Some more aughts nostalgia is being greenlit by Hollywood. Some of the most unlikely 2000s movies have been getting sequels of late. Searchlight has announced that a sequel to the 2005 holiday film "The Family Stone" is happening, with nearly the entire cast returning. Production will take place in NYC this fall.
Claire Danes, Rachel McAdams, Dermot Mulroney, Craig T. Nelson, Sarah Jessica Parker, Luke Wilson, Tyrone Giordano, Elizabeth Reaser, Paul Schneider, and Brian White will all be back. An official poster can be seen below.
The one big exception is, of course, Diane Keaton, who passed away in October 2025 at the age of 79. The sequel, titled "The Families Stone," is being set up as a tribute to Keaton.
The story takes place 20 years after the death of Keaton's character, matriarch Sybil Stone, as the Stone family again reunites for Christmas, only to face the season's biggest surprise: their father (Nelson) has unexpectedly invited the woman he's fallen in love with to meet the family.
Thomas Bezucha returns to direct from his own script. What has he done since "The Family Stone"? Two movies in the last twenty years: "Monte Carlo," starring Selena Gomez, which was panned in 2011, and "Let Him Go," starring Kevin Costner and Diane Lane, released in 2020, a decent revenge movie that failed at the box office but managed to become a hit on Netflix.
"The Family Stone" actually only made $92 million worldwide following its December 2005 release, but Searchlight has noticed that it's become a Christmas staple and is now turning it into IP.
I will mention this again: late '90s and early 2000s nostalgia is all the rage these days in Hollywood, which has noticed that the moviegoing public is craving sequels not just to popular hits from that decade, but also to semi-popular fare.
It's a free-for-all at the moment, with “Practical Magic 2,” "The Devil Wears Prada 2," "Freakier Friday," "Scary Movie 6," "28 Years Later," "Gladiator II," "Twisters," and "Final Destination." Upcoming: "Shrek 5," "The Mummy 4," "National Treasure 3," "I Am Legend 2," "Constantine 2," "Rush Hour 4," and "The Princess Diaries 2."
Bassim Tariq was the first one in the chair. The "Mogul Mowgli" director spent two years building out the Mahershala Ali vehicle before exiting in 2022, and he's now letting the air out on this one.