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Chris Columbus Working on a Goonies Revival?

Sun, 19 Jan 2025 15:47:47 +0000

With the critical reception of Skeleton Crew, more people are starting to talk about its inspiration with The Goonies and how the film actually holds up after all these years.

Now news has it that a Goonies revival is in the works. According to Deadline, Chris Columbus, who co-wrote The Goonies with Steven Spielberg, is currently working on a treatment for a new Goonies film. Not much details have been revealed about the project, but we do know that he’s working on it alongside a revival of the Gremlins as well.

Just like Skeleton Crew, The Goonies focuses on a group of young misfit kids who stumble ito a pirate map and go on a secret treasure hunt. What they didn’t know was the dangers that they would be facing, and all the young adult angst that was going to bubble up to the surface.

The movie was directed by Richard Donner (Superman: The Movie) and starred Sean Astin (Sam from Lord of the Rings) as the lead kid Mikey. The movie also featured Josh Brolin as Mikey’s older brother who gets wrapped along for the ride.

Other stars of the film include Jeff Cohen, Corey Feldman, Kerri Green, Martha Plimpton, and Ke Huy Quan (of Indiana Jones fame).

The movie has definitely earned a cult status and has influenced a lot of things following it. Probably the most famous example is Stranger Things, but there are hints at Goonies in projects like Shazam! Fury of the Gods and of course, Skeleton Crew.

We don’t know what a Goonies revival could be about, but knowing current trends, this could be a reboot/sequel focusing on some new kids; maybe Sean Astin or Ke Huy Quan could make an appearance?

Having it be a reunion of the kids as adults going on another adventure does feel like a big swing, but I think there could be a great emotional journey there.

A Goonies sequel hasn’t been officially announced.

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Home Alone Director Reveals Just How Rich the McCallisters Were

Sat, 28 Dec 2024 15:17:33 +0000

It’s Christmastime once more, and that means another annual revisit of the classic Home Alone starring Macaulay Culkin. The film has managed to spark several discussions over the decades from Kevin being a sociopath to the picture of Buzz’s girlfriend being a boy in a wig, but one question that keeps getting asked is, “What did Kevin’s parents do for money?” because they are clearly loaded.

As it turns out, there’s a definitive answer. In a recent talk with THR, director Chris Columbus explained that Kate and Peter McCallister’s careers were actually explored by Columbus and writer John Hughes. He explained:

“Back then, John and I had a conversation about it, and we decided on what the jobs were… [Kevin’s Mom] was a very successful fashion designer… The father could have, based on John Hughes own experience, worked in advertising, but I don’t remember what the father did.”

While there aren’t any solid clues on what the father did, the mother’s job was hinted at by the mannequins in the basement.

Some fans have actually been guessing that Mr. McCallister was actually connected to the mob, which is how the Wet Bandits knew to rob his place, to which Columbus says, “Not organized crime — even though there was, at the time, a lot of organized crime in Chicago.”

For now, the original Home Alone still stands as a holiday classic, and though there have been several attempts at cashing in on the brand over the years—including a reboot back in 2021—the Macaulay Culkin version remains to be a cultural milestone.

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Home Alone Director on How Macaulay Culkin Influenced the Casting for Harry Potter

Fri, 20 Sep 2024 11:53:51 +0000

Chris Columbus and his team had caught lightning in a bottle when they cast Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint in the first Harry Potter movie, but what’s crazy is that his decision for choosing the main trio was highly influenced by his experience with another big child actor—Macaulay Culkin.

As it turns out, it was Culkin’s troubled home life after he got famous that influenced Columbus to change their approach when it came time to cast someone as Harry Potter. Talking to Demi Lovato’s documentary Child Star (via EW), Columbus explains how they made the mistake of not looking into the Culkin family before they launched Macaulay into mega-stardom.

Columbus said:

“Once we wrapped, I didn’t know what was going on [with Culkin… We didn’t know that much about the [Culkin] family at the beginning; as we were shooting, we learned a little more. The stories are hair-raising. I was casting a kid who truly had a troubled family life.”

After his success with Home Alone, Macaulay Culkin’s personal life had started to slowly unravel to the public, with reports of his substance abuse, and his messy relationship with his father and then-manager Kit Culkin. Word was going around about Kit being abusive and even threatening Macaulay while he was working.

There’s also the case of the parents fighting for custody and control over the $50 million fortune that Macaulay had amassed.

With Columbus predicting that the fame that the Potter franchise would bring would come with intense pressure, they made sure to vet the parents of the actors as well to make sure that they were going to provide a stable home for the kids off camera.

“Suddenly, I realized that parents had to be a big part of it. I can’t have [an actor] go home to a really sort of shaky environment for the sake of a film. It’s not worth it. It was as important to cast the parents as it was to cast the kids,” said Columbus

For now Culkin still makes small appearances on TV here and there, but his situation (and the situation of many other child actors) has influenced changes in policy that put in place safeguards for kids who become child stars and start earning the money for the family.

Hulu’s Child Star with Demi Lovato looks into this, and you can check out that documentary now.

In the meantime, casting for the new Harry is underway, and production is expected to start sometime next year.

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