What If

The film’s original title is The F Word. Elan Mastai’s screenplay came from Toothpaste and Cigars, a play by TJ Dawe and Michael Rinaldi, and made the 2008 Black List. After the Toronto premiere, CBS Films took the United States rights and retitled it What If, because the MPAA objected to the word implied in the original; producer David Gross added the board wanted a PG-13. Britain took the new title too, Canada kept the old one. Casey Affleck was attached to the lead before Daniel Radcliffe replaced him. A 6 week Ontario shoot was followed by 3 days in Dublin, and the cinema scene was shot at Toronto’s Royal Cinema. Michael Dowse tied the city choice to Toronto’s absence from most classic romantic comedies. Radcliffe said he and Zoe Kazan improvised many lines. The ending you watch came later: after audience testing the crew returned to Toronto in November 2013 for scenes set 18 months on. At the 2nd Canadian Screen Awards it took 5 nominations and Mastai won adapted screenplay. A good fit if you can read the 18 month jump at the end as a repair made after test screenings. Not for anyone who cannot wave away jokes at the expense of disabled people; a Guardian writer described giving up on it for exactly that.