Searchlight Pictures Developing “The Family Stone” Sequel

It’s been over twenty years since 20th Century Fox released “The Family Stone”, a comedy film about the annual holiday gathering of a New England family, the Stones. The eldest son brings his girlfriend home to meet his parents, brothers and sisters. The bohemian Stones greet their visitor – a high-powered, controlling New Yorker – with a mix of awkwardness, confusion and hostility. Before the holiday is over, relationships will unravel while new ones are formed, secrets will be revealed, and the Stone family will come together through its extraordinary capacity for love.

Disney’s Searchlight Pictures is now developing a brand new sequel, “The Families Stone”, which will see the majority of the original cast returning, including Claire Danes, Rachel McAdams, Dermot Mulroney, Craig T. Nelson, Sarah Jessica Parker, Luke Wilson, Tyrone Giordano, Elizabeth Reaser, Paul Schneider, and Brian White.

Unfortunately, Diane Keaton won’t be returning, as she passed away last year, though the new film picks up 20 years after the death of Diane’s character, Sybil Stone. With the Stone family again reuniting for Christmas, only to face the season’s biggest surprise: their father (Nelson) has unexpectedly invited the woman he’s fallen in love with to meet the family.

Production is set to take place in New York this fall, and we will likely see it released in cinemas first next year for the holiday season and onto Disney+ the following year.

The new movie will be directed by the original film’s director, Tom Bezucha, who is also writing the script, with the movie’s original producer Michael London also returning alongside Shannon Gaulding for Groundswell Productions, along with Parker and Alison Benson for Pretty Matches Productions.

SVP of Production Taylor Friedman and Creative Executive Daniel Yu are overseeing the project for Searchlight Pictures and report to Heads of Production and Development DanTram Nguyen and Katie Goodson-Thomas.

While we wait for the new film, “The Family Stone” is available to stream now on Disney+ in many countries around the world.

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