Ryan Reynolds can currently be seen in the thriller Buried, but the real film of his on everyone's mind is Green Lantern which hits theaters June 17th, 2011. While there has been word that we'll get our first Green Lantern trailer attached to the first half of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows on November 19th, there has been a bit of a dilemma for comic book fans. Reynolds has also been attached to the solo Deadpool film since he played Wade Wilson in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. With the talk of a Green Lantern sequel already happening and the fact that Deadpool is a character from a rival comic book company (Green Lantern is DC, Deadpool is Marvel), is it still even in the cards for Reynolds to play the merc with a mouth?
Deadpool still hasn't found its director, but 20th Century Fox has offered the job to Robert Rodriguez (Sin City, Machete). Here's what Rodriguez had to say to MTV News regarding the film:
"They sent me a script to read, [but] I've been really swamped with this other stuff," he said. "I've not decided whether ... anything I do would be after 'Spy Kids' — that gives some breathing room. So whether or not I would help develop or not is the question right now."
Negotiations between 20th Century Fox and Rodriguez began to heat up, but Rodriguez is committed to the next Spy Kids film and may finally tackle Sin City 2 after that. So it's looking like Fox would have to wait quite some time if they're dead set on bringing Rodriguez in as director.
According to Rob Liefeld's (creator of the Deadpool character) Twitter, back in August he said that Warner Bros. didn't want Reynolds playing both Green Lantern AND Deadpool. Green Lantern may be turned into a trilogy and if Reynolds is required to shoot Green Lantern sequels back to back, then he wouldn't have any sort of window to do the Deadpool film. Does this mean Fox is considering pulling the plug on the Deadpool film altogether?
Lauren Shuler Donner, producer of the Deadpool film, later confirmed that Ryan Reynolds was still committed to the project.
Reynolds talked about the film after reading a draft of the script saying that, "it goes in a different direction that a superhero movie usually goes," and that, "it's a nasty piece of work." He then went on to say that the film will be a bit of a "gamble" since you may lose some of the audience at the beginning, but that you have to play to a broader audience without losing the hardcore fans.
There had been a review of the script floating around online, but it looks like those reviews have been pulled. Every one of them was incredibly positive though and claimed that it would make Reynolds an even bigger star than he already is. Reynolds mentioned that the film is "walking a tightrope between [a PG-13] and R-rating." He continued by saying that "the fourth wall is broken many times in the movie," and reiterated how close they're staying to the comics in tone.
Many have mentioned that Deadpool keeps his mask on the majority of the time anyway, so why is it so important for Reynolds to play Deadpool if you're not going to see him as the character? The script review mentioned that there was still quite a bit of face time for the actor, but Reynolds fits the Deadpool role so well. For many fans, I think they'd rather see Reynolds as Deadpool or have the project be scrapped altogether.
It does seem like the Deadpool film has been a long, arduous project that hasn't gotten very far since its inception. X-Men Origins: Wolverine only came out last year and the Deadpool film has been discussed ever since but it certainly seems like we're no closer to the film actually happening than we were a year ago. Fox really needs to get the ball rolling. With Reynolds schedule filling up, the Deadpool film is looking like it won't happen any time soon or at all. That's a shame when you have an actor in the lead role that's so passionate about the project and when the film has such a solid, original script. Let's keep our fingers crossed that this movie will happen sometime in the next year or two with Reynolds on board.
Sources: imdb.com, comingsoon.net, worstpreviews.com, movies.ign.com, killerfilm.com, screenrant.com, cinemablend.com, toplessrobot.com
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