Chris Columbus notably directed the first two beloved Home Alone movies, but he only got the gig after begrudgingly quitting his role as director on Christmas Vacation. Aside from John Hughes’ iconic '80s teen movies, like The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, the director is also well-known for his popular holiday and adventure screenplays. Two of the most iconic and beloved Christmas movies of all time, Home Alone and Christmas Vacation, come from the mind of John Hughes and were released within a year of each other.
First on the line-up for Hughes’ Christmas releases was National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, a 1989 holiday sequel to the classic Vacation and its follow-up European Vacation. The movie was directed by lesser-known filmmaker Jeremiah S. Chechik, but it was originally helmed by Home Alone’s own Chris Columbus, who was best known at the time for directing the 1987 comedy Adventures in Babysitting. Columbus had been on the outs after his movie Heartbreak Hotel bombed, but things began looking up when Hughes sent him a script for National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation's movie. Columbus loved Christmas and said it was “a dream” to make a Christmas comedy, which is part of why it was so hard for him to decide to leave the project.
While it comes as no surprise to those well-versed on Chevy Chase’s history as being “difficult” on sets, Chase’s behavior was what caused Chris Columbus to leave Christmas Vacation. Chris Columbus claimed that early meetings for Christmas Vacation with the Clark Griswold actor, Chevy Chase, were tense, and the veteran comedian treated him “like dirt” (via Chicago Magazine). Chase continued to treat the young director poorly in the early stages of the movie, but Columbus said he still stuck it out long enough to go into shooting second-unit establishing shots and sequences. After another bad meeting with Community's Chevy Chase before primary filming, Columbus called up Hughes and told him there was no way he could make Christmas Vacation alongside Chase. Columbus was upset about losing work, but Hughes was understanding and still believed in him, then, two weeks later, he received two scripts -- one of which was Home Alone.
Columbus recalled how bad he felt about letting down Hughes after the incredible opportunity he had given him with Christmas Vacation. His most recent film, Heartbreak Hotel, had failed both at the box office and with critics, and Columbus was worried he would never work as a director again (via Insider). In a lovely surprise that Columbus didn’t think would happen, Hughes asked him to direct another Christmas comedy whose themes resonated with Columbus even more. The opportunity to direct the original Home Alone, famously starring Macaulay Culkin, after leaving Christmas Vacation was a gift from Hughes believing in him when no one else would, which led Columbus to later describe Hughes as his “savior.”
Both Christmas Vacation and Home Alone became bona fide hits and remain Christmas classics, but Home Alone was clearly the best decision for Chris Columbus in the long run. For one, Home Alone was what truly launched Columbus’s career and supported his directing trajectory with big-budget family-friendly movies, such as the opportunity for Columbus to soon helm the first two movies in the Harry Potter film series. The success of Home Alone is insurmountable, and much of this is due to Columbus’s direction and casting choices, where he clearly worked better with Macaulay Culkin than Chevy Chase. While he won’t be involved with the upcoming Disney+ Home Alone reboot, Columbus did return to his family Christmas movie roots in 2020 when directing Netflix’s The Christmas Chronicles 2.
source https://screenrant.com/home-alone-chris-columbus-director-national-lampoon-quit/
0 comments: