Our first look at Disney’s latest reboot of a 20th Century Fox family-friendly franchise is here. Just over a week after a relaunch of the Ice Age series hit streaming, the Mouse House has dropped the trailer for Cheaper by the Dozen, the remake of the 2003 comedy flick which stars Zach Braff and Gabrielle Union as two parents struggling to control the chaos of bringing up a house full of kids. Check out the trailer above.
Early-aughts kids who grew up watching ’03’s Cheaper by the Dozen and its 2005 sequel, both of which featured Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt as the beleaguered grownups, will note that the new film has replicated the set-up pretty faithfully, with Braff and Union’s family also being known as the Bakers. There are just a couple of tweaks made to give the premise a fresh spin.
Or maybe fresh isn’t the right term seeing as the movie appears to be taking a lot of inspiration from classic 1970s show The Brady Bunch. In contrast to the earlier duology, the remake’s kids are the product of the parents’ previous marriages, only coming together as one big clan after Braff and Union’s characters became an item. The number of children has also been slimmed down. There are 12 kids in the Martin/Hunt films, but Braff and Union only have to manage 10. The parents themselves complete the titular dozen this time around.
As directed by Gail Lerner from a screenplay by Kenya Barris and Jennifer Rice-Genzuk, Cheaper by the Dozen ’22 is actually the third iteration of the film franchise, following a little-remembered 1950 movie that was inspired by the real-life Gilbreth family. Shawn Levy, Gabrielle Union, Brian Dobbins, and Donald J. Lee are executive producers.
You can catch the remake when it hits Disney Plus on March 18. The 2003 and 2005 films are available to stream now.
Published: Feb 7, 2022 09:31 am