SCREAM TEAM

HOmE ALONE | Chris Columbus on his Xmas classic…

Are you surprised by Home Alone’s legacy?

Surprised? No. The mantra was really: when you’re home at two in the morning, 20 or 30 years from now, I wanted to make sure it felt as fresh as the day it was made. I last saw Home Alone a couple of years ago with the San Francisco Symphony orchestra playing live. I hadn’t seen the film with an audience since 1990. So to actually see that it still worked for an audience and that they were still laughing just as uproariously as they were from the film’s initial release? That’s a fantastic feeling.

Did you have any ideas for sequels beyond

Home Alone 2?

There’s some parts of me that prefer the humour in Home Alone 2, but we knew we were doing basically a remake of the first film. I had a great time making Home Alone 2, because it was like making Harry Potter 2. There was not the pressure of making the first film. I felt that after we had finished the second film that was enough Home Alone. Trying to reboot it... you’ll never capture that magic again.

Do you watch your own films at Christmas?

No, no, no, no. I laugh about it with my family. We can’t escape it, from like Thanksgiving to 1 January, it seems like a lot of my films are on TV. Christmas is a very important time in the Columbus household. I’m at the tree loft the very first day it opens, picking out the biggest tree. I decorate my own tree. And because I don’t want to fall off a ladder, I have a company putting up a ridiculously embarrassing amount of lights in front of my house. I’m pretty obsessive.

ETA | 5 DECEMBER / HOME ALONE IS RE-RELEASED IN CINEMAS THIS CHRISTMAS.