John Candy was basically responsible for some of the best movies in the 1980s. Of course, the Canadian star got his big-break on SCTV in the early '80s. By the mid-80s, John was already on his way to becoming a bona fide movie star. Many of his '80s movies are worth watching at least once if not over and over again. We're talking about Space Balls, Little Shop of Horrors, Splash, Uncle Buck, and Planes Trains and Automobiles. Then the '90s hit and John was an even more recognizable star. He was cast in Home Alone (which was nearly canceled during production), JFK, The Rescuers Down Under, and would have been in a lot more hits had he not passed WAY before his time.

One of John's final projects, and perhaps his last hit, was 1993's Cool Runnings. The movie was directed by Jon Turteltaub and was based on the true story of a 1988 Olympic Jamaican bobsled team. The concept was both heartwarming and hilarious. And thanks to John Candy's presence, Jon was able to bring the story to the big screen. But there was so much more to the origin of Cool Runnings, as we've learned from a superb article by Entertainment Weekly. Let's take a look...

Cool Runnings Was Supposed To Be A Drama, Not A Comedy

The story of the 1988 Olympic Jamaican bobsled team basically encapsulates what the Olympics are all about. At least, that's why Jon Turteltaub was attracted to the story in the first place and why he was super excited about a call he got about making a movie about it.

It was Disney who bought the rights to the story of the Jamaican bobsled team and there was even a script waiting for Jon to direct.

"When I first got the job to do the movie, I called my mother and I told her the big news that I finally got hired by a real movie studio to direct a movie and that I was going to Calgary for two months and then to Jamaica for a month," Jon Turteltaub explained to Entertainment Weekly. "The first words out of her mouth were, 'How do you pack for that?' So that was my welcome to show business."

But Cool Runnings wasn't the original attempt of a movie adaption of the true Olympic story. According to Entertainment Weekly, producer Dawn Steel was trying to make a more dramatic take on the story in a film called "Blue Maaga".

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"Blue Maaga was a script before I got there. It was more of a heavy journey about a realistic life in the slums of Kingston and taking guys from that sort of background through their journey," Jon described. "There were versions of the script that were pretty heavy and very dramatic, and it started that way. It really wasn’t until the script found its light touch and found its playfulness that it found itself."

John Candy Cool Runnings
Empire Online

The Actors Made It More Authentic And More Of A Comedy

When the script landed in the hands of actors Malik Yoba, Doug E. Doug, Leon, and Rawle D. Lewis (who played the bobsled team members) the story took a turn toward comedy.

"I went to an open call," Malik Yoba, who played Yul Brenner, said. "I think I was the last person on the last day. I went down there and did some improv. There might have been some other scripted stuff, but I remember my improv being about how I taught Bob Marley how to write music. And two months later, I got a call, 'Can you fly to L.A. tomorrow and screen test?' [That was] back in 91. Then Dawn Steel called me on Christmas Eve of 1991 saying, 'Hey they’re not going to make the movie, but I’m going to get this movie made.' They called me back about eight months later and said there’s a new director, we’d like you to come in again. I was pretty indignant because I felt like I had the taste of it and it went away, so I was like, 'I’m busy.' [Laughs] And then I was convinced to fly back out to L.A."

Many of the actors who were being looked at for Blue Maaga had to go through the casting process again for the film that ultimately became Cool Runnings.

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"I had to go through the whole casting process again even though I was already cast previously and paid," Leon, who played Derice Bannock, said. "So I had to go do it again, and did it again and was cast again. This time I did the movie, I actually earned my money."

John Candy Cool Runnings bobsled
The Guardian

Doug E. Doug, who played Sanka Coffie, actually didn't like the Blue Maaga script and much preferred the comedic take with John Candy. Rawle D. Lewis (Junior Bevil), on the other hand, was just thrilled about the opportunity.

"It was not just about finding four great guys but guys who made a team and fit in together and how they worked as a team," director Jon said. "And that’s what was so crucial to making this cast work, because they didn’t feel like just four individuals, they really had to feel like a group, and it’s like any team you put together, there’s that chemistry that has to be right, and they really found it. Those guys found it within each other. There’s that great scene with Malik and Rawle where Malik is giving him a pep talk in front of the mirror, and that was the audition scene, and Rawle had been playing both of those parts in all the auditions but no one could play that part as good as he did."

But it wasn't just the bobsled team that built a connection, it was John Candy too. And he was the glue that held the whole team together.

"John Candy, at one point we were invited to his room and we were all listening to music, reggae and stuff [Laughs], and he said, 'Hey listen, I’m from Canada. I was there. They don’t know what they have on their hands. This thing’s going to be huge,'" Rawle said of John Candy. "He said, 'But no one gets it because no one gets how big this is going to be.' I remember listening to him and going, 'I knew I wasn’t crazy. I feel the same way.'"

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