If Ryan Reynolds has the desire to make a joke or a reference that he is passionate about, he is not one to treat nickels as though they are manhole covers – and two great examples of this have emerged from the history of the Deadpool franchise. First, there was the revelation back in 2016 that $10,000 of the film's budget was allocated so that the actor could wear a shirt featuring the likeness of Bea Arthur (a special easter egg for Deadpool fans). That's pretty wild... but even more wild is that the new revelation that the actor/producer spent $5,000 of his own money for the rights to make a special John Candy joke in all three of the Marvel films.
Reynolds discussed the special expenditure recently during a Q&A in New York following a screening of the new documentary John Candy: I Like Me (which is presently available to stream with an Amazon Prime subscription). The "joke" in question is a copy of the prop book The Canadian Mounted, which is a novel that Candy's character reads in the classic comedy Planes, Trains, And Automobiles. The tome appears in Deadpool, Deadpool 2, and Deadpool & Wolverine... but only because he ponied up a lot of money to Paramount Pictures for the rights. He explained (via People),
I called Paramount and said, 'Can I use the book, The Canadian Mounted that he's reading in Planes, Trains and Automobiles?' And I thought they'd just go, 'Of course!' And they were like, 'Yeah, sure — for $5,000.’ I went 'Alright, back off. You can have $5,000. Okay.' I put my own salary back in [the first Deadpool], why stop now? So I licensed the book.
It wasn't just a one-time payment, either. Apparently the $5,000 was a single use fee, so when he wanted to use the book in the sequels, he had to open his wallet again.
There is plenty to love about this story, but my favorite is the fact that Ryan Reynolds was willing to pay the money despite the fact that he finds multiple other ways to pay tribute to John Candy and Planes, Trains And Automobiles in the Deadpool movies. In Deadpool & Wolverine alone, there is a scene with the characters walking past a burnt 1983 Chrysler LeBaron convertible (the same year, make and model of the car driven by Candy and Steve Martin in the John Hughes classic), and one of the very earliest shots sports a mug with one of Candy's most memorable lines:
When presented with the $5,000 price tag, Reynolds could have said, "Nah, we can do other stuff," but he stayed dedicated to the reference and spent the money.
Now feeling in the mood to rewatch all of the Deadpool movies and see how many John Candy references you can spot? The full trilogy is available to stream with a Disney+ subscription (along with all of the other films in the massive Marvel Cinematic Universe canon).
