James Acaster and Guz Khan explore the science of Home Alone for Sky
- James Acaster and Guz Khan are making a Sky Max show recreating the booby traps of Home Alone
- The Unofficial Science Of Home Alone will see the pair recreating the home defences seen in the 1990 film
- Acaster is also working on a music album with vocalists he admires
James Acaster and Guz Khan are making a Sky TV show investigating the burglars' booby traps from the film Home Alone, British Comedy Guide can exclusively reveal.
With a working title The Unofficial Science Of Home Alone, the Sky Max studio show will see the pair testing the viability of Kevin McAllister's home defences from the 1990 US comedy film, which starred Macaulay Culkin as the boy accidentally abandoned by his family when they go on holiday over Christmas, and Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern as the intruders trying to rob them.
Made by Naked (Dara And Ed's Road To Mandalay, Celebrity Trash Monsters), production was originally meant to begin last year, presumably to coincide with the festive release of the reboot Home Sweet Home Alone, directed by Borat's Dan Mazer and starring Archie Yates (Jo Jo Rabbit), Aisling Bea, Rob Delaney and Ellie Kemper (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt).
Acaster and Khan last appeared together on Channel 4's Big Fat Quiz Of The Year on Boxing Day, competing on opposing teams.
Khan recreated scenes from Home Alone with Staged star Michael Sheen in a 2020 episode of Sky's panel show There's Something About Movies. The same year also saw Acaster suggest that the £356 million-grossing film was based upon his own childhood, in an episode of the BBC's Mock The Week:
However, both can now lay claim to being Hollywood film actors in their own right. Khan starred in last year's zombie action comedy Army Of Thieves, a prequel to Army Of The Dead, while Acaster belatedly joined the cast of Amazon Prime's Cinderella musical, playing a mouse footman alongside Romesh Ranganathan and James Corden.
Unlike the others, whose characters took the names Romesh and James, he retained the name John, after US comic John Mulaney pulled out of playing the role at the last minute.
Acaster suggested that he was reluctant to return to stand-up in an interview with the US entertainment website Vulture's podcast last year, despite his 2018 quadripartite stand-up special Repertoire being one of the most streamed in the UK during 2021, as revealed by BCG in January.
Publishing his third book in August, James Acaster's Guide To Quitting Social Media: Being The Best YOU You Can Be And Saving Yourself From Loneliness, Vol. 1, the keen drummer is also currently recording a music album, for which he has has invited guest vocalists he admires to sing over a selection of his beats.
He also appears in the video for The Pictish Trail's new single It Came Back, playing a spoof music journalist interviewing singer Johnny Lynch over Zoom, which was released on Monday.