page_title: Home Alone
section_title: Casting
hierarchical_section_title: Home Alone / Production / Casting
caption_attribution_description: Macaulay Culkin at the Governor's Ball after the Emmy Awards, 8/25/91
context_page_description: Home Alone is a 1990 American Christmas comedy film written and produced by John Hughes and directed by Chris Columbus. It stars Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern, John Heard, and Catherine O'Hara. The film follows Kevin, an eight-year-old boy, who must defend his home from two burglars, Harry and Marv, after his family accidentally leaves him behind on their Christmas vacation. It was filmed between February and May 1990, in an array of locations. The film was originally meant to be a production from Warner Bros., but was changed to a 20th Century Fox production when Hughes exceeded a $10 million budget that he promised for the film with Warner Bros.
  Home Alone premiered on November 10, 1990 in Chicago; it was released wider in the United States on November 16, 1990. With a total gross of $476.7 million, it held the record for the highest-grossing live-action comedy ever, until it was overtaken by The Hangover Part II in 2011.
context_section_description: Hughes suggested to Columbus that they cast Macaulay Culkin in the main role, because of his experience with the child actor while shooting Uncle Buck. Columbus met with other actors for the part, by his count "hundreds and hundreds" (actually 200), as he felt it was his "directorial presponsibility". Columbus finally met with Culkin and agreed he was the right choice for the role.
  For the role of Harry, one of the bandits, Robert De Niro and Jon Lovitz were considered for the role. After both rejected it, Joe Pesci accepted it. The role of Uncle Frank was originally written for Kelsey Grammer, but given to Gerry Bamman when Grammer was unavailable.
  Daniel Stern was cast as Marv, but before shooting started, he was told that the production schedule had been extended from six weeks to eight. He was told there was no money in the budget for a pay increase he sought, so he quit. Daniel Roebuck was quickly hired to replace him, but after two days of rehearsal, Columbus did not see any chemistry between him and Pesci and decided to bring back Stern. Roebuck later admitted that, although he was upset to be fired from the production, he now believes the experience to be "such a little blip of unimportance".
  John Candy had only one day to film his scenes; it took 23 hours. He was paid $414, since he did the film as a favor to Hughes. In return, he was the only actor Hughes allowed to go off-script – according to Columbus, all his dialogue was improvised.
caption: Macaulay Culkin (pictured in 1991) was the child star of the film.
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