Even given my situation at the time, where I desperately needed to make a film, I realized I couldn’t work with the guy,” the “Home Alone” director said.

Columbus opened up about what would have been for the very first time in a recent Vanity Fair profile. At the time, the 66-year-old was at a low point in his career, when screenwriter John Hughes, who had the same agent, sent him the script for the holiday comedy.

A bizarre encounter with actor Chevy Chase led then-unknown filmmaker Chris Columbus to walk off 'National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.'

Jeremiah Chechik has attended plenty of screenings of his 1989 comedy directorial debut, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. But the upcoming shows in his hometown of Montreal will be unlike anything he’s seen before.