Beethoven is a 1992 American family comedy film, directed by Brian Levant and written by John Hughes and Amy Holden Jones. The film's story centers on a St. Bernard dog named after a German composer who finds a home with a suburban family. The film received mixed reviews from critics but was a surprise hit at the box office, earning $147.2 million worldwide. The film spawned a franchise, including a short-lived animated TV series. A direct sequel, Beethoven's 2nd, was released the following year.
Theatrical release poster
John Wilden Hughes Jr. was an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He began his career in 1970 as an author of humorous essays and stories for the National Lampoon magazine. He went on in Hollywood to write, produce and sometimes direct some of the most successful live-action comedy films of the 1980s. He directed such films as Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, She's Having a Baby, and Uncle Buck; and wrote the films National Lampoon's Vacation, Mr. Mom, Pretty in Pink, The Great Outdoors, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, Home Alone, Dutch, and Beethoven.
Hughes at the premiere of Home Alone 2: Lost in New York in 1992
Hughes as a junior at Glenbrook North High School (1967)