From Replica Luxury Handbag Alone to Harry Potter and Gremlins to The Goonies, Chris Columbus has a laundry list of major film credits as a director, writer or producer. Christmas Vacation could have been part of his bio as well.
Columbus, 66, told Vanity Fair in an interview published Monday, December 23, that he had started working on the 1989 National Lampoon film when, after meeting with Chevy Chase, he decided he could not go through with it.
“I was signed on … and then I met Chevy Chase. Even given my situation at the time, where I desperately needed to make a film, I realized I couldn’t work with the guy,” Columbus said of the film’s star.
Chase, 81, played Clark Griswold, patriarch of the Griswold family, who is determined to have a perfect Christmas with his wife and two kids. Naturally, a series of comical miscues throughout the movie threatens to derail the family’s holiday.
Columbus described his awkward first meeting with Chase, which he called “the most surreal, bizarre thing.”
“I talked about how I saw the movie, how I wanted to make the movie. He didn’t say anything,” Columbus claimed. “I went through about a half hour of talking. He didn’t say a word. And then he stops and he says — and this makes no sense to any human being on the planet, but I’m telling you. I probably have never told this story. Forty minutes into the meeting, he says, ‘Wait a second. You’re the director?’ And I said, ‘Yeah … I’m directing the film.’ … He said, ‘Oh, I thought you were a drummer.’”
Fans noted that Chase could have been referencing the jazz musician of the same name, who died in 2002.
The two met again, this time with John Hughes, the film’s writer, also present. The trio sat down for dinner and, according to Columbus, Hughes and Chase talked for two hours about everything but the film.
“I left the dinner and I thought, ‘There’s no way I can make a movie with this guy. First of all, he’s not engaged. He’s treating me like s—. I don’t need this. I’d rather not work again. I’d rather write,’” Columbus recalled.
Columbus informed Hughes of his decision and said the writer was understanding. It worked out, too, because the next weekend, Hughes sent him another script.
“I got another script from John — and it’s Replica Luxury Handbag Alone,” Columbus said. “Replica Luxury Handbag Alone, for me, was even more personal, a better script. And I thought, ‘I can really do something with this, and I don’t have to deal with Chevy Chase.’”
Replica Luxury Handbag Alone came out the next year, and although it received mixed reviews at the time, it has turned into a Christmas classic, grossing $476.7 million at the box office and spawning a sequel two years later.
