Chris Columbus has given us a number of great, cult and successful films in his career: Aside from the first two Harry Potter films, he is responsible for titles such as Home Alone and Mrs. Doubtfire. However, Columbus would like a film deleted from his oeuvre – even though he teamed up again with acting legend Robin Williams. The problem with the film, however, wasn’t the star.
Harry Potter director Chris Columbus regrets sci-fi flop The 200 Year Man with Robin Williams
The Harry Potter director was recently a guest on The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast and discussed the 2000 sci-fi film The Bicentennial Man. Today he describes this as a mistake: “The 200 Year Man was a mistake… Robin and I talked about it after the movie.”
Chris Columbus sees the reason as being in himself and his skills as a director, which would show their better side in other genres:
For me it was a mistake because I realized then that I wasn’t the right type for it. I’m not the director you go to if you want to make a futuristic film. I’m having a hard time with the future… It’s not my hobby and I’ll never understand it. That’s why making a futuristic film was a mistake.
Watch a trailer for The 200 Year Man here:
The 200 Year Man – Trailer (German) HD
The 200-year-old man became a turning point in Chis Columbus’ career
The 200 Year Man was made with a budget of around $90 to $100 million and, according to Box Office Mojo, only managed to do around 100 million at the box office 87.4 million again – a devastating box office result. However, the experience taught Columbus an important lesson for the future that prepared him for his work on the first two Harry Potter films:
I know that The 200 Year Man was a turning point for me because I realized that I couldn’t do something like that. With Harry Potter I could [stattdessen] simply create a completely new world.
This is what The 200 Years of Man is about: In 2005 it is completely normal to get an android as a household helper and yet the Martin family is having problems with their new addition. The robot named Andrew (Williams) gradually gets to know the human world and develops a big dream: He wants to become a human himself one day.
The 200 Year Old Man is currently not streaming in any flat format. You can buy or rent the sci-fi film from the usual VoD providers such as Amazon, Apple TV and MagentaTV.