Chris Columbus: Home Alone reboot would be a 'mistake'

Chris Columbus thinks it would be a "mistake" to reboot Home Alone.

The 66-year-old filmmaker directed the 1990 Christmas classic and its 1992 sequel Home Alone 2: Lost in New York - which were both written by John Hughes and starred Macaulay Culkin - and he believes it would be impossible to capture the magic of the films so far into the future.

He told Entertainment Tonight: “I think Home Alone really exists as, not at this timepiece, but it was this very special moment, and you can’t really recapture that. I think it’s a mistake to try to go back and recapture something we did 35 years ago.

"I think it should be left alone.”

His comment came after Macaulay recently teased potentially reprising his role as Kevin McCallister if the salary was right.

But he said during a screening of the film and a Q+A session: “I have ideas, but I don’t have time to write anything with my two children."

Following the first two movies, the Home Alone franchise continued with Home Alone 3 (1997), Home Alone 4 (2002), Home Alone: The Holiday Heist (2012) and Home Sweet Home Alone (2021), but with other child actors at the forefront.

And in 2018, Ryan Reynolds was attached to produce an R-rated reboot for Fox titled Stoned Alone, but the project has not progressed.

Meanwhile, Chris previously admitted he wished he could erase US President Donald Trump's cameo from Home Alone 2: Lose in New York, branding his appearance a "curse".

In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, he declared: “I just wish it was gone.

“If I cut it, I’ll probably be sent out of the country. I’ll be considered sort of not fit to live in the United States, so I’ll have to go back to Italy or something.”

The seven-second appearance by Trump came when Macaulay's character checked into the Plaza Hotel and asked a man in the lobby for directions, seemingly oblivious to the fact it was the then-owner of the facility.

Trump gave a simple reply and walked off screen.

In a 2020 interview with Business Insider, Chris said the future president “bullied his way into the movie” after only allowing filming to take place at the hotel if he could have a cameo role.

He said: “We paid the fee, but he also said, ‘The only way you can use the Plaza is if I’m in the movie’.”

However, Trump later claimed Chris had “begged” him to be in the movie.

He wrote on his Truth Social platform: “I was very busy, and didn’t want to do it.

He added: “They were very nice, but above all, persistent. I agreed, and the rest is history! That little cameo took off like a rocket… now, however, 30 years later, Columbus (what was his real name?) put out a statement that I bullied myself into the movie. Nothing could be further from the truth.”