Mrs. Doubtfire director talks Robin Williams, sequel and his plans with those '972 boxes of footage'

Hollywood filmmaker Chris Columbus reveals that the only reason the late and great Robin Williams would stop improvising during the shooting of Mrs. Doubtfire was when the crew, quite literally, ran out of film!

The cult 1993 film, which completes 30 years of its theatrical release on November 21, stars Williams in a dual-identity role of a recently-divorced man named Daniel Hillard who disguises himself as an aged, endearing English woman named Euphegenia Doubtfire. In disguise, Daniel is able to visit and spend a lot of time with his three kids as the housekeeper while also growing close to his ex-wife Miranda (Sally Field) in unusual ways as she starts to confide in him/her about her life post-divorce.

Based on Anne Fine's novel 'Madame Doubtfire', Mrs. Doubtfire was adapted for the screen by Randi Mayem Singer and Leslie Dixon. The film was a huge success at the box office with over $440 million and was beaten only by Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park that year.

Robin Williams finally approved the sequel

The success of Mrs. Doubtfire would, expectedly, ignite the idea of a sequel but thanks to Robin Williams' disinterest, the project would be dropped almost immediately. It helped that Chris Columbus wasn't all the keen either and the germ of that sequel idea, which was first spotted in the early 2000s, would be turned down because a solid script just wasn't around. Until 2013, a year before Williams tragically passed away, when the two of them finally found something very interesting to work with. 

Chris Columbus tells Insider that the last time he saw Robin Williams was to discuss the sequel and that they discussed the "really strong" script in hand. The acting and comedy legend was also quite kicked about the prospects but tragically, he died by suicide the following year (on August 11, 2014) and cast a huge shadow of grief and shock over the world. Chris Columbus, quite fittingly, feels that a Mrs. Doubtfire 2 should never see the light of day.

A Mrs. Doubtfire documentary on the cards?

Chris Columbus also reveals in the same conversation with Insider that there are as many as 972 boxes of footage from the film that are currently lying in a warehouse. These include the footage that made the final cut, the out-takes, the bloopers, the behind-the-scenes and so much more that the filmmaker and a few others are currently contemplating a documentary. More importantly, Chris Columbus wants the doc. to throw light on Robin Williams' unique process and what separates him from the rest.