Mrs. Doubtfire was an iconic family film of the 90s and like many other iconic films, Hollywood has seen their opportunity to capitalize on the popularity. The film is over a decade old, Robin Williams is not the box office success he once was, and from my perspective, the film ended without leaving room for a sequel. So the question is, can a film that’s over two decades old captivate the humor of this generation?
Apparently a sequel has been in the works since 2001 but got benched since then. The claim is that the idea was never officially canned but it was not until recently that the project started to gain momentum.
A sequel has been in the works since 2001 when Bonnie Hunt was tapped to write a script, but despite many drafts and other scribes hired, the project slowly died and has been inactive for years, mainly due to Columbus and Williams not sparking to any new take.
The project became active again early this year with Berenbaum’s involvement and while it’s too soon to predict if all the elements will ultimately come together, Williams and Columbus are attached and hopeful about the outcome.
While Robin Williams and Chris Columbus may be optimistic about the film’s success, no other former cast members have signed on and Mara Wilson (little Natalie) had many harsh things to say about the film on Twitter.
“For the record, no, I do not have anything to do with the Mrs. Doubtfire sequel, nor will I,” Wilson wrote. “I’ve been in some mediocre movies, but I’ve never been in a sequel. And I have no interest in being in one now. Sequels generally suck unless they were planned as part of a trilogy or series. I think Doubtfire ended where it needed to end.”
I personally think that this is a bad idea. You may have a few nostalgic movie-goers interested in seeing the film but overall I think this is a guaranteed flop. If Chris Columbus is going this route, why not bring back Macauley Culkin for a Home Alone sequel at his current age. Make the character kind of a burnout still dependent on his parents for everything and gets left home alone and can’t function. At least people would be interested in a mockery of a classic, but a serious sequel is almost offensive to the foundations of the original film and cannot adapt for today’s viewers. Sorry Hollywood, but if you go through with a Mrs. Doubtfire sequel expect its success to be very doubtful.
