Chris Columbus Not Ready to Give Up on ‘Goonies’ and ‘Gremlins’ Reboots, Says Both Are in ‘Heavy Development’

Reboots of Gremlins and Goonies have been in the works for so long, that we tend to tune out the myriad “updates” as they happen. Each movie has gone in and out of development hell so many times over the past few years — It’s finally happening!....Nevermind, it’s dead. — it’s very easy to wonder if either of these films will ever actually happen. We caught up with director Chris Columbus, the original writer of both films, and asked him straight up: Do you really think either of those movies are ever going to happen? And, as the Goonies would say, never say die.

Columbus confirmed to us that he hasn’t given up hope on either film yet and says that he’s “heavily developing” both Gremlins and Goonies reboots with Warner Bros. He reiterated his belief that both of those films will happen at some point, but that “it’s a slow process and I don’t think it will happen too quickly.” Yeah, we’ve noticed.

Despite having written the original scripts for both of those films back in 1984 and 1985, Columbus says he remains involved in the reboots, because he’s worried about what would happen if he weren’t involved.

The stuff that I’m involved with — the Gremlins and Goonies reboots, for instance — they would do that without me. So, I’m staying involved just so I can be protective and actually protect what people love about those movies so it doesn’t go off track.

Columbus has previously said that the Gremlins reboot would include “the same universe, the same rules, same Gremlins,” but one thing that wouldn’t be returning is original director Joe Dante, who is not involved with the new film.

A bigger question for the Goonies reboot is whether any of the original cast would return. There has been talk of a Goonies 2 for years and years, but now it seems clear that the sequel might not actually be a sequel. As you can see above, Columbus used the word “reboot” and producer Frank Marshall has previously gone on record saying, “it’s not going to be a sequel.”

We remain slightly skeptical about the prospects of either of these movies, but considering it took 14 years to release a fourth Jurassic Park movie (and considering how successful that film has been), maybe good things will come to those who wait.