Oh good, 1993 is coming back. You know what that means: Nirvana Unplugged, skorts and, of course, Mrs. Doubtfire, the hit comedy in which Robin Williams tricked his entire family into thinking he was an old woman just to spend more time with his kids and cruelly prevent his ex-wife from ever finding love with a man who wasn’t a manipulative prick. Which, ironically, he could have easily done without the cross-dressing. He already convinced his ex-wife that there weren’t any sane babysitters in the world with his twisted prank calling. Why not call her back as himself to ask if she still needed a caretaker? Why pretend to be a woman at all?
Somehow we suspect that the answer to this question will not be found in the Mrs. Doubtfire sequel currently being developed at Fox 2000, written by David Berenbaum (Elf, The Haunted Mansion). Hollywood Reporter reports (from Hollywood) that Robin Williams is on board for the sequel, because what else is he doing lately, and so is original director Chris Columbus, because what else is he doing lately?
Plans for a Mrs. Doubtfire sequel were originally set in motion less than a decade after the original made over $441 million internationally, when Bonnie Hunt was set to write the screenplay in 2001. That version has obviously fallen through to make way for whatever David Berenbaum is writing now, which we presume will involve Robin Williams either taking up the mantle of a British nanny for the first time in years, or still working as a cross-dressing kids show host despite (probably) the protests of conservative pundits.
Look, we loved Mrs. Doubtfire when we were kids too, but we also loved skorts, so what the heck did we know? (Nirvana Unplugged is still pretty good though.) At least we can take small, small, small consolation in the fact that the new Mrs. Doubtfire won’t be a remake.
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
