Mrs. Doubtfire was one of Robin Williams’ biggest hits, and a cultural juggernaut at the time of its release. The Academy Award-winning film would gross over $400 million globally on a reported budget of just $25 million, which typically would immediately trigger talk of a full blown franchise in Hollywood. Despite hopes for a follow-up, Mrs. Doubtfire never returned, but that doesn’t mean attempts weren’t made. Speaking in a new interview, director Christopher Columbus confirmed that he and star Robin Williams never spoke about a sequel to the movie until just before the fan-favorite comedian passed away.
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“He and I didn’t talk about a sequel until the year he passed away,” Columbus confirmed to Business Insider. “We had a script that was written and it was the last time I saw Robin. I went to his house and we sat down and talked about it and the script was really strong. Robin’s only comment was, ‘Boss, do I have to be in the suit as much this time?’ It was physically demanding. For Robin, I think it was like running a marathon every day he was in the Doubtfire costume. He was older, obviously. So we talked about it and I think he was hoping in the rewrite we would cut back on the Doubtfire character. But then Robin passed away so there will never be a sequel to ‘Mrs. Doubtfire.’”
When asked if steps had been taken after the fact to make sure a sequel to the movie was never going to be made, Columbus clarified that the studio (the Disney-owned 20th Century) controls the rights to the movie and the character. As a result they could very well make a new movie or a sequel if they wished.
“Fox/Disney owns the rights, I think. I don’t think the Williams family owns it, so the studio can do whatever they want with it. Should they? God no. I will certainly be very vocal about it if they decide to do it.”
Though a sequel seems off the table, Columbus confirmed that he still has a lot of footage from the production of Mrs. Doubtfire and hey’re eager to have an editor sort through it all and create a documentary about the making of the movie.
“There are roughly 972 boxes of footage from “Doubtfire” – footage we used in the movie, outtakes, behind-the-scenes footage – in a warehouse somewhere,” Columbus revealed. “We want to show Robin’s process. There is something special and magical about how he went about his work and I think it would be fun to delve into it.”
