Ryan Reynolds Says ‘Deadpool’ Has (Slowly) Begun Moving Forward Again Between the lackluster X-Men Origins: Wolverine,Green Lantern and this past July’s R.I.P.D. (remember that one?), it’s fair to say that comic book films haven’t exactly done wonders for Ryan Reynolds’ acting career up to this point. The irony of all this is that yet another comic book adaptation, Deadpool,might very well be just what Reynolds needs, in order to shake-off his past troubles with the genre; that is, assuming that 20th Century Fox is ever gutsy enough to greenlight what is sure to be a movie loaded with outlandish violence, bad language and general inappropriate mayhem. Reynolds was overseas in Europe this past week to promote the animated feature Turbo (which opened in the U.S. last July), when he proved another update on the perennially delayed Deadpool movie. The actor has been waiting to portray a proper version of the Wade Wilson character for years now –after playing a less-than-satisfyingly-written iteration in Origins: Wolverine –but the project has been on-again, off-again so often that just a few months ago, Reynolds summed up his feelings about the situation by saying “It’s like the worst relationship I’ve ever had!” In his recent interview with Yahoo! Movies UK,Reynolds was less exasperated and slightly, but cautiously hopeful about Deadpool‘s prospects. As he described it, the project in its current version –based on the script from Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick (Zombieland, G.I. Joe: Retaliation) –seems to have the best chance of actually getting a go-ahead, without having to make artistic sacrifices in the process. Here is what Reynolds had to offer, on that subject: “[In] its current iteration the movie’s actually very small. There’s minimal impact to the studio, which is the way we’re kind of presenting it to them. We’re saying ‘Look, the budget is minimal. Therefore, can we do this the way it should be done?’ Which unfortunately needs a Rated R [age certificate] or it needs those elements.” The U.S. box office returns for the niche R-Rated comic book adaptations Kick-Ass ($48 million) and Kick-Ass 2 ($29 million) are part of the reason why Fox is so hesitant to sign off on Deadpool,even though a review of an earlier script draft - which has since leaked online –pegged it as having the potential to become the most sophisticated and entertainingly R-Rated superhero movie produced to date. Reynolds admitted to Yahoo! that, at this stage, most fans understand all too well the reason why Fox is nervous about saying “yes” to this flick. As the actor put it: “The script is probably available online, it leaked. But it’s very meta, I mean the character knows he’s in a movie, he knows he’s in a comic book. He names studio executives in the script. So, it’s kind of a risky property. But, you know, we’ll see.” He then provided a silver lining, by mentioning that Deadpool has “within the last couple of weeks, taken a few very, very small tiptoes forward. “ Whatever the reasons for that –maybe director Tim Miller has managed to reduce the budget from the original estimate of $50 million –it doesn’t sound as though the project has suddenly begun to move forward at anything faster than snail-crawling speed. That said, any sign of progress is encouraging at this point. Reynolds seemed to agree, as he said when asked if he thinks Deadpool will actually get made: “In our lifetime? Yeah, I think so. I think if I were a betting man it’ll get made, eventually. I mean it’s just been developed to high heaven. It has great people around it, so we’ll see.” The other issue that could be holding up Deadpool is that Fox hasn’t figured out just yet how the movie will fit into the studio’s plans to start organizing its Marvel properties into a shared cinematic universe. Next year, X-Men: Days of Future Past is expected to conclude an era in the X-Men movie-verse, followed by Fox’s reboot of the Fantastic Four movie franchise and potentially the X-Force comic book adaptation that is currently being written by Kick-Ass 2 writer/director Jeff Wadlow. Is there a place for Deadpool in all that? Well, the character does have his fans around the Fox studio lot, but an eventual crossover with other members of the Fox Marvel Cinematic Universe is unlikely (as Reynolds has said in the past). Then again, what’s to prevent the Merc with a Mouth from cracking wise in his own movie, about how he isn’t allowed to be part of any shared universe? _____ We’ll keep you updated on the situation with Deadpool as more information is made available.
Posted on: Tue, 30 Dec 2014 07:40:11 +0000
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