The John Candy and John Hughes Movie That Never Got Made

As the recent documentary John Candy: I Like Me reminds us, John Candy was often wonderful onscreen. But he was never better than when he was teamed with director John Hughes. Together, the duo created all-time classics such as Uncle Buck, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, and Only the Lonely.

Had things worked out differently, Candy and Hughes were set to collaborate on another movie, one with a third, very unlikely collaborator: Sylvester Stallone. Bartholomew vs. Neff was to star Stallone as a retired baseball player who gets into a feud with his neighbor, a corporate lawyer played by John Candy. As it was written by Hughes, the film would have taken place in Chicago, and was slated to start filming in the summer of 1991.

Bartholomew vs. Neff would have found its three principal figures at an interesting crossroads. Even though he was easily the biggest name of the group, Stallone was facing a downturn in fortunes. As the ’80s shifted into the ’90s and overly-muscled action heroes ceased to be a draw, Stallone was looking to expand his portfolio—not by returning to dramas such as the first Rocky and First Blood, but by taking on comedy, first in the dire John Landis picture Oscar and then in the even worse Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot.

Hughes also had an incredibly successful ’80s, helming classics such as The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. But his biggest hit came in 1990, when he wrote and directed Home Alone. In fact, it was in the wake of that seismic hit that Hughes began working on Bartholomew vs. Neff.

Like the others, the 1980s were good to John Candy, who transitioned from the Canadian sketch comedy series SCTV to getting his breakout role alongside Bill Murray in 1981’s Stripes. Even though Candy lost the role of Louis Tully in Ghostbusters to fellow SCTV alum Rick Moranis, he went on to play significant parts alongside Tom Hanks in Ron Howard’s Splash and Richard Pryor in Brewster’s Millions. But it was Hughes who really understood how to use Candy, putting him in the lead for Planes, Trains and Automobiles, The Great Outdoors (with Dan Aykroyd), and Uncle Buck.

Bartholomew vs. Neff could have been the next step for the two comedy greats and a way for Stallone to reinvent himself. Moreover, the script had the support of Carolco Pictures, which had just enjoyed its own string of hits with Field of Dreams, Total Recall, and Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

So what happened? Why did Bartholomew vs. Neff never materialize on screen? Two words: Curly Sue.

While in preproduction for Bartholomew vs. Neff, Hughes made Curly Sue, a cutesy comedy starring Jim Belushi and Alisan Porter, the young actress playing the titular kid. Curly Sue managed to barely make back its budget, but the film was ravaged by critics, who particularly blamed Hughes for holding to a formula he created with Home Alone.

As Simon Brew at Film Stories writes, Hughes took the criticism to heart and lost his passion for directing. As he fell back, interest in Bartholomew vs. Neff waned. Eventually, Carolco moved its stars onto other projects: Candy would join Richard Lewis in the period comedy Wagons East! while Stallone went onto the solid disaster flick Daylight. Hughes would never direct another movie again.

John Candy died of a heart attack in March of 1994, as Wagons East! was finishing production. According to Vince Vaughn, who lived near the director in Lake Forest, Illinois, Candy’s death may have something to do with Hughes’ retirement from directing, even more than the critics who hated Curly Sue. “He talked a lot about how much he loved Candy;” Vaughn told Vanity Fair in 2010; “if Candy had lived longer, I think John would have made more films as a director.”

Turns out, Bartholomew vs. Neff is just one of the many Hughes and Candy collaborations we would have, and should have had.

John Candy: I Like Me is now streaming on Prime Video.