Paramount Axes Ferris Bueller’s Day Off Spinoff
Paramount has slammed the brakes on the Ferris Bueller’s Day Off spinoff, shelving a project that would’ve tailed the Ferrari-swiping valets on their same-day joy ride.
Remember that Ferris Bueller spinoff you probably forgot existed? Same. Turns out there was a reason it went quiet: Paramount just pulled the plug.
So what got axed?
The movie was called 'Victor and Sam's Day Off' and it came from the Cobra Kai crew — Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg, and Josh Heald — with David Katzenberg (The Goldbergs) set to direct. It was announced over three years ago, then basically vanished. Now, after a round of executive shake-ups tied to Larry Ellison's arrival at Paramount, The Hollywood Reporter says the studio is clearing the decks, and this one is officially toast.
What it would have been
- Set on the same day as the 1986 John Hughes classic, the film would have followed the two valets who took Cameron's dad's Ferrari for that infamous joyride.
- Those valets were played in the original by Richard Edson and Larry "Flash" Jenkins — nameless in the movie, later dubbed Victor and Sam for the spinoff.
- In Ferris Bueller's Day Off, they get one quick, glorious blast down the road. The spinoff planned to fill in the rest of their day. Now... it won't.
Not going to pretend I was heartbroken over this one. It always felt like an idea arriving about 40 years late, and judging by the reaction when it was first announced, a lot of you agreed.
Why Ferris never got a real sequel
Matthew Broderick and John Hughes actually kicked around sequel ideas back in the day — Ferris in college, Ferris at his first job — but nothing clicked. Broderick put it best:
'Ferris Bueller is about the week before you leave school, it is about the end of school — in some way, it does not have a sequel. It is a little moment and it is a lightning flash in your life. You could try to repeat it in college or something but it is a time that you do not keep. So that is partly why I think we could not think of another.'
The one time TV tried
There was a short-lived Ferris Bueller series that pitched itself as the 'real' Ferris the movie was supposedly based on. Charlie Schlatter played Ferris, with Brandon Douglas as Cameron, Ami Dolenz as Sloane, and Jennifer Aniston as Jeannie. It lasted 13 episodes before ratings took it out.
As for Victor and Sam... their big day off is officially over before it started.