Sequel in the works to Christmas favourite The Family Stone
It’s almost that time of the year again, so those Christmas movies are moving back up the most-watched charts.
It’s just as well The Family Stone is already sitting in fourth spot on the Netflix ranking, because news that a sequel might be on the way will surely trigger another round of nostalgia for the Diane Keaton-starring film.
The 2005 movie’s writer and director, Thomas Bezucha, told CNN he was working on a script for a follow-up.
Sign up to The Nightly's newsletters.
Get the first look at the digital newspaper, curated daily stories and breaking headlines delivered to your inbox.
By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.The Family Stone, as the name implies, is about members of the Stone family who reunite at Christmas time. They’re tight-knit but not without scuffles and resentments.
Led by matriarch Sybil (Keaton), there’s also dad Kelly (Craig T. Nelson), sons Ben (Luke Wilson), Everett (Dermot Mulroney) and Thad (Tyrone Giordano), and daughters Amy (Rachel McAdams) and Susannah (Elizabeth Reaser).
Everett brings home his girlfriend, Meredith (Sarah Jessica Parker), with the intention of proposing to her, but Meredith’s uptight ways clash with the family’s bohemian attitudes. Claire Danes plays Meredith’s sister, Julie.
Amid all the drama, Sybil is keeping from her family that her breast cancer had returned, and she (SPOILER) dies before the next Christmas.
The movie was a modest success on its release and had attracted mixed reviews, but in the two decades since, it has become part of the Christmas movies canon, earning a place on many people’s annual rewatch list.
Bezucha had already been working on a sequel script when Keaton died in October. He now wants to “honour her even more” with this project.
He told CNN, “I’ve been haunted by the loss of Sybil for months now while I worked on it, and so this was a blow on a tender bruise already.
“Mentally, I’ve been spending time in that house where I’ve been missing her for a while already.”
The filmmaker said he had contacted the original cast, and everyone seemed receptive to coming back for another chapter, although no one has officially signed up, and the movie hasn’t been greenlit by any studios.
The Family Stone had been released by 20th Century Fox, which is now owned by Disney.
Mulroney and Nelson have both previously publicly commented that there were discussions about a sequel.
The Family Stone is streaming on Netflix, Disney+ and Stan
