No joke: during my college years one of my good friends used to live with a profoundly odd guy who would spend his evenings playing online poker wearing a poker visor and sunglasses. What makes this particular oddball relevant to this story is that he once overhead my friend and I talking about the Home Alone movies. “My favorite is Home Alone 3,” he said without us asking, then added, “It’s the best of the trilogy!”
Of course, those were the days before I even knew that a Home Alone 4 existed, which premiered as a TV movie in 2002 featuring French Stewart (that weird guy from Third Rock from the Sun) starring as Marv, because apparently someone thought he looks like Daniel Stern, who starred as Marv in the first two movies (he does not). But all that aside, each Home Alone sequel — including Home Alone 2: Lost in New York — were obviously just attempts to capitalize on the 1990 original, which remains the highest grossing Christmas movie of all time and made the young Macaulay Culkin one of the biggest stars in Hollywood for a few years (boy that turned out well, didn’t it?)
I still enjoy a viewing of Home Alone from time-to-time, although now that I’m older I realize how incredibly ridiculous the movie is (Harry and Marv would have been dead after just one of Kevin’s pranks), though I can’t get passed the even more ridiculous sequel (how does a 10 year old from Chicago navigate Manhattan so successfully? How can he see the New York skyline from JFK airport? Why is Tim Curry‘s character the creepiest guy I’ve ever seen in a movie?) I can’t say I ever saw 3 or 4. But believe it or not, there’s a fifth Home Alone movie on its way, which ABC Family will air during its traditional “25 Days of Christmas” movie block. Here is the press release below:
Burbank, CA (March 15, 2012) – ABC Family and Fox TV Studios announced that production has begun on the latest installment in the popular “Home Alone” franchise, starring Malcolm McDowell, Debi Mazar, Edward Asner, Eddie Steeples, and Christian Martyn. The movie is set to premiere as part of the network’s annual “25 Days of Christmas” programming event.
In “Home Alone 5: Alone in the Dark” eight-year-old Finn (Martyn) is terrified to learn his family is relocating from sunny California to Maine, and the scariest house he has ever seen! Convinced that his new house is haunted, Finn sets up a series of elaborate traps to catch the “ghost” in action. Left home alone with his sister (Jodelle Ferland) while their parents are stranded across town, Finn’s traps catch a new target – a group of thieves (McDowell, Mazar, Eddie Steeples) who have targeted Finn’s house. Produced by Fox Television Studios, the movie is directed by Peter Hewitt (“Garfield”), and written by Aaron Ginsburg & Wade McIntyre (“The Finder”).
Well that sounds awful. Malcolm McDowell and Ed Asner have nothing better to do? Why do people keep leaving their kids at home unsupervised? How long until Home Alone 6: Escape From Child Services?
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