Christmas may have just passed us by, but HBO is already back in the holiday mood. The production studio has recruited the then-child lead from 1983's A Christmas Story, Peter Billingsley, for a sequel to the noel classic. This time he will be old enough to handle a Red Ryder BB rifle without shooting his eye out.
For A Christmas Story Christmas, Billingsley will reprise his role as Ralphie (though he may go by Ralph now), an adult who’s returning home with kids of his own for the holidays. The original film followed young Ralphie and his pursuit of the famous Red Ryder BB gun in 1940, and A Christmas Story Christmas picks up in the ‘70s as father Ralphie hopes to deliver on a good Christmas for his children.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, HBO is hoping to “recreate the same real-life tone of the first movie to show the now-father reconnect with childhood friends, reconcile the passing of his ‘Old Man,’ and callbacks to the initial film.” So it looks like we can hopefully expect more familiar faces, and maybe even see the adult version of Ralphie’s whiny younger brother Randy (originally played by Ian Petrella).
The feature is intended for HBO Max and will be directed by Clay Kaytis, who previously directed The Christmas Chronicles for Netflix. The script for A Christmas Story Christmas was penned by Nick Schenk, who’s known for writing the Clint Eastwood movies Gran Torino and The Mule.
Over the last nearly forty years since A Christmas Story, Billingsley has gone on to have a successful career behind the camera, directing films such as Couples Retreat starring Vince Vaughn, producing the three-time Tony-nominated Broadway musical A Christmas Story The Musical and the Emmy-nominated Jon Favreau talk series Dinner For Five.
Production for the feature is set to begin in February in Hungary.