Macaulay Culkin’s Bizarre ‘Home Alone’ Comeback Pitch Might Actually Get Him Back In The Game
The ‘Home Alone’ franchise has spent years trying to recapture the magic of its original holiday classic, cycling through spinoffs and recasts without ever quite sticking the landing. Fans have largely shrugged off those attempts, holding out hope that the one person who could truly revive the series would eventually come knocking. That person is Macaulay Culkin, the actor who made Kevin McCallister a household name back in 1990.
Since its 1990 release, the original ‘Home Alone’ has made more than $477 million at the global box office, a number that still makes Disney’s ears perk up whenever a revival gets mentioned. Culkin spent years avoiding the role after his childhood fame, but he has since warmed up to it, reprising Kevin in commercials for Google, Uber Eats, and Home Instead, and even headlining an anniversary tour.
That tour is apparently where things got interesting. According to a new report, Disney has met with Culkin about a new ‘Home Alone’ movie, and his pitch has the studio genuinely excited. Culkin’s idea reportedly reimagines Kevin as a single dad who gets locked out of his own house, this time by his estranged son, with Culkin describing the setup as feeling like “the house is a sort of metaphor for our relationship.”
The concept isn’t brand new. Culkin first floated the idea back in November at a stop on his “A Nostalgic Night with Macaulay Culkin” tour, and he described the emotional core of the story in his own words during that Long Beach appearance, saying “I wouldn’t be completely allergic to it,” and adding that it would have to be “just right.” He elaborated on the premise, explaining that his version of Kevin would either be a widower or a divorced father raising a kid, working too much and not paying enough attention, until he ends up locked out and his own son is the one setting the traps, as he told the crowd, per Variety.
Journalist Matt Belloni is the one who broke the news of the studio meeting, reporting that Disney is “extremely eager to make this happen and is actively courting the actor,” and that the studio is focused on getting Macaulay specifically to spearhead a new film over his Oscar winning brother Kieran. Disney has reportedly gone as far as dangling a separate passion project as part of the deal to sweeten things for Culkin.
It’s easy to see why the studio would want this specific version of a comeback. Disney’s last swing at the franchise, 2021’s ‘Home Sweet Home Alone’, landed to terrible reviews and just a 15 percent critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, leaving the series in need of a genuine reset rather than another recast. Disney has continued expanding the ‘Home Alone’ universe without Culkin or original director Chris Columbus in recent years, which only makes his renewed involvement feel more significant to longtime fans.
Nothing is confirmed yet, and no official announcement has been made by the studio, but the pieces certainly seem to be lining up. Would you actually want to see a grown up, locked out, slightly haunted Kevin McCallister getting outsmarted by his own kid?
