Columbus Chris is the director who gave the world the film "Alone at home" and the first two Harry Potter films

For each generation there are certain films, without which they do not represent the celebration of the New Year. For some, this is "Carnival Night", for others "The Irony of Fate". And for someone it's a film about the adventures of the fearless tomboy Kevin McChalister, who was left alone at home for the holidays. The director of this world-famous film was the American Chris Columbus. And although to this project he had a modest director's experience, with his task, he managed to cheer, giving the world a masterpiece, without which it is now difficult to imagine the New Year.

Chris Columbus is the namesake of Christopher Columbus

Interestingly, the name of Columbus in English writing looks just like the name of the famous seafarer who discovered America, Christopher Columbus - Christopher Columbus. Perhaps, that's why the future director prefers the shortened "Chris". In any case, Columbus was worthy of his famous namesake.

Columbus Chris was born in September 1958 in Spengler, located in Pennsylvania, in the family of miner Alex Kolumbus and factory worker Mary. Soon the family moved to live in Ohio, where Chris's childhood was. How much the director remembered himself, he was always fond of cinema, in particular horror (horror films), and dreamed, when he would grow up, to create his own comics. However, when the guy grew a little older, he saw the film "Godfather", and this picture inspired him to become a director. To succeed in the chosen field, Chris decided to study the directing art at the New York School of Art TISH.

Scenarios of Chris Columbus

Even while studying, Chris often made short films, and after a serious interest in writing scripts. The first scenario, which he managed to sell, cost as much as five thousand dollars, and at that time it was a serious success. Unfortunately, this project did not find proper development and was soon closed, but Columbus himself Chris was inspired by this experience and continued to write.

In 1984, according to his scenario, the movie "Fearless" was released. In the same year, according to another scenario, Steven Spielberg's Gremlins appeared.

Originally, the Gremlins were written by Columbus as a parody of the classic Christmas film of the second half of the 1940s It's A Wonderful Life, but Spielberg and the producers of the project demanded the exclusion of certain scenes from the film. Ultimately, the film was a huge success and raised more than $ 150 million at the box office with a budget of 11. After several years, Chris co-authored with Charles Haas created a script for the continuation - "Gremlins-2."

"Gremlins" became the first joint work of Spielberg and Columbus, after the grandiose success of the project, this creative tandem created several more paintings. So, according to their joint script, the next year there was a film about the search for treasures by teenagers "Goonies".

Also Spielberg was the producer of the film "Young Sherlock Holmes" in the script of Chris.

Director Chris Columbus

Three years after the Gremlins, Chris finally sits in the director's chair, and his first film was The Adventures of a Nanny by David Simkin's script. And although the film did not reach the heights and box office of the Gremlins, it was well received by the public and critics, and demonstrated the talent of Columbus, and also defined the genre of cinema in which he most successfully could work - family cinema.

The next film by Columbus as a director - "The Hotel of Broken Hearts" - was shot according to his script. The film received low-key feedback. After this project, Columbus Chris almost two years did not work as a director. During this break, he wrote a screenplay for the film "Little Nimo: Adventures in a Dreamland."

In 1990, Columbus again returns to the career of the director and takes off the Christmas family comedy about an eight-year-old boy, accidentally forgotten at home by his parents at Christmas, who himself has to not only take care of himself and overcome his childhood fears, but also protect his home from robbers, This is the legendary "One at home", without which today there is not one Christmas. The screenwriter of this masterpiece and its continuation was John Hughes, from whose pen came the script for such famous family films as "Curly Sue," "Dennis the tormentor," and the epic about the adventures of the Grisold family.

In the interval between the first and second film about Kevin McCallister, Columbus Chris wrote the script for the second Gremlins, and also made a film with John Candy in his script "Only the lonely one will understand." In this picture, Chris slightly retreated from the usual themes, showing the relationship between the grown up children and their parents who do not want to let go of their children. Despite the fact that this film did not become as successful as many other Columbus paintings of those years, many viewers appreciated it and fell in love with it.

Up to the beginning of the two thousandth the director becomes incredibly popular and actively removes family comedies, developing his own unique director's style, thanks to which, viewing the film, the audience could unmistakably guess that its creator is Chris Columbus. The filmography of the director during this period consists entirely of successful projects, most of which have long since become classics. Among them is a story about a father who dreams of being with his children and for this purpose a pretending housekeeper in "Mrs. Doubtfire" with Robin Williams. And about his father, who wants to get his son a fashionable toy for Christmas at any price, "A Christmas Present" with the hero of the militants Arnold Schwarzenegger. And about the stepmother, who tries to establish relationships with the children of her husband from her first marriage, in "Stepmother" with Julia Roberts and Susan Sarandon. And, of course, about a couple of young people who suddenly learned that they will soon become parents, but who were not at all ready for it, in "Nine Months" according to the scenario of Columbus himself. It is noteworthy that it is with this film that Columbus's career as a producer begins.

At the beginning of the 2000th Columbus managed to become the director of the first epic film about the adventures of the Harry Potter boy, Harry Potter. Despite the fact that Chris was an American, he managed to convince the British writer Joan Rowling to support his candidacy, so he bypassed even Steven Spielberg and other equally famous contenders. In return, Columbus made sure that all the actors and most of the staff of his film were British. In addition, for the shooting he had to move to England. But all these sacrifices were not in vain, for the film collected almost a billion dollars at the box office. Due to this, Chris was entrusted to shoot the second part of it. In addition, he was offered to take a director's chair in the third part, but he refused, remaining only as a producer of the project.

After the Harry Potter films, Columbus focused on the producer's career.

Career of the producer

It's hard to say what inspired Columbus to become a producer, perhaps an example of his colleague Steven Spielberg and his ilk, but since 1995 the director has been actively producing most of the box-office films. If at first these were films, which he himself shot, then after Chris works as a producer of other projects. Among his works as a producer are two films "Fantastic Four", all three parts of "Night at the Museum", the first three films about Harry Potter (Columbus was the director of only the first two) and other lesser-known projects.

In recent years, Chris was the producer of the movie "Pixels", which he himself shot, as well as the film The Witch (2015) and the "Young Messiah" (2016).

Chris Columbus is a vivid example of a person who can succeed in everything, no matter what he tries his strength. Thanks to his talent, the treasury of the world cinema has been enriched with bright masterpieces, and I sincerely want to believe that this cinematic meter has a few more projects that he will be able to please his spectators.