The Home Alone franchise is getting a Disney+ reboot that has been in development for quite some time. Saturday Night Live mainstay Kenan Thompson, who will be appearing in the reboot, recently confirmed in a new interview that the film is actually close to finishing.
"It was a long shoot. It started in Canada and got shut down and then came back around because of the pandemic. It's been very splotchy as far as trying to get it done is concerned. I think they're getting very close to finishing it. I did ADR for it recently, so that's usually one of the last steps. So, it's coming out."
The Home Alone franchise began in 1990 and featured child star Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, and Daniel Stern. The film followed the story of an eight-year-old boy named Kevin (Culkin) who is left alone at home on Christmas. Matters become extremely complicated when two dim-witted thieves (Pesci and Stern) think that the has been vacated and decide to rob the young boy's home. When Kevin overhears their plans, he decides to foil their plot by constructing a series of elaborate booby traps all around his house that end in hilarious and painful results.
Dan Mazer is on board to direct the Home Alone reboot for Disney+ while Day and Streeter Seidel have been tasked with tackling the script. The reboot stars Archie Yates, Rob Delaney, Ellie Kemper, Ally Maki, Pete Holmes, Kenan Thompson, Chris Parnell, Timothy Simons, Andy Daly, and Mikey Day. The original film is still considered a holiday classic with fans and the very thought of rebooting the film may seem a bit blasphemous. Chris Columbus, who directed the first film, went so far as to say that a reboot would likely never capture the magic of the original movie:
"No, nobody got in touch with me about it, and it's a waste of time as far as I'm concerned. What's the point? 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. 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. What's the point? It's been done. Do your own thing. Even if you fail miserably, at least you have come up with something original."
Do YOU think the Home Alone reboot will live up to the original? As of this writing, no release date has been announced for the film.