A decade after the release of Threat Level Midnight, two of the stars are getting back together for another movie: If, a mysterious film about “a child’s journey to rediscover their imagination” directed by John Krasinski and starring both him and his former The Office boss Steve Carell. That comes from Deadline, which says the movie is based on an “original idea” that Krasinski had and that it will also be starring Ryan Reynolds, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Alan Kim, Cailey Fleming, Louis Gossett Jr., and Fiona Shaw.
Details beyond that are slim. It could be inspired by the Rudyard Kipling poem of the same (or at least similar) name, but that one’s not really about a child’s imagination. We can also guess that it’s not about an extra-dimensional fear demon named Pennywise, because while that story is partially about the imagination of children, it is actually called It and not If. There’s the ‘90s TV miniseries Stephen King’s It, there’s the 2017 movie just called It, there’s John Krasinski’s If, there’s Stephen King’s book It, and there’s the 1968 Malcolm McDowell movie If…., all of which are different things.
As for Carell and Krasinski, this will be the first time they’ve reunited in front of a camera since they appeared together on Krasinski’s Some Good News YouTube show in 2020. Speaking of Some Good News, did you know it was only May of 2020 when he sold it to Viacom? The pandemic had been going for only TWO MONTHS and Krasinski was like “alright, I’m over this.” Better yet, Viacom still hasn’t even done anything with the Some Good News rights that it paid Krasinski for, so he made out like a goddamn bandit. Maybe he’s even using that money to fund this If movie!
John Krasinski’s If is coming to theaters on November 17, 2023.