HOME ALONE Actor Daniel Stern Says He Was the Original Director of ACE VENTURA: PET DETECTIVE

Daniele Stern he is best known for playing Marv in Home alone movie, Phil in Smart of the city film and the adult Kevin Arnold, narrator of The Wonder Years. But he has also had a career behind the camera, having directed several episodes of The Wonder Yearsas well as the 1993 hit Rookie of the Yearand episodes of Complete savages, The Paul Riser Showand the recent series, Manhattan. He almost had many more directorial jobs, but the film franchises he was a part of turned out to be so successful in the ’90s that he ended up turning to sequels, and that was the right career move for him at the time.

In a recent interview with ComicBook, Stern spoke about that point in his career, saying:

“The thing is, when Rookie came out I got so many offers to direct other films. But it was also the time when I was making the sequel to Home Alone and then the sequel to City Slickers. Just to be crass, I hit the cash cow for the first and only time in my acting life and was like, ‘I don’t think I can hang out with my family. I need to throw some of this away.’”

Stern continued:

“I was the original director of Ace Ventura then, and I was in Varsity Blues and I had some stuff, but then I got another job. So I tried to direct something and I directed a lot of TV stuff and I did a show, Manhattan, which I directed. A few years ago he was talking about the atomic bomb. I thought for a second about directing For All Mankind. There is no way. I wouldn’t be able to do it. It is too big. It’s too technical.”

It’s a shame Stern couldn’t have it all. I think he would have done great directing Ace Ventura. He is a hilarious comedian and I bet he would have worked well with Jim Carrey. But I’m happy that he continued to star in the sequels that he did. City Slickers and Home Alone are classics and made Stern a household name.