Fans tuning into Super Bowl LVIII this weekend will be treated to a special sneak peek at Paramount Pictures' upcoming live-action fantasy movie IF. But ahead of the big game, writer and director John Krasinski along with star Ryan Reynolds have released a behind-the-scenes look at the film.
Okay, so it's not actually John Krasinksi. Or is it?
The video makes use of a long-running joke that stems back to The Office. In the sitcom, Randall Park, who we see in this video pretending to be Krasinski, helps Jim Halpert (played by Krasinski) prank Dwight by pretending to be Jim. It was one of The Office's funniest pranks, earning Park the nickname "Asian Jim." And it's one that still gets referenced to this date -- as evidenced by the latest video for IF.
The prank continues throughout the entirety of the IF video as Park -- uh, Krasinski -- offers some behind-the-scenes commentary about the upcoming movie. "I had the idea for this movie about seven years ago," Krasinski says, "and I wanted to do a movie about imaginary friends called IF."
"This is a movie that John and I have been talking about for years now," Reynolds adds, "something that feels a bit like a live action Pixar film."
Arriving in theaters this May, IF is about a young girl who is going through a troubling experience in her life. As a coping mechanism, she starts to see every single person's imaginary friend.
"It's about that friend that's there for them unconditionally and always," Reynolds says.
From writer and director John Krasinski, IF is about a girl who discovers that she can see everyone’s imaginary friends — and what she does with that superpower — as she embarks on a magical adventure to reconnect forgotten IFs with their kids. IF stars Ryan Reynolds, John Krasinski, Cailey Fleming, Fiona Shaw, and the voices of Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Louis Gossett Jr. and Steve Carell alongside many more as the wonderfully unique characters that reflect the incredible power of a child’s imagination.
Funny enough, this is actually the second behind-the-scenes video for IF. Paramount released one back in December that begins similarly to this one but features John Krasinski. Some of the commentary is similar to the recent one but we do see a bit more extended scenes from the movie.
IF arrives in theaters on May 17, 2024. A special sneak peek at the movie will be shown during the "Big Game" on Sunday, February 11.