“John Candy: I Like Me” was among the opening night offerings at the Toronto International Film Festival this year, taking fans into the life and death of the comedy legend. And perhaps unsurprisingly, everyone loved him — which admittedly made things a bit of a challenge for director Colin Hanks.
Directed by Hanks and produced by Ryan Reynolds, the documentary tells the story of Candy, recounting memories and experiences with him from those who were closest to him. The film is comprised of never-before-seen archival footage, imagery and interviews.
Among those interviewed is Bill Murray, who points out immediately that Hanks and Reynolds would have to work hard to find some “dirt” on Candy, as everyone loved him. And according to Hanks, that was indeed “very much” a challenge.
“I mean, at one point, I kind of had this running joke that we could name the movie ‘The Thing About John,’ because everyone would say, ‘You know, the thing about John was he was really great,’” Hanks recalled with TheWrap’s Awards Executive Editor Steve Pond at TIFF.
“I knew that that was going to be something that was going to come up a bunch,” he added. “And we want to, obviously celebrate that, and to highlight that, and show how genuine everyone feels about John, because John was so genuine to them.”
Hanks was cognizant about the documentary not turning into “a visual Wikipedia entry” about Candy and his work. Eventually, he realized that not all struggles shown onscreen have to be exceedingly deep and dark.
“So the idea to kind of try and focus on, ‘All right, well, there may not be any dirt, or he may not have had these really dark demons that he fought, but what was his journey like? What was it that he was going through?’” Hanks explained.
“And it turns out that the struggles that he had are incredibly relatable,” he continued. “Everyone deals with them. And it’ll be interesting to see how people respond to that.”
For his part, Reynolds was bold enough to disagree with Murray directly.
“I said, ‘Well, I think we live in a dumpster fire. And I feel like people want to feel togetherness, and they want to feel joy,’” he explained. “And you mix that with nostalgia, and you have one of the greatest legal and healthy drugs on Planet Earth.”
You can watch the trailer for “John Candy: I Like Me” below.
“John Candy: I Like Me” debuts globally on Prime Video on Oct. 10, 2025.
