why was there no sequel

A family comedy about a man dressed as an old woman and dancing with cleaning devices reached the equivalent today of a billion dollars at the box office in 1993. Potato forevercon Robin Williamsis currently celebrating 30 years since its premiere.

“The goal for me, always, is to try to make a movie that feels timeless, that people will see years from now,” said Chris Columbus, the director of Potato forever (Mrs. Doubtfire), in a recent interview.

According to director Chris Columbus, Robin Williams improvised so much that there were PG, PG-13, and R editions of the film (although it was always intended to be released as PG-13).

Chris Columbus used two or three cameras at a time when filming Robin Williams scenes, not knowing what the famous improv actor would come up with. He considered filming these scenes as if he were making a documentary.

And Williams improvised so much in front of the cameras that Chris Columbus shot almost 600 kilometers of film.

The character of Mrs. Doubtfire actually has her roots in a real person, but not a recently divorced father desperately trying to see more of his children, but the owner of a second-hand clothing store in Edinburgh, Scotland.

The shop was called Madame Doubtfire, like its owner. He was something of a local legend, and one Edinburgh resident recalled that he had “about half a dozen cats” and that, while his shop was an excellent resource for high-quality second-hand items, “I had to hold my nose everything time”, because of the smell of cat urine.

The writer Anne Fine learned about Mrs. Doubtfire’s quaint shop, and borrowed the name for her new novel, published in 1986.

And on the podcast The Road To Cinemascreenwriter Randi Mayem Singer recalled reading the novel for the first time and thinking, “‘Well, this is a movie.’ I was always a big fan of Tootsie y One Eve and two Adambut this was… The guy puts on a dress for a really universal and relatable reason: to be with his kids.”

Mrs. Doubtfire arrived in North American theaters on November 24, 1993 – for the long Thanksgiving weekend – and in Argentina, which at that time was understood that December was not a good date, it was saved for the first Thursday of January 1994.

Robin Williams was already a star. From improvisation and stand-up she had moved on to cinema with brilliant successes, and with Oscar nominations, such as Good morning Vietnam, The death poet Society y Fisherman of illusions and, before the ’90s were over, he would finally take home a statuette, not for best leading actor, as he had been a candidate for the three films mentioned, but for supporting actor for In search of destiny.

What is undoubtable is Williams’ gift for combining comedy with drama. He plays Daniel Hillard, a voice actor with intermittent, intermittent employment, a guy as impulsive as he is innocent and somewhat childish, which exasperates his wife, Miranda (Sally Field), who is, yes, the true breadwinner of the family. When an impromptu birthday party ends with the house full of farm animals, Miranda gets fed up with her and asks for a divorce from her. Daniel moves into a run-down apartment and, without a stable source of income, the judge rules that he can only visit his children once a week until he gets his life together.

Eager to see more of his children, Daniel gets not just one job, but two. The second job is that of babysitting his children, disguised as Mrs. Doubtfire, with a soft voice and generous breasts.

In the 1993 world box office ranking, Mrs. Doubtfire came in second place only behind Jurassic Park. However, despite its monumental success, a sequel was never made. The reason? Williams never heard a story idea that he thought was worthwhile, and without him, there would be no Potato forever 2.

Talks about a sequel began in 2003, with a script written by Bonnie Hunt. Robin Williams would return dressed as a babysitter like in the first film. But he didn’t like the plot, and rewriting began in early 2006. The film was expected to be released in late 2007, but after further problems with the script, the project was declared “scrapped.”

The sequel’s story was originally said to involve Mrs. Doubtfire moving near her daughter’s college, so she could keep an eye on her. Serious discussions about the sequel were reignited in April 2014, with the announcement that Williams and Chris Columbus would partner with Fox 2000 Pictures to produce the sequel. Williams’ sudden death – he committed suicide, suffering from depression, following his diagnosis of incurable dementia – just four months later sealed the fate of the project once and for all.

In the decade before the release of Potato forever, the divorce rate in the United States peaked. It is estimated that 50% of marriages end in breakdown. Before Mrs. Doubtfirethe best-known children’s film that dealt with the topic of divorce was Operation Cupid (The Parent Trap), Disney and… 1961. The film ends with the twin daughters chasing away their father’s gold-digging fiancée and getting their parents back together. When the remake was made, in 1998, with Lindsay Lohan as the two identical sisters, the happy ending remained intact.

Director of Mrs. DoubtfireChris Columbus says there was a firm belief that the film should not end with Daniel and Miranda rekindling their marriage. “Robin, Marsha (Grace Williams, producer) and I were a strong trio in that,” he said. “We were adamant with the studio that they would never get back together. Most divorced parents never get back together and we didn’t want them to get back together.” “The film had a false ending.”

There is a third character in contention, the one who plays Pierce Brosnan -before becoming James Bond-, the potential stepfather who enters the scene. Stu is charming, and Daniel sees him as a threat (the restaurant scene is memorable, both for the dress changes that Daniel must make, since he is sitting at two tables with different appearances, and for causing the almost lethal allergy to the Stu pepper).

Mrs. Doubtfire It was a cheap film ($25 million budget), which grossed $441 million worldwide. Today, it would cost twice as much.

It was such a success in the United States that it not only remained in theaters for months, but screens were added to show it.

Mrs. Doubtfire remained in the top five for 11 consecutive weekends, something that this year Barbie could not achieve.

It won the only Oscar for which it was nominated: best makeup.

According to a biography, Robin Williams decided to test the credibility of her Mrs. Doubtfire character during filming by going as Mrs. Doubtfire to a porn shop in San Francisco and buying a huge dildo. She was able to do it without being recognized.

During the scene where Mrs. Sellner goes to inspect Daniel/Mrs. Doubtfire, and he’s serving her tea, the frosting on her face melting. This was not intentional. The heat of the filming lights was what melted him, and Robin Williams improvised most of that scene.

Robin Williams did interviews as Mrs. Doubtfire to promote the film and also occasionally played the interviewer.

During the restaurant scene where Mrs. Doubtfire’s teeth fall into the wine glass, the rest of the cast didn’t know Robin Williams would do that, and their reactions in the movie were genuine.

There were many instances where Robin Williams tried to break Pierce Brosnan’s concentration. In the scene where Brosnan (Stu) was about to choke on the shrimp pepper, Williams kept making sexually suggestive comments to make his task very difficult.

The character of Mrs. Doubtfire was first played by Robin Williams in a show Andy Kaufman did at Carnegie Hall. Williams posed as Kaufman’s grandmother.

Some scenes were shot between 15 and 22 times because Robin Williams was not satisfied until the scene came out the way he liked.

Harvey Fierstein had seen and been impressed by Robin Williams’ impersonation in Comic Relief. He found out through friends that Williams would play a character with a gay brother and did not hesitate to call him to propose playing the role.