Keep on Keaton On: Two Movies Starring the Late Diane Keaton Are Up for the Sequel or Revival Treatment


Hollywood seems to be missing Diane Keaton.
Keaton died on October 11th at the age of 79, but two films she starred in have come up in the Hollywood news in the past few days. A few days ago it was revealed that Thomas Bezucha, who wrote and directed The Family Stone is writing a sequel to the ensemble classic which will honor Keaton, who starred as Sybil Stone in the 2005 holiday rom-com.
Tuesday brought the news that Michael Showalter signed a deal to reteam with Amazon/MGM to direct a “modern reimagining” of Keaton’s 1987 dramedy Baby Boom.
In The Family Stone, Sybil and Kelly (Craig T. Nelson) host their adult kids (Dermot Mulroney, Rachel McAdams, Luke Wilson and Elizabeth Reaser) for the holidays, as she prepares to tell the family about her terminal illness. The visit is complicated by Everett’s (Mulroney) plans to propose to his high-strung girlfriend Meredith (Sarah Jessica Parker), of whom Sybil does not approve.
In the original Baby Boom, which was directed by Charles Shyer and written by Nancy Meyers and Shyer, Keaton played J.C. Wiatt, a high-powered New York businesswoman who unexpectedly becomes the guardian of a baby and must juggle both career and child-rearing, or choose between the two.
Bezucha said in an interview with CNN that “I’ve been haunted by the loss of Sybil for months now while I worked on it, and so this was a blow on a tender bruise already. Mentally, I’ve been spending time in that house where I’ve been missing her for a while already.”
Bezucha said he wants to get the sequel right and “do a good job by the rest of the cast,” noting he wants to “honor her even more.” None of the original cast have signed on to participate in a sequel as of yet, though Bezucha said everyone he reached out to had a positive response to the project.
Plot, casting and release details haven’t been revealed for either film at this time, but of the two, the Baby Boom reboot has a studio behind it and so should go into production first.


