Drew Barrymore recently revealed she wants to remake one of John Hughes’s most classic ’80s comedies with a modern-day twist, and we are 100 percent on board!
John Candy is Barrymore’s dream role
During a recent interview with 50 First Dates co-star Adam Sandler on The Drew Barrymore Show, the E.T. and Charlie’s Angels actress revealed her dream project with bestie Cameron Diaz. “Her and I did discuss remaking Planes, Trains and Automobiles,” Barrymore told Sandler. “And I was like, ‘well, you know, Adam and I talk about that.'” “Yeah, I’d let you do that,” Sandler responded.
Diaz formally retired in 2018 but filmed a Netflix movie with Jamie Foxx in 2022.
Her remake revelation comes 35 years after the original Planes, Trains and Automobiles was released starring John Candy and Steve Martin. The film, written and directed by John Hughes – the great mind behind nostalgic ’80s classics like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, The Breakfast Club, and Sixteen Candles – follows an unlikely adventure between a Chicago advertising man struggling to make it home from New York in time for Thanksgiving and the lovable, quirky shower-curtain-ring salesman who becomes his travel companion on the trip of a lifetime.
Barrymore even has the roles already sorted, “I want to play John Candy” – the shower-curtain-ring salesman – she told Sandler. “Well… you could do a good Candy” Sandler replied. That leaves Steve Martin’s character Neal Page to Cameron Diaz.
A remake is already in the works
While we’d love to see Barrymore and Diaz bring a new take on Planes, Trains and Automobiles to life 35 years after the original, it is rumored that a remake with Will Smith and Kevin Hart is already in the works.
The remake is a joint collaboration between Hart’s Hartbeat Productions and Smith’s Westbrook Studios. In an interview with Entertainment Tonight in 2020, Hart gushed about the exciting project: “Me and Will have been talking about doing a movie for the longest time and we just [couldn’t] put our finger on what that movie was. So for us to get to a point where we agree that said material was our project – because our personalities not only fit, but we could really pop in this situation – it was just a no-brainer.”
More from us: Steve Martin, John Candy and a Whole Lot of Trouble! Facts About ‘Planes, Trains and Automobiles’
As of December 2022, no new news about when the remake will hit theaters or if it is even in production has been released.