Dan Aykroyd Has A Surprising Sequel In The Works, But There’s A Problem
Dan Aykroyd is facing one major obstacle to getting his sequel made.
This article is more than 2 years old
Comedy icon Dan Aykroyd recently confirmed that he’s planning a sequel to Howard Deutch’s The Great Outdoors. The comedy film from 1988 centers on two mismatched brothers-in-law. The pair come together at a Wisconsin lake resort. However, the sequel’s fate will be primarily determined by whether Aykroyd finds the right actor to play John Candy’s role.
As reported by Collider, Dan Aykroyd and Howard Deutch are currently working on The Great Outlaws, a working title and a sequel to 1988’s The Great Outdoors. However, due to John Candy having passed away in 1994, Aykroyd says that the sequel depends on finding the right actor to assume the role of Candy’s character in the film. According to Aykroyd, he and Deutch already have some really interesting names in mind, but he’s reluctant to divulge any further information.
The original film centered around Dan Aykroyd and John Candy’s respective characters, Roman Craig and Chet Ripley, as the fathers of two families on vacation in rural Winsconsin, featuring plenty of slapstick hilarity, like water skiing mishaps, a steak-eating competition, and a giant grizzly bear attack. The Great Outdoors was the third pairing between its writer, John Hughes, and Howard Deutch, the film’s director, releasing after 1986’s Pretty in Pink and 1987’s Some Kind of Wonderful. Despite the poor response from the critics, the audience loved the film, and it ranked 22nd at the box office, earning more than $43 million on a $22 million budget.
It was previously reported that Kevin Hart might star in The Great Outdoor remake, in 2017, for Universal. According to the reports, the film was scripted by Randal Greed and produced by Hart and Michael De Luca, but its development status remains unknown to this day. Since it may still be in development, it’s likely that The Great Outlaws goes on an entirely separate development track if Dan Aykroyd manages to find someone to fill in for the legendary John Candy. For those unfamiliar with Candy’s work, the actor was best known for his appearances in comedy films, such as Summer Rental, Splash, Stripes, Spaceballs, and Uncle Buck.
Despite his iconic performance across the comedic genre, and overall great personality, John Candy suffered from severe anxiety and panic attacks his entire life. In addition to his obesity (he occasionally weighed in excess of 300lbs), Candy had a number of risk factors for heart attack, including strong family history, heavy alcohol use, heavy use of tobacco (cigarettes), and occasional use of cocaine. He died in 1994, at the age of 43, due to a heart attack.
As for Dan Aykroyd, the actor has made only a few minor or cameo appearances in feature-length films in recent years. Fans of his are currently looking forward to seeing him reprising the role of Ray Stantz in the new sequel Ghostbusters: Afterlife, scheduled to release on November 19, 2021. His co-stars Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson, Sigourney Weaver, and Annie Pots are set to reprise their roles in the sequel as well.
