further discussed the industry’s trend of rebooting or remaking classic films specifically in regards to the Home Alone franchise.
“I don’t know what direction they’re going in. I’ve heard some rumours, but I don’t know. It’s probably unfair of me to comment on it because maybe they’re making a masterpiece. Who knows? I don’t know,” Columbus said. “Look, I’m a lover, lover of cinema, of film. And I believe that lightning doesn’t strike twice because it’s all these bits and pieces and it’s making the perfect pasta sauce. And you only can do that once a year, maybe. And when all the ingredients come together and everything works, it’s great. All it takes is removing one small element of Home Alone, and it’s not going to be the same. So again, I would tell film students or anybody. I would say, ‘Look, I think you guys should be doing your original material. If you have the opportunity to do something original or personal, please do it.’ I’m just not personally, as a filmmaker and as a lover of film, interested in rebooting something that worked.”
Columbus continued with a story about him once being offered to direct a remake of the Jimmy Stewart-starring Harvey but turned it down as he felt a remake wouldn’t work.
“Years ago, they were going to do Harvey. My agent sends me Harvey, the remake of Harvey with Jimmy Stewart. I said ‘How in God’s name can you do it? You just can’t do it,'” he explained. But I read something that [George] Clooney said today. He said, ‘I only have about 25 summers left.’ He says, ‘I got to really be careful about what movies I’m going to be making.’ And I subscribe to that theory. I think that’s a good theory. I’m lucky if I have 25 summers left, but I’ll tell you something. I really want to keep making movies and I want to keep making original movies.”
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