John Candy is a comedy legend. The iconic Canadian rose to fame thanks to SCTV before making the leap to the big screen in movies such as Stripes, Splash, Spaceballs, The Great Outdoors, Brewster’s Millions, Uncle Buck, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Cool Runnings, and more. Sadly, John Candy passed away in 1994 at the age of 43, but he left behind legions of fans, including Ryan Reynolds.
Ryan Reynolds has never been shy about proclaiming his love for John Candy, and he announced on Twitter today that his Maximum Effort production banner is developing a documentary about John Candy’s life with Colin Hanks.
Ryan Reynolds says to expect tears from his John Candy documentary. I’m not ready. John Candy wasn’t just a comedy icon, he also became an owner of the Canadian Football League’s Toronto Argonauts alongside Wayne Gretzky and Bruce McNall. The team went on to win the Grey Cup in 1991 after defeating the Calgary Stampeders 36-21. McNall was the only owner to have his name etched onto the trophy at the time, but the CFL finally added the names of Gretzky and Candy in 2007, over a decade after Candy’s death.
John Candy died of a heart attack in his sleep while shooting Wagons East, a western comedy that also starred Richard Lewis. Production was nearly complete, leaving the team scrambling the rewrite the script and use a stand-in and special effects to complete the rest of Candy’s scenes. Sadly, the film wasn’t exactly a triumph upon release, scoring a rare 0% on Rotten Tomatoes. John Candy’s final film was Canadian Bacon, which was filmed a year before his death. The comedy satirized the relationship between Canada and the United States and was written, produced, and directed by Michael Moore.