It would appear that we're getting a sequel to Mrs. Doubtfire. It was reported last night that both original director Chris Columbus and original star Robin Williams are apparently back on board in a sequel to the 21-year old hit comedy about a divorced dad who dresses like an old woman in order to secretly spend time with his kids. It is tempting to just whine about how Hollywood is so risk-averse that they will reboot or sequalize any remotely familiar 1980's/1990's property they can find. But these announcements never fail to make me a little sad. The stench in the air isn't greed or fear of the new, but rather a token amount of desperation.
This news follows on the heels of rumors regarding a Goonies 2 straight from Richard Donner himself, never mind that the key players in the 1985 kids' adventure are all over/under 45 years old. In the last year, we've had rumblings of Tim Burton's Beetlejuice 2, Ivan Reitman's Triplets (reuniting Danny De Vito and Arnold Schwarzenegger while bringing on Eddie Murphy), and the confirmation and upcoming release of Dumb and Dumber To for Universal (a division of Comcast). And now we have Mrs. Doubtfire 2 to look forward to along with whatever the heck becomes of Ghostbusters 3. Everything old is new again because Hollywood seems so scared of anything new.
It's not just a matter of whether today's audiences actually want continuations to hit films that played in theaters 20-25 years ago. If the films are youth-skewing, then surely today's kids will be dragged along by their nostalgic parents regardless of whether or not they have any warm feelings toward the respective originals. But the issue at hand is that these films, or even the announcement of these films, should not be a cause for celebration but rather a cause for just a little sadness. Returning to a 20-30 year old property isn't what a movie star or film director on the top of their game generally does.
Would The Goonies 2 really be a priority if Richard Donner's last few films had been solid hits or if most of the cast of The Goonies were more gainfully employed at the moment? 16 Blocks may have been the best Die Hard sequel that wasn't a Die Hard sequel, but it made just $65 million worldwide in 2006. Timeline, a much-troubled adaptation of Michael Crichton's time-travel fantasy, earned $43m on an $80m budget back in 2003. Richard Donner, one of my favorite mainstream directors, hasn't had a hit film since Lethal Weapon 4 in 1998. He hasn't directed in eight years, so it stands to reason that he'd be more open to a Goonies sequel than he might otherwise be.
Peter Jackson arguably wouldn't have returned to direct The Hobbit had King Kong not been (wrongly) perceived as a flop and had The Lovely Bones not actually flopped. Talks of Ridley Scott helming an Alien prequel popped up soon after Robin Hood underwhelmed (following the financial failure of Body of Lies) while what is apparently Prometheus 2 came about right after 20th Century
Aside from his genuine interest in the supernatural, it's hard to argue that Dan Aykroyd's relentless pursuit of a Ghostbusters 3 isn't partially connected to the fact that he hasn't had a major comic vehicle since Blues Brothers 2000 (in 1998), which arguably another attempt to chase former glories. And whether or not Paramount (a division of
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull may have been inevitable, but it had a ring of "no place left to go" as it followed three high-profile Harrison Ford flops (K-19: The Widowmaker, Hollywood Homicide, Firewall, etc.) and a Star Wars prequel trilogy that netted George Lucas plenty of financial success but little of the critical acclaim he arguably sought. Heck, would George Lucas have gone back to Star Wars at all if any of his producing projects (Howard the Duck, Willow, Radioland Murders, etc.) outside of Indiana Jones hit big between 1983 and 1999? Dumb and Dumber To may indeed be a long-gestating passion project. But it's being made now arguably because Jim Carrey, who gave a career-best performance in I Love You Philip Morris just a few years ago, is in a box office slump and the Farrelly Brothers haven't had a $50 million+ domestic grosser since Shallow Hal in 2001.
Now we have an alleged Mrs. Doubtfire 2. Mrs. Doubtfire, a film I have no strong feelings about save for its surprisingly honest ending (the parents don't get back together) earned $219 million domestic and $441m worldwide in 1993, which was enough to make it the year's second-biggest grosser behind Jurassic Park. Adjusted for inflation, its gross would be around $885m worldwide. Robin Williams made no secret of the fact that he returned to episodic television for a steady paycheck after personal problems took a chunk out of his finances and stand-up tours along with independent films (like the downright superb World's Greatest Dad) weren't paying the bills. CBS's The Crazy Ones is on the verge of probable cancellation. Mr. Williams hasn't had a major hit comedy vehicle to his name since the $71 million-grossing RV in 2006. I guess it makes sense to try to recapture the 21-year old glory of his biggest hit. Director Chris Columbus never got the credit he deserved for Harry Potter and has floundered since leaving the franchise in 2002.
I can see the appeal for all parties of attempting to revitalize careers by returning to moments of peak success. And perhaps if these films are hits, then the players will again have the capitol or financial freedom to do more personal projects if they so choose. But as we hear the chorus decrying one unneeded sequel or celebrating another, I feel just a bit of sympathy for the once financially great stars and filmmakers, who may well be box office draws again, yet feel the need to take a stab at a comeback not by reinventing themselves or even aging into character work but rather by attempting to recycle former glories from literally decades ago.
To play devil's advocate, I can't read any of these respective actors and filmmakers' minds. Maybe Schwarzenegger has always wanted to make a sequel to Twins (he made Jack Nicholson in Batman-level money on points for the original Twins) or just wants to go out giving the fans what they claim to want. Richard Donner is 84 years old and maybe wants one last hurrah in something approaching a comfort zone. Maybe Ridley Scott used the Alien prequel hook to eventually entice Fox to do the more "original" material that became Prometheus. I cannot and arguably should not presume that Tim Burton and Michael Keaton haven't truly wanted to make Beetlejuice 2 for 25 years, even if I find that unlikely. Heck Sylvester Stallone inexplicably scored his third or fourth comeback when Rocky Balboa and Rambo turned out to be much better than expected.
Maybe I'm lumping all of these projects into the same box because they all seem to be happening at the same time. But I would argue Stallone is the exception to the rule. In all likelihood, these sequels to age-old hits will do little more than remind fans that they really enjoyed the original films when they were younger. At best they of course may be good films and/or bit hits which in turn will allow the respective players to do a "one for me" project the next time around. Goodness knows Warner Bros. owes Peter Jackson the moon for not only directing the Hobbit films but stretching a two-film series into a trilogy. But Robin Williams succeeding in Mrs. Doubtfire 2 will only prove that audiences were willing to pay to see Robin Williams in Mrs. Doubtfire 2, just as Will Smith making (the surprisingly good) Men In Black 3 did little to quell rumors of his box office demise when After Earth flopped a year later.
At worst, these sequels won't work the second (or third?) time around and will serve as the final nail in the coffin of the very careers they are attempting to save. It can be argued that we shouldn't expect the stars of yesteryear to deliver on the same level that they did in their prime. And if Hollywood had done a better job of generating a new generation of movie stars, we probably wouldn't be wondering why Jim Carrey no longer pulls Liar Liar level box office, or why Duplicity didn't restore Julia Roberts to her Pretty Women glory days. But that's for another day. While others cheered when Peter Jackson returned to Middle Earth or when Jim Carrey signed on for Dumb and Dumber To, I felt above-all-else a twinge of sympathy for the stars I grew up with and whose talent has not diminished even if their box office draw has.
There is, I would argue, little victory in movie stars returning to the scene of their former glories when they are only returning because they have nowhere left to go.
