One big, happy family! Cheaper by the Dozen has been given the movie treatment more than once, but the upcoming Disney+ remake will be unlike any past adaptation.
Cheaper by the Dozen started out as a 1948 semi-autobiographical book by Frank Bunker Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey. The authors based the novel on their experiences growing up in a family with 12 children. The title stemmed from the joke that their parents had so many kids because they came “cheaper by the dozen.”
The book served as inspiration for a 1950 family comedy film of the same name. The movie was set in the 1920s and starred Clifton Webb, Myrna Loy, Jeanne Crain, Barbara Bates and more.
A remake of the original film was released in 2003. Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt played the parents of 12 children, portrayed by Hilary Duff, Piper Perabo, Tom Welling and Alyson Stoner, among others. In the movie, the Bakers struggled to adjust to their new home after moving because of the patriarch’s job.
The movie spawned a 2005 sequel titled Cheaper by the Dozen 2, in which the family traveled to Wisconsin for a vacation at the lake. There, they met the Murtaughs, including the parents — played by Eugene Levy and Carmen Electra — and their eight kids (Jaime King, Robbie Amell and Taylor Lautner, to name a few).
The cast reunited virtually in May 2020 to recreate fan favorite scenes from the film. “Surprise!” Perabo tweeted alongside the video at the time. “From the Baker family to yours.”
Although Welling did not participate in the walk down memory lane due to scheduling issues, he revealed in September 2020 that he had an idea for how to reboot the series.
“I’d love to do a third one,” the Smallville alum told Showbiz Cheat Sheet. “It would be fun to have [my character], Charlie Baker, having his first child and thinking he’s got it all figured out because he’s had so many siblings. Of course, things may not go that way. I think that’d be funny but I don’t know where that project sits or what they’re doing with it. Cheaper by the Dozen 3.0 or something. I don’t know what you’d call it.”
While Welling’s pitch was intriguing, Disney+ ultimately went in a different direction, casting Zach Braff, Gabrielle Union, Erika Christensen and more in a Cheaper by the Dozen remake.
Scroll through the gallery below for everything we know so far about the upcoming movie: