Chris Columbus has revealed how late director Richard Donner once called him up to discuss ideas for a sequel to The Goonies.
A follow up to the 1985 cult classic has long been discussed but so far never gone into production.
Now according to Columbus, who wrote the script for the original movie, Donner who directed The Goonies, once called him up in a bid to make progress on a potential sequel.
“He called me and said, ‘You know what we should do? We’re gonna get on my boat, smoke pot for three days and come up with an idea for ‘Goonies 2’,” Columbus told Empire.
“I said to Dick, ‘Well, first of all, I don’t smoke pot. But maybe if I come down, we’ll have a couple of drinks together and sit on the boat.’ It never happened. And I regret that. Because I would drop everything to do that right now.”
Donner, who directed some of the most iconic films of the 1970s and 1980s including 1978’s Superman and the Lethal Weapon franchise passed away last month at the age of 91.
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Steven Spielberg, who was a close friend of Donner and worked with the filmmaker on The Goonies, said at the time: “Dick had such a powerful command of his movies, and was so gifted across so many genre.
“Being in his circle was akin to hanging out with your favourite coach, smartest professor, fiercest motivator, most endearing friend, staunchest ally, and – of course – the greatest Goonie of all.”
“He was a kid,” he added. “All heart. All the time. I can’t believe he’s gone, but his husky, hearty laugh will stay with me always.”
Spielberg also recently spoke out about why a sequel to The Goonies would be so difficult to make.
“Chris, Dick and I – and Lauren [Shuler Donner] – have had a lot of conversations about it,” Spielberg said.
“Every couple of years we come up with an idea but then it doesn’t hold water. The problem is the bar that all of you raised on this genre, I don’t think we’ve really successfully been able to find an idea that is better than The Goonies that we all made in the eighties.”