A Conversation with Tyler Strickland - Composer of John Candy: I Like ME
During Day 2 of the Toronto International Film Festival, I had the opportunity to have a brief chat with composer Tyler Strickland. Tyler’s recent project, John Candy: I Like Me, premiered as the opening night film of the festival, which also celebrated the festival’s 50th anniversary. If many readers don’t know, John Candy was a Canadian icon from Toronto who was known for his films like Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (1987), Uncle Buck (1988), and Home Alone (1990). The documentary portrays the life and career but also features never-before-seen footage and exclusive interviews with Dan Aykroyd, Tom Hanks, Catherine O’Hara, and Steve Martin.
Attending TIFF for the very first time, Tyler shared how meaningful the experience was for him. “I feel so lucky to be here and to have this film about John, whose nickname was ‘Johnny Toronto’, premiere in Toronto with these folks. It was just really special.”
Before joining this project, Tyler had won an Emmy for his work on Netflix’s Cat People and had served as the composer for several acclaimed documentaries, including Sly (which also premiered at TIFF in 2023) about Sylvester Stallone, and Faye (2024), chronicling the life and career of Faye Dunaway. Tyler got involved with John Candy: I Like Me after working with the producers on Sly, who produced him to Colin Hanks, where Ryan Reynolds was already involved with the project in 2022 and described it as “his baby from the beginning because it was perfect with the confluence of the two groups that grew up around this.” Working with director Colin, Tyler collaborated with him for almost two years, taking a traditional cinematic approach to the score and being heavily involved in the storytelling process.
Initially, the creative team considered going for an 80s-inspired synth-driven vibe. Tyler recalled, “Myself, Colin, and the editor thought the music should take an almost ’80s approach, with some synth elements, and feel like it could live right inside any of the movies John was a big part of.”However, as Ryan helped organize interviews with Murray, Aykroyd, and O’Hara, the entire tone of the documentary shifted. “The synth stuff didn’t work anymore,” Tyler explained. “It didn’t make sense. It wasn’t emotional. So Colin and I started thinking the score needed to be grand and cinematic to really treat John like a Hollywood icon.”
John Candy was an actor whom I admired when growing up, and his legacy is still carried on after his death 31 years ago. Regarding the emotional scenes while scoring the film, Tyler said the scenes surrounding him and his son and daughter, Chris and Jennifer Candy, were heartbreaking because he had died when they were kids. “To be with Jen and Chris celebrating the film had such an impact on me because they were still, somehow, raised by this man who was missing from their lives. For the majority of it, that was kind of a testament to how special John was.”
Tyler hopes the documentary resonates with a younger generation and rekindles an appreciation for the culture and comedy of the 1980s. A blessed experience of attending TIFF over the special weekend and connecting with another creative passionate about his craft. John Candy: I Like Me premieres on Amazon Prime on October 10th.
