Ryan Reynolds’s Home Alone reboot is ‘an insult to the art of cinema’, says original director Chris Columbus

‘Watch the original!’ director Columbus told The Independent

Ryan Reynolds’s Home Alone reboot, a cannabis comedy titled Stoned Alone, is “an insult to the art of cinema”, original director Chris Columbus has claimed.

In 2018, Reynolds became attached as a producer to Stoned Alone, which was described as a spiritual sequel to the original Macaulay Culkin film that would be aimed at adults.

In a statement at the time, the film was said to revolve around “a 20-something weed-growing loser who misses the plane for his holiday ski trip”. Like in the original film, thieves subsequently break into his home, his paranoia only heightened by his intoxicated state.

Speaking to The Independent for an oral history of the classic film, Columbus called the proposed reboot “an insult”.

“The reboots are just silly to me,” he said. “When I read about something called Stoned Alone, they were going to do with Ryan – it was an R-rated Home Alone movie about stoners – I thought to myself, ‘This is just an insult to the art of cinema’.

“If you’re making a comedy, a musical, no matter what film I’m making, my goal is to treat it with the same respect as if I was making The Godfather. Home Alone is not The Godfather, but you have to treat it with that kind of respect and this idea of remaking things that already exist and are working well? Watch the original! Forget about it. It’s just never going to be as good.”

While development appears to not have yet moved forward on Stoned Alone, Disney+ has already made a Home Alone remake. Starring Catastrophe’s Rob Delaney, Ellie Kemper and Jojo Rabbit’s Archie Yates in the role originated by Culkin, it will be released in 2021.

Ryan Reynolds and ‘Home Alone’ star Macaulay Culkin (Noam Galai/Getty Images/Fox)

Reports in April suggested that Culkin will also appear in a small role in the film, and that the actor received $3.2m (£2.5m) for the cameo.

The Independent’s full oral history of Home Alone, featuring the complete interview with Columbus, will be published on Monday (16 November).