Chris Columbus and Steven Spielberg

Chris Columbus finished the first draft just as the Santa Maria was docking in the New World for the first time. He had difficulty selling it for a few years, as more people seemed to be focused on settling and avoiding smallpox than reading treatments and query letters.

Okay…different Chris Columbus.

This Chris Columbus has been a fixture in the film industry since the 1980s, with The Goonies being one of the early hits that established him as a major player in Hollyweird. His other screenplays of note include Gremlins, Nine Months and Christmas with the Kranks. He's also stretched himself plenty in the years since, racking up a ton of directing and producing credits, having attached himself to such megahits as the Home Alone movies, Mrs. Doubtfire, Fantastic Four, Night at the Museum and the first two Harry Potter films. He also directed the 2015 disaster Pixels, but we won't mention that one. Too late?

As far as Goonies is concerned, Columbus penned the actual screenplay, but he couldn't have done it without the original story concept…which belonged, of course, to the brilliant Mr. Spielberg. But all those quotable lines ("Goonies never say die," "Hey, you guys!" and "Gee, mister…you're even hungrier than I am") are thanks entirely to Columbus.