For each generation, there are certain films without which they do not represent the celebration of the New Year. For some, it’s Carnival Night, for others it’s Irony of Fate. And for some, this is a film about the adventures of the fearless tomboy Kevin McCallister, who was left alone at home for the holidays. The director of this world famous film was the American Chris Columbus. And although before this project he had a modest directorial experience, he coped with his task with a bang, giving the world a masterpiece, without which it is now difficult to imagine the New Year.
Chris Columbus - namesake Christopher Columbus
Interestingly, the name of Columbus in the English spelling looks the same as the name of the famous navigator who discovered America, Christopher Columbus - Christopher Columbus. Perhaps that is why the future director prefers the abbreviated "Chris." In any case, Columbus was worthy of his famous namesake.
Chris was born in September 1958 in Spangler, Pennsylvania, in the family of miner Alex Columbus and factory worker Mary. Soon the family moved to Ohio, where Chris spent his childhood. As long as the director remembered himself, he was always fond of cinema, in particular horror (horror), and dreamed of creating his own comics when he grew up. However, when the guy grew up a bit, he saw the film “The Godfather”, and this picture inspired him to become a director. To succeed in his chosen field, Chris decided to study directorial art at the TISH New York School of Art.
Chris Columbus Scripts
While still a student, Chris often made short films, and after that he became seriously interested in writing scripts. The first scenario, which he managed to sell, cost as much as five thousand dollars, and at that time it was a serious success. Unfortunately, this project did not find proper development and was soon closed, but Columbus Chris himself was inspired by this experience and continued to write.
In 1984, the movie Fearless was released according to his script. In the same year, according to his other scenario, Steven Spielberg's film “Gremlins” was released.
The Gremlins were originally written by Columbus as a parody of the classic Christmas film of the second half of the forties It's A Wonderful Life, but Spielberg and the producers of the project demanded that some scenes be excluded from the film. In the end, the film was a tremendous success and raised over 150 million dollars at the box office with a budget of 11. A few years later, Chris, co-authored with Charles Haas, created the script for the sequel, Gremlins-2.
"Gremlins" became the first joint work of Spielberg and Columbus, after the grandiose success of the project, this creative tandem created several more paintings. So, according to their joint scenario, the following year a film about teenagers' treasure hunts “Dunce” was released.
Spielberg was also the producer of the movie "Young Sherlock Holmes" scripted by Chris.
Director Chris Columbus
Three years after the Gremlins, Chris finally got into the director’s chair, and his first film was The Adventures of a Nanny, written by David Simkins. And although the film did not reach the heights and box office of “Gremlins”, it was well received by the public and critics, and demonstrated the talent of Columbus, and also defined the genre of cinema in which he was most successfully able to work - family cinema.
The next film by Columbus as a director - "Hotel of Broken Hearts" - was shot according to his script. The film received discreet reviews. After this project, Columbus Chris has not worked as a director for almost two years. During this break, he wrote the script for the movie Little Nimo: Adventures in the Land of Dreams.
In 1990, Columbus again returned to the director’s career and made a Christmas family comedy about an eight-year-old boy who was accidentally forgotten at home by his parents at Christmas, who had to not only take care of himself and overcome his childhood fears, but also protect his house from robbers, this is the legendary Home Alone, without which not a single Christmas can do today. The screenwriter of this masterpiece and its continuation was made by John Hughes, who wrote scripts for such famous family films as Curly Sue, Dennis the Tormentor, and epics about the adventures of the Griswold family.
In the interval between the first and second film about Kevin McCallister, Columbus Chris wrote the script for the second Gremlins, and also shot a film with John Candy in his script “Only Lonely Will Understand”. In this picture, Chris deviated a little from the usual theme, showing the relationship between matured children and their parents who do not want to let go of their children. Despite the fact that this film did not become as successful as many other Columbus paintings of those years, many viewers appreciated it and loved it.
Up to the beginning of the 2000s, the director becomes incredibly in demand and actively shoots family comedies, developing his own unique directorial style, thanks to which, after watching the film, the audience could accurately guess that its creator was Chris Columbus. The filmography of the director during this period consists entirely of successful projects, most of which have long become classics. Among them is a story about a father who dreams of being with his children and for this pretending to be a housekeeper in "Mrs. Doutfire" with Robin Williams. And about the father, who strives for any price to get his son a fashionable toy for Christmas, - “Christmas Present” with the action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger. And about the stepmother, who is trying to improve relations with her husband’s children from her first marriage, in The Stepmother with Julia Roberts and Susan Sarandon. And, of course, about a pair of young people who suddenly found out that they would soon become parents, but who were not at all ready for this, in "Nine Months" according to the script of Columbus himself. It is noteworthy that it is with this film that the career of Columbus producer begins.
At the beginning of the two thousandths, Columbus manages to become the director of the first epic film about the adventures of the boy sorcerer Harry Potter. Despite the fact that Chris was an American, he managed to convince the British writer Joan Rowling to support his candidacy, thanks to which he even beat Steven Spielberg and other no less famous applicants. In return, Columbus ensured that all the actors and most of the staff in his film were British. In addition, for the filming he had to move to England. But all these sacrifices were not in vain, because the film raised almost a billion dollars at the box office. Thanks to this, Chris was entrusted with shooting the second part. In addition, he was offered to take the director's chair in the third part, but he refused, remaining only the producer of the project.
After the Harry Potter films, Columbus focused on his career as a producer.
Producer career
It is difficult to say what led Columbus to become a producer, perhaps the example of his colleague Stephen Spielberg and the like, but since 1995 the director has been actively producing most box office films. If at first it was films that he himself made, then after Chris works as a producer of other projects. Among his works as a producer are two films “Fantastic Four”, all three parts of “Nights at the Museum”, the first three films about Harry Potter (Columbus was the director of only the first two) and other lesser-known projects.
In recent years, Chris was the producer of the film Pixels, which he himself shot, as well as the films The Witch (2015) and Young Messiah (2016).
Chris Columbus is a vivid example of a person who can succeed in everything, no matter what he tried his hand at. Thanks to his talent, the treasury of world cinema has been enriched with bright masterpieces, and I sincerely want to believe that this cinema meter has several more projects that it will be able to please its viewers with.