Chris Columbus, King of Christmas Movies, Is Now Wrapping Gifts for a Nightmare with ‘Nosferatu’

Alright.

Forty minutes into the meeting, he said, “Wait a minute. Are you the director?” And I said, “Yeah…I’m directing the movie.” And he told me the most surreal, bizarre thing. I still can’t understand its meaning. He said, “Oh, I thought you were a drummer.” [Shakes head] I said, “Oh, okay. Let’s start talking about the movie again.” After about 30 seconds, he said, “I have to go.”

Did he just walk out? [UPDATE: Readers have suggested that Chase was likely making a joking reference to the jazz percussionist who was also named Chris Columbus.)

He went off and met with John Hughes and said we needed to meet again. Then we had a dinner where John Hughes was present, and I was basically nonexistent. It was Chevy and Hughes, and they talked about everything except Christmas Vacation. We spent two hours together, and 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 shit. I don’t need this. I’d rather not work again. I’d rather write.

Do you think he was hazing you, just asserting dominance?

I don’t know, maybe that’s it. I guess that sense of humor was funny in the early ’70s. It’s so surreal…Who says anything like that to anybody? It makes no sense. So to tell that story almost makes no sense, but it actually happened. I thought, This was how we’re going to work together? I’m going to be on set and he’s not listening. [Representatives for Chase did not immediately respond to a request for comment.]

What did you do next?

I called John and said, “I can’t do this. John, I really need this job, but I know I won’t make a good movie with this guy and I’ll disappoint you.” And he said, “I understand. Totally understand.”

So you left?

I give up Christmas vacation. The following weekend, I received it other John’s script—and that was it Home Alone. at home alone, For me, it’s even more personal, a better script. And I thought, I can actually do something with this, and I don’t have to deal with Chevy Chase. That’s it. John and I started working together and we felt the same way. The only difference between us is that John likes to stay up all night and I work during the day. While I was shooting at home alone, I was filming during the day and John wanted to have script meetings at night at his house until four in the morning. I slept for about two hours. I had a newborn!