Legendary Entertainment and Warner Bros. have teamed up to develop a sequel to the holiday classic, A Christmas Story. Not only that, but original star Peter Billingsley is closing a deal to star in the film and produce it.
The Christmas Story sequel, titled A Christmas Story Christmas, will be directed by Clay Kaytis, who has some experience dispensing holiday cheer as he previously helmed The Christmas Chronicles for Netflix. Nick Schenk (The Mule) is on board to pen the script for the sequel. The original film took place in the 1940s and followed nine-year-old Ralphie as he desperately wanted a Red Ryder BB rifle for Christmas. The sequel will jump forward to the 1970s and find the now adult Ralphie returning to his house on Cleveland Street to try to deliver a magical Christmas for his kids, just like the one he had when he was growing up. Peter Billingsley previously produced a musical stage adaptation of the film which went on to receive several Tony Award nominations.
Legendary and Warner Bros. are hoping to recreate the same tone of the original Christmas Story with the new film, with Ralphie reconnecting with his childhood friends, dealing with the passing of his father, and other callbacks to the original. Production on the Christmas Story sequel will kick off in Hungary this February. This won’t be the first sequel to the original movie as several TV movies followed as installments of American Playhouse. A Christmas Story director Bob Clark also returned with My Summer Story in 1994 and a direct-to-video sequel was also released in 2012. Hopefully this latest sequel won’t want to make us shoot our eyes out.