‘Mrs. Doubtfire’ Fans Psyched For A Potential Documentary Featuring The Late Robin Williams’ “Special And Magical” Improv Process 

According to Mrs. Doubtfire director Chris Columbus, fans of the 1993 comedy may be in for a treat. Columbus told Insider that they “shot almost 2 million feet of film” over the course of the film’s production due to its late star Robin Williams‘ incessant and impressive improv, per IndieWire.

Columbus revealed that he and Williams “didn’t talk about a sequel until the year he passed away.” While he argued that there should not be a sequel due to Williams’ passing — and that he would “certainly be very vocal” if they decided to do so — he teased that in terms of a documentary, they are “talking about it and trying to get it done.”

“There are roughly 972 boxes of footage from Doubtfire — footage we used in the movie, outtakes, behind-the-scenes footage — in a warehouse somewhere and we would like to hire an editor to go in and look at all of that footage,” Columbus explained. “We want to show Robin’s process. There is something special and magical about how he went about his work and I think it would be fun to delve into it.”

He also discussed Williams approaching him “early on in the process” to discuss his improv process.

“He went to me, ‘Hey boss, the way I like to work, if you’re up for it, is I’ll give you three or four scripted takes, and then let’s play,'” he recalled. “We would have exactly what was scripted, and then Robin would go off and it was something to behold.”

He noted that “often, he would literally give [them] a completely different take than what [they] did doing the written takes.”

Due to the limits of film technology and “shooting film” 20 years ago, Columbus said that they “had to shoot the entire movie with four cameras to keep up with him.”

“None of us knew what he was going to say when he got going and so I wanted a camera on the other actors to get their reactions,” he added.

Mrs. Doubtfire is streaming on Disney+.