The Stone family is preparing for a reunion.
Thomas Bezucha, who wrote and directed the 2005 drama “The Family Stone,” is working on a sequel to the modern holiday classic. He told CNN that he was already thinking about revisiting the fictional relative even before Diane Keaton’s death at age 79 in October. Keaton plays Sybil, the Stone family matriarch, who dies of an incurable illness at the end of the original film.
“While working on this film, I’ve been grappling with the loss of Sybil for months, so this was already a light bruise,” Bezucha said in an interview with CNN. “Mentally, I’m spending some more time in that house where I missed her so much.”
Bezucha now says, “I want to show more respect to[Keaton]” and “I want the other cast members to do a good job.”
“The Family Stone” depicts the awkward clash of cultures in which Sybil’s son brings his straight-laced girlfriend back to New England to celebrate the holidays with his eccentric, bohemian family. The film, which was a perennial Christmas hit and a huge box office hit, stars an all-star cast including Sarah Jessica Parker, Dermot Mulroney, Luke Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Claire Danes and Craig T. Nelson.
It’s unclear who will return for the sequel film. Bezucha told CNN that no one has officially signed on, and that the sequel has not been officially greenlit by Disney, which acquired the film’s original distributor 20th Century Fox in 2019. However, Bezucha has expressed that he only wants the original cast to return.
“I’m not interested in a Brady family reunion without the original Jean,” he said.
