Merry Christmas! Here’s an early present: Writer-director Thomas Bezucha is working on a sequel to the 2005 holiday classic The Family Stone. The original film centered around matriarch Sybil Stone, played by Diane Keaton, who brings her chaotic family together for one last Christmas after she’s been rediagnosed with breast cancer. At the end of the film, the family reunites the next year in her memory. Now Bezucha’s doing the same, honoring Keaton after her October 11 death, though he’d been planning to write a second film anyway. “I’ve been haunted by the loss of Sybil for months now while I worked on it, and so this was a blow on a tender bruise already,” Bezucha told CNN. “Mentally, I’ve been spending time in that house where I’ve been missing her for a while already.” Now he says he wants to “honor her even more” by doing “right by the rest of the cast” with a new script set after Sybil’s death.
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Nothing beyond a potential script has been confirmed yet, but before he started writing, Bezucha had his producer reach out to the actors from the original film actors because “I’m not interested in the Brady family reunion without the original Jan,” he told CNN. Apparently, there was unanimous excitement for a sequel. Potential returnees include stars Craig T. Nelson as the Stone patriarch; Rachel McAdams and Elizabeth Reaser as the Stone sisters; and Dermot Mulroney, Luke Wilson, and Tyrone Giordano as the Stone brothers. Joining them in the first film were Claire Danes and Sarah Jessica Parker as sisters who are also love interests for the brothers Mulroney and Wilson play, and Brian J. White as the love interest for the deaf, gay brother Giordano portrays. The original film is currently available to stream on Disney+ — there’s never been a better time to get the family stoned.
