While the 1983 movie is about as ubiquitous on TV as Mariah Carey is on the radio come holiday time, it has taken until 2022 to properly revisit A Christmas Story.
Peter Billingsley, who starred as Ralphie in the original and plays him as a grown man in HBO Max’s A Christmas Story Christmas, explained to Collider what took so long.
Billinglsey, who also produced the film, commented, “I mean, it’s been 39 years, so it’s quite a long time. So I think, to some degree, now or never. I think the idea of Ralphie as a dad was a very intriguing thought.”
He admits there’s been a desire to revive the property in the past. “I had been approached about things. Nothing ever felt right. This one’s been in active development for four years, and a lot of the right pieces had to come together. We really needed the resources to build the original house and the whole neighborhood.”
Getting to collaborate with his friend Vince Vaughn as a co-producer helped seal the deal. “I got to work with Vince … which was awesome, and bring back the whole kid cast. So, it’s been a while that we’ve been working on it, and we didn’t feel comfortable saying yes till all the right pieces fell … and then we said, ‘Okay, we have the confidence that this was the time to go now.'”
A Christmas Story Christmas debuts November 17 on HBO Max.
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