The Ryan Reynolds-produced documentary John Candy: I Like Me from director Colin Hanks is set to open the Toronto Film Festival on Sept. 4, organizers announced Wednesday.
Reynolds, having come out of Canada like the late John Candy, has apparently been a lifelong fan of the Canadian funnyman and actor. So that should see the Deadpool star walk up TIFF’s opening night red carpet into Roy Thomson along with Hanks and Candy’s family for the gala world premiere.
Reynolds and co-producer Hanks said in a statement: “When you hear the name John Candy, your face lights up. He wasn’t just a great actor; he was an even better person. People loved his everyman qualities, but they didn’t know how relatable John really was. He went through the same struggles we all do, except now we talk about them. We are incredibly honored to have gotten to know the man better through this process and to bring the real John Candy to audiences starting with his hometown of Toronto.”
As with Amazon Prime launching John Candy: I Like Me in fall 2025 after its TIFF opening, Toronto in recent years has opened its annual September event with mainstream streaming titles like Netflix’s The Swimmers from director Sally El Hosaini, Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli’s animated pic The Boy and the Heron, and last year David Gordon Greene’s Nutcrackers, starring Ben Stiller, which opened Toronto before landing on Hulu.
Candy as a larger-than-life comedy star worked in around 44 films, including film classics from the 1980s and 1990s like Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Spaceballs, The Great Outdoors, Uncle Buck, Home Alone, Cool Runnings and Stripes, among many others.
Colin Hanks, the son of Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, at age 8 appeared alongside Candy and his father and Wilson in the 1985 comedy Volunteers. His other acting credits include the Fargo series, the limited series The Offer and the Life in Pieces series.
Candy died suddenly on March 4, 1994, in Durango, Mexico, at 43 of a massive heart attack while he was working on the film Wagons East. John Candy: I Like Me is produced by Reynolds’ Maximum Effort production banner and will feature stories and memories from Candy’s family, who supported the project.
Close friends and longtime collaborators with Candy in Hollywood will also appear in the documentary alongside archival footage and home videos. The 50th edition of the Toronto Film Festival is set to run from Sept. 4 to 14. More lineup announcements will be made in the coming months.
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