Screen Rant » deadpool

The Next X-Men Films Part Two: Deadpool, Magneto

Rob Keyes — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 23:57:38 +0000

A few days back, we put up part one of “The Next X-Men Films” series, our look into the future of Fox Studio’s growing and financially successful movie series based on Marvel’s mighty mutants. This was based on quotes from Empire’s recent feature on Lauren Shuler Donner, producer of all films X-Men related, and today we’ll look at the other two anticipated films she spoke about.

In Part One we discussed Wolverine 2, the most-likely-to-happen solo flick out of Fox’s development slate as well as X-Men: First Class, the prequel to Bryan Singer’s first X-Men which is currently in its writing stages with Josh Schwartz penning the script.

Now, it’s time to look at two other popular character solo movies that are in early stages of development: Deadpool and X-Men Origins: Magneto. One of these is likely to happen, one may not.

After the financial success of Wolverine’s solo prequel, we saw a quick greenlight for the Deadpool film and knew there’d be a Wolverine 2 down the road. Prior to this, X-Men: First Class, a team prequel to Bryan Singer’s first X-Men was already in the works. So, we all knew those were the three go-to projects for Fox Studios to come the soonest. What I never felt sure about was X-Men Origins: Magneto, since it would involve a recast of title character and wouldn’t tie-in too much with the franchise. That and the fact it would be based heavily during the holocaust made it less bankable as a superhero flick and more limited in playing with other popular mutants of the X-Men universe, especially compared to the other potential films they could create with those resources.

Deadpool

The first thing Donner said about the hopeful Ryan Reynolds starrer, Deadpool, is that it won’t be based on the messed up version of what we saw in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. By that, she means Fox and/or the folks responsible for Hugh Jackman’s solo title admittedly did a poor job of bring Deadpool to live-action.

“I want to ignore the version of Deadpool that we saw in Wolverine and just start over again. Reboot it. Because this guy talks, obviously, and to muzzle him would be insane.”

Yeap. Almost as insane as giving the character lasers that shoot from his eyes or swords longer than his forearm that come out of his arm…

Not the Deadpool we like

The one big issue that came not long after hype for the Deadpool project started to build was the unexpected announcement that Ryan Reynolds would be starring as Hal Jordan in the DC Comics movie, Green Lantern. Why would Warner Brothers choose the lead of an upcoming Marvel-based movie as the lead in their upcoming DC-based movie? More importantly for fans, does this mean he can only do one or the other?

“I don’t see it as a problem that Ryan [Reynolds] is also playing Green Lantern. I mean, look at Harrison Ford – he was in Stars Wars and Indiana Jones at the same time and everyone was fine with that. Green Lantern could not be more different to Wade Wilson. Green Lantern is a guy who finds a ring and is thrust into this world, much like Spider-Man. Wade Wilson is a guy who unfortunately gets cancer, and volunteers for a test that will give him healing powers. He is a bad ass, a wise-cracking mercenary, who will go out and kill anyone for money. But the thing about him is that, underneath it all, and he wouldn’t want you to know this, sometimes he’s not such a bad ass after all. Sometimes he does the right thing.”

As a fan of Reynolds and of his portrayal of Wade Wilson (pre-surgery) from X-Men Origins: Wolverine, I want to see them make a Deadpool flick, especially with Donner, Reynolds and Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld making statements that the project will stay true to the comics, bring his red & black costume, break the fourth wall and bring a ton of attention to why he’s called the “Merc with the mouth.”

With that said, what kind of style and story can we expect from a Deadpool film?

“It’s going to be a dark, snarky, very funny movie. It’s the hardest story to tell, I think. There’s no clear cut villain – though you do have great baddies from the comic-books like Black Tom, Slayback, Blind Al and the Weasel. Blind Al is this blind woman in his house, who he abuses and mocks… it’s terrible. But you find out that she was a convict who did something terrible and he saved her from execution. So he lets her live in his house and she looks after him, but they both torture each other. Anyway, there are good stories and we’re figuring out which ones to incorporate.”

Lastly, Donner touched on where they are in pre-production for the flick and re-iterates that they’re really trying to push new boundaries in the comic book movie genre with this project.

“We’re right in the thick of talking to writers right now, and hopefully by November we’ll have decided who’s going to do it. We need someone really imaginative because we want to do some really innovative, ambitious stuff. Ryan’s mentioned this in an interview already but there are parts where he’s going to break the fourth wall and talk directly to the audience in the cinema. We have to work out how to do that. I don’t know that Fox will agree with all our decisions, but we’ll see!”

Unfortunately, she ended with the statement about Fox’s approval. Uh oh. Maybe we won’t see any fourth wall breakage and maybe they won’t have Deadpool wearing his mask after all. For once, I think fans need to see the folks responsible for production of the film to have more creative control. I’d love to see what the Donner, Reynolds and the writing team come up with if given complete creative freedom.

We’ll have to wait and see.

Click to continue reading about X-Men Origins: Magneto and more!

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The Next X-Men Films Part One: Wolverine 2, First Class

Rob Keyes — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 22:56:42 +0000

The folks at Empire had a chance to speak with Lauren Shuler Donner, producer of all films X-Men related, at the press junket for the release of X-Men Origins: Wolverine on Blu-ray and they discussed the future of the franchise.

The feature that Empire put together on the interview was broken down into four sections for each of the movies: Wolverine 2, X-Men: First Class, Deadpool, and Magneto. We’ll go through and discuss each, passing to you the key things Donner says and giving our thoughts on it and how it relates to what we expected to see from these movies since their inception.

To start, here’s the latest on Wolverine 2 and X-Men: First Class…

Update: Click to see Part Two on Deadpool and Magneto.

To start, they touched on the most definite film we’ll see coming our way in the next fear year: Wolverine 2.

“It’s actually the story we wanted to use for the first Wolverine film, but [Fox head honcho] Tom Rothman preferred to set the character up with an origin story first. This movie will really focus on the relationship between Wolverine and Mariko, the daughter of a Japanese crime lord, and what happens to him in Japan.”

The Chris Claremont-Frank Miller run on Wolverine which saw him on his adventures to Japan is one of the most classic Wolverine tales there is and so it’s no wonder they want to turn that story into a feature film. That being said, I can’t say I disagree with Rothman’s reasoning to want to tell Wolverine’s origin first. We saw hints of his origin scattered throughout all of the X-trilogy so it was a story that had to be told. Although I’d argue that X-Men Origins: Wolverine didn’t do a great job of that, it made sense to do that before seeing Wolverine head to Japan, something not touched on at all in the X-Trilogy. The alternative would have been to do the Japan story first as a prequel to X-Men, followed by another prequel based before it? Nah, that doesn’t work as well.

I wasn’t impressed by either of the last two X-Men movies but I still hold hope that the franchise can turn it around and it looks like they’re going in the right direction with Wolverine’s next adventure. With the hiring of Oscar-winner Chris McQuarrie to write the script, with Donner’s and Jackman’s desire to have this film closely follow the source material, and with the studio seemingly holding back until (hopefully) selecting the right director, I can’t deny that I’m excited to see Wolverine in Japan, especially with what Donner says next:

“We want to make it authentic so I think it’s very likely we’ll be shooting in Japan. Also, by the way, we are looking to have the Japanese Fox executives involved in helping and counselling us, because it’s a different culture and we don’t want to portray the way they speak, dress and act in an inaccurate way. I think it’s likely the characters will speak English rather than Japanese with subtitles.”

Remember when this was a big issue for that other film McQuarrie wrote, Valkyrie? Once we all saw the movie and how they transitioned from Tom Cruise speaking German with subtitles into speaking English along with the rest of the cast, it didn’t really affect the film’s story or characters in the end. Although I admit it was weird hearing a group of German characters on screen with a half-dozen uniquely different non-German accents. I never expected to see the Wolverine sequel mostly spoken in Japanese with subtitles so this is of no surprise and shouldn’t alarm any fans.

Another thing we can expect from Wolverine 2 is Hugh Jackman fighting a lot less with his claws (after the horrible CGI of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, this is a bonus):

“What’s cool about this part of the saga is that Wolverine will be fighting in a different style to what we’ve seen before… There’ll be samurai, ninja, katana blades, different forms of martial arts – mano-a-mano, extreme fighting. We’re going to come up with a new style of fighting. It’s going to be awesome.”

As you can tell, Donner is sure excited about the potential for Wolverine’s next story so let’s hope we get a high quality movie with Wolverine 2.

Click to continue reading about Wolverine 2 and X-Men: First Class…

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Green Lantern Pulling Out from Down Under

Paul Young — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 19:31:12 +0000

The title really isn’t as dirty as it sounds. Recently, Warner Bros Pictures announced they were pulling production of DC Comic’s Green Lantern starring Ryan “Deadpool” Reynolds from Australia because of the faltering U.S. dollar. With the way the Australian dollar is performing compared to the US dollar and the financial gurus predicting it to climb to even or higher in the coming months, Warner Bros will be reconsidering all of its shoots there.

In a press statement released through Screen NSW, Warner Bros Studios had this to say about the situation:

“The current global economic situation, including fluctuations in currency valuation and overall costs. We have also had to reassess film projects in other countries as well. After working closely with our partners at the NSW Film and Television Office (Screen NSW) and examining every scenario, we have decided to move the production of ‘Green Lantern.’ We are extremely grateful for the assistance we have received from the NSW Government, Fox Studios and the NSW filmmaking community,”

As it stands now, Green Lantern was already in trouble once over its super-sized budget and the economic condition abroad could add a purported $20 million to that number. That’s bad news for Australia, though, because there already a number of films shooting there including the third installment of The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader and two animated full-length features are being produced there including Happy Feet 2.

It’s not a total loss for the Australian movie industry though, as Spike Jonze filmed Where the Wild Things Are there this past year in Victoria and I’m sure that brought in a hefty sum to their local economy. Rumors floating around say that Green Lantern, which was to start production in November, could move to either Mexico or Canada. I’m sure Reynolds wouldn’t mind visiting his home country of Canada to shoot the movie.

I’ve got to ask, though: what is with all the studios filming overseas when their own local economies are suffering? California is supposedly the home to Hollywood movies, and the state is in such a financial mess right now that I’m sure a few studios pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into the local economy there would surely help.

I realize there are all sorts of incentives and tax breaks to film abroad but really, is it that much cheaper to fly a cast and crew of over one hundred people halfway across the world to work in a soundstage they have in their own backyard? At least Red Dawn producers are filming in Detroit, Michigan and bringing in some cash flow to a very struggling local economy.

Do we have some Australian readers that would like to chime in on this situation and possibly wave their Foster-size dollar in our faces? Where do you think Green Lantern will film and does it really matter? So far this hasn’t had a negative impact on the released date but time will tell.

Green Lantern is supposed to release summer 2011.

Source: Hollywood Reporter

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Deadpool Movie Updates & Confirmations

Rob Keyes — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 11:18:42 +0000

Rob Liefeld, the creator of the Deadpool character of Marvel comics was twitter-happy last night, updating fans about some news regarding the upcoming Fox Studios film, X-Men Origins: Deadpool.

He started by mentioning that he’s on his way to a big meeting about the Deadpool movie and then his following four tweets got interesting, making some needed confirmations and suggesting some cool stuff we may see down the road.

Here are Liefeld’s Tweets about the meeting and what was said in them:

“Great Deadpool movie meeting! Lauren Schuler Donner and her team are headed in the right direction!”

“Deadpool movie checklist- DP in costume-check! Breaking 4th wall-check! Loads of killing-double check!”

“Deadpool movie- YES! Ryan Reynolds is on board!!!”

“Also excited to discuss possibilities of Cable in future X-films!!!”

We spoke about Lauren Schuler Donner the day before yesterday in regards to a possible X-Men 4 and New Mutants movies. She’s making a name for herself as “The X-producer”, having produced all of the X-Men movies thus far and seemingly all of the ones in development for the future.

As for the aspects of the film confirmed: Deadpool Costume from the comics and Breaking the fourth wall – we heard Reynolds confirm these before, himself, but it’s great to know that it’s official from the exec meetings.

With the Green Lantern casting which could bring Reynolds into several film projects for WB and DC Entertainment, there was concern over how that would affect the Deadpool solo flick for the Canadian star, but Liefeld was also able to confirm that he’s fully onboard to bring fans what they desire from the popular character.

So far, all of these things we more or less heard before, but act as confirmations. The interesting part here for me is that they’re also discussing Cable in future X-movies. This is something Reynolds mentioned he’d like to see in a Deadpool movie and something I’ve been mentioning quite a bit as a tie-in possibility for many of the X-movies in development. How about a Cable & Deadpool movie?

Click to continue reading about Cable in the future X-Men movies…

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X-Men 4 & New Mutants Movies On The Way?

Rob Keyes — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 01:08:48 +0000

The X-Men franchise has a bright future on the silver screen. With multiple projects in their early stages of development and several given the greenlight after the financial success of X-Men Origins: Wolverine to kick off this summer, there seems to be no end in sight for what the future may hold of Fox Studio’s hot property.

I’ll bet Disney wishes they could have picked up this film license in their acquisition of Marvel…

Aside from solo films for Magneto and Deadpool, and the prequel team-up film X-Men: First Class, we might be getting a movie based on the New Mutants comic line and… a possible X-Men 4?

Producer Lauren Shuler Donner, who has worked on all of the X-films thus far, was in attendance for the Fox press presentation of the X-Men Origins: Wolverine Blu-ray release and fielded some questions from the audience about the future of the franchise, including some from Brendon Connelly of /Film.

One of the first things addressed was the Tim Pocock (young Cyclops) tweet that got out which hinted at X-Men: First Class beginning filming early next year. Shortly after, Pocock re-tweeted a follow-up saying that it was a prank and to retract any news from it.

On that topic, Donner said it’s complete false and that no one is yet signed for the First Class film but did confirm that all of the young mutants appearing in X-Men Origins: Wolverine did have the standard options in their contracts for more flicks should they decide to go that path (which they will).

Here’s where the interesting part comes in: Donner then revealed that she’s been working on plans for even more films than the ones we already know about and she said two of them are X-Men 4, which would bring back the characters of old, and a film based on The New Mutants.

X-Men 4?! That’s major if it happens, but when would they film it? Jackman’s got Wolverine 2 in development which wont be out for a few years, how much can he push his body physically 4-5 years down the road for the part? Assuming of course, he plays a prominent role in the fourth installment…

When could it realistically be made and in what order would the films go into production? There’s Deadpool, X-Men Origins: Magneto, Wolverine 2, X-Men First: Class, a possible Gambit movie down the road, and now two more!

Click to continue reading about X-Men 4 and The New Mutants…

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The Plan for X-Men: First Class [Updated]

Rob Keyes — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 06:07:59 +0000

The X-Men franchise has proven itself to be pretty much unstoppable so far with four financially successful films in a row, and talk of half a dozen more.

Even if they make a film with unfinished special effects, script issues, major leaks, bad critical response and a split fanbase, the movie will still bring in the crowds interested in seeing some of their favorite heroes on screen… even if they don’t match the characters they’re based on, who they came in to see.

With that in mind, there are many films Fox Studios has in development for the franchise but it’s been difficult deciphering which will come first… Could it be X-Men: First Class?

According to actor Tim Pocock who portrayed young Scott Summers in this year’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine, he’s currently working on an Austrialian TV show then he’s set to start shooting X-Men: First Class next year. He revealed the following in a recent tweet:

currently shooting Australian TV series till February 2010…then X-men first class

[UPDATE] Tim just posted the following on twitter a minute ago:

victim of cruel prank.last tweet=NOT me.AM filming Aussie show till2010.no official word on XM:FC but am interested.please post retraction.

Is this damage control from his agent or Fox because he spoke too soon? Weird prank that got left for a few days until news was made from it. I still think First Class could be happening relatively soon.

This isn’t too surprising since the film has been talked about for a long time and they’ve had Josh Schwartz on the task of penning the script since last November. But what does this mean for all of the other X-projects supposedly starting up in the next two years as well?

Wolverine 2 is in development with Oscar-winning writer Christopher McQuarrie penning the script that that could film in 2011 for a 2012 release date. We also heard a few weeks back from David Goyer that X-Men Origins: Magneto could start shooting as early as next year as well. And of course, we can’t forget about Green Lantern… I mean Deadpool’s solo flick with Ryan Reynolds.

Don’t stop there! Taylor Kitsch who played Gambit (the non Ragin’ Cajun version) has a three-picture deal and there’s been a tiny bit of talk he could get his own flick. I wrote a while back that Gambit’s solo feature would come a few years down the road, after the franchise establishes some other characters first and after Kitsch has his stardom built up (that’ll come with his lead role in John Carter of Mars which is planned to a massive-scale trilogy). Then, Kitsch could support his own big budget X-movie.

That being said, Gambit could pop up in one of the other movies, the most sensible being this one (X-Men: First Class). However, producer Lauren Shuler-Donner says otherwise since the movie is set to follow X-Men’s first class of mutants and Gambit wasn’t a part of it… I don’t know what that means since Angel and Iceman were part of that first class too but aren’t in the movies.

Click to continue reading about X-Men: First Class, its possible characters and more!

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SR Pick [Video]: Green Lantern vs. Deadpool

Rob Frappier — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 04:31:19 +0000

When news came out that Ryan Reynolds was going to star in the upcoming Green Lantern film, many fans (including some of us here at Screen Rant) wondered whether Reynolds would be able to manage the double duty of playing Hal Jordan and Deadpool at the same time. Well, the creators behind the hilarious “I’m a Marvel…and I’m a DC” web series asked the same question.

Check out the video below.

If you haven’t seen the “I’m a Marvel…and I’m a DC” web series before, stop what you’re doing right now and head to the YouTube channel of ItsJustSomeRandomGuy. Modeled after the famous “I’m a Mac… and I’m a PC” ads, the Marvel/DC videos combine equal parts dry humor and fanboy nerdiness into ridiculously funny two minute episodes. Some of the previous characters featured in the videos include Spiderman, Superman, Hellboy, The Hulk, and Rorschach. My personal favorite involves Iron Man and Batman.

While the Green Lantern/Deadpool video was made for laughs (”Bet you never met anyone with a yellow inner monologue before… BAM!”), it raises some interesting questions about Reynolds’ involvement in the franchises. While I doubt Reynolds will run into any problems initially, what happens if Deadpool or Green Lantern spin off into their own multi-picture franchise? Will Reynolds be able to sustain both roles? Let us know what you think in the comments.

BONUS:

For a great interview with the creators of the “I’m a Marvel…and I’m a DC” web series, check out this link from Marvel.com.

A nod to /Film for the pick-up.

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X-Men Origins: Magneto Could Start Next Year?

Rob Keyes — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 23:45:27 +0000

David Goyer has been talking up a storm recently. With his fame growing massively after the success of The Dark Knight, which he helped write, he’s been talked about for plenty of other projects in development, most related to comic properties.

Recently, he gave some insight into the future of the Blade franchise and revealed some details on the upcoming Super Max film which would follow DC Comics’ Green Arrow character incarcerated in prison with supervillains for a crime he did not commit.

One project that Marvel fans are looking forward to however, is that of a solo film for Magneto which would tell the story of the character’s origins before the events of the first X-Men film, similar to this summer’s Hugh Jackman-starrer based on Wolverine. The mutant character with the power of magnetism was made famous on screen thanks to the acting of the talented Sir Ian McKellen, but from the sounds of it, he’d likely be played by a younger actor this time around, no doubt with a cameo from McKellen though.

X-Men Origins: Magneto is tentatively set for a 2011 release although there’s been no official push forward in development for quite some time. Goyer is writing the screenplay and will likely be directing the film when it happens, pending his incredibly busy schedule.

He spoke to MTV recently and had this to say about the status of the project:

“They’re still thinking about doing it…They’re definitely looking into doing other X-Men spinoffs.”

“I’ve been in touch with them… I’m sure that project will move forward in the next year or so.”

There’s plenty of potential for the X-Men franchise, although I’d personally prefer them to start over from scratch and follow the comics more, the films have proven again and again to make a ton at the box office. Even with terrible reviews, the latest installment of the franchise and the first spinoff, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, banked a massive $85 million opening weekend and a world-wide money grab of more than $360 million.

Since then, a Deadpool spin-off was greenlit for Ryan Reynolds’ character and we know they’re working on an X-Men: First Class movie as well as another solo flick for Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine. There’s also been talk of spinoffs for Gambit and some of the other actors from the series have their own ideas for more films as well.

So, according to Goyer, they could be getting to work on Magneto next year which would allow them to make the 2011 release date. The Deadpool project is also said to release that year but with Reynolds’ casting into the role of Hal Jordan in Green Lantern which is officially set for a summer, 2011 release, we don’t know for sure when we’ll be seeing that.

Do you want a Magneto solo movie? What characters should appear in it and what do you think the story will be about?

Source: MTV

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Ryan Reynolds Discussion: Deadpool, Green Lantern & More!

Rob Keyes — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 05:43:24 +0000

It’s a big time for comic fans who want to see their favorite characters grace the silver screen. With plenty of major comic book films debuting to widespread success in recent years, it’s no surprise that there are dozens more of these genre films in production or development as we speak.

Some major ones have made big strides in recent weeks, confirming dates and announcing casting decisions, and we expect some more of that soon with San Diego Comic-Con around the corner.

Join me as I try to make sense of a large mess of comic book movie news involving my one of my favorites, Ryan Reynolds (Plus: 2 pieces of awesome fan art!).

Several films that I’ve been following closely and expecting to make casting decisions this month and last are Thor and Green Lantern – both of which are planned for releases in the early part of summer 2011.

Luckily for us fans, I was right and we’ve seen several of the key characters for Marvel Studios’ Thor movie been cast and following in suit, DC’s counterpart movie which has been moving along the same trend in development and casting timing, Green Lantern, finally made its lead star casting decision last week.

The man who will play Hal Jordan in the upcoming Warner Brothers DC Comics film is Ryan Reynolds.

That’s not all though. Screen Rant has also been closely following other Marvel film franchises that have their licenses owned by other studios, such as Fox’s X-Men movies and there’s been some major developments there as well… also involving Ryan Reynolds.

As we all know, Reynolds played a part in X-Men Origins: Wolverine which opened in May to financially successful results. Critics everywhere and a large portion of the fans did not share in that success however.

As I’ve been reporting on all along, leading up to the film, we all thought Reynolds was a perfect selection to play the role of Wade Wilson/Deadpool in that movie and we hoped, as Reynolds did, that the character would get his own spinoff.

Unfortunately, the makers behind the Wolverine Origins film messed up the character and his storyline but on the positive side, in the few minutes we saw Reynolds playing Wade Wilson on screen, he was spectacular and easily one of the best parts of the film.

As a result, a Deadpool Solo spinoff movie was given the greenlight and Reynolds now has the opportunity to deliver what he wants from the character and what the fans want. From what Reynolds has been saying all along, they seem to match up very well.

In interviews everywhere for X-Men Origins: Wolverine prior to its release, and then after with the announcement of the go-ahead with Deadpool during interviews for his recent and successful romantic comedy, The Proposal (with Sandra Bullock), he’s been making confirmations about the movie for the fans left right and center.

He’s already said the film will closely follow the comics, that he’s been given a lot of control over the movie with Fox studios apparently also wanting to respect the source material closely with this one.

He’s also confirmed that the movie will feature Deadpool in his trademark red and black duds and that the character will be breaking the fourth wall in the movie like he does in the comics, interacting with the audience directly, knowing full well that he is in fact in a film.

Continue Reading ‘Ryan Reynolds Discussion: Deadpool, Green Lantern & More!’

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Ryan Reynolds Will Be ‘Buried’ All Alone

Rob Keyes — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 00:40:08 +0000

A week or so ago, it was announced that Canadian star Ryan Reynolds would be starring in an independent film titled Buried which follows a civilian contractor who awakens buried in a coffin in the middle of the desert after being kidnapped in Iraq.

Pretty intriguing, right?

As a few more details become available for the ambitious project, we now know that the entire film will be just Ryan Reynolds in this uncomfortable wooden box… that’s it… just him and his coffin.

Reynolds revealed the following in a Australian television interview:

“‘Buried’ is the story about a guy who’s buried (laughs). It’s the only movie I’ve ever heard of with only one person in it. So it’s just me, I’m the only person in the whole movie so, I don’t know. We’ll see. It’s either going to be, you know, the greatest, most experimental cool movie ever made or god knows what”

He’s honest and he’s right.

But most importantly, he’s testing his acting ability here, pushing past the traditional comedy routine or action role. There will be no crazy studio sets or green-screening, it’s just Reynolds in the box capturing the attention and emotions of the audience all by his captive and claustrophobic self.

It’s not all that bad though, Reynolds’ character will sport a cell phone, a candle and even a knife.

Much like the recent announcement that his other upcoming project, Deadpool, will have his character break the fourth wall, this is a risky idea and I like it.

The indie film will be directed by Rodrigo Cortés and the screenplay was written by Chris Sparling. Filming will take place entirely in Cortés’ home country of Spain and the film will be released some time next year.

This film’s quality will come down to two things: Reynolds’ acting and how good the story telling is. The good news is Reynolds is incredible on screen and never lets me down and apparently, the script is also pretty stellar – at least, according to the folks at ScriptShadow who had nothing but praise for the screenplay. You can head on over there if you want to read more details about the project and its potential.

This is something I’m looking forward to see and I’m excited to see Reynolds again making a flick for the passion of making it.

Does this film interest you and how do you feel about Reynolds taking on this role?

Sources: Variety, The Playlist, ScriptShadow

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Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool Will Smash The Fourth Wall

Rob Keyes — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 00:04:48 +0000

The folks over at Empire caught up with Canadian star Ryan Reynolds at the London press event for his recent comedy The Proposal where he stars alongside Sandra Bullock and got a little update on his Deadpool project.

Deadpool, the quickly greenlit spinoff to this summer’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine is Ryan Reynolds’ dream project where he can finally make what he wished for leading up to his on-screen debut in character as Wade Wilson.

Unfortunately, the character he finally got to play was completely misused by the filmmakers to the dismay of comic fans everywhere but Reynolds was incredible in the few scenes he had as Wade Wilson (the man who later becomes Deadpool).

As you no doubt already know, Reynolds was happy at the opportunity to play the character even though he and the fans knew he wasn’t being utilized well in the movie – this was evident in his many interviews leading up to the film’s release. The good news though is that it led to him getting his own spinoff where he could finally bring to the screen what he and Deadpool fans love about the comics.

He’s already stated that we’ll be seeing the true and complete Deadpool costume from the comics and that the movie will be heavily based on how the character is portrayed in the books. Today, we can report that he’s gone another step forward and confirmed that he will in fact be breaking the fourth wall in the movie.

“Break the fourth wall? Oh yeah, he’s got to. I want to see him break the Great Wall.”

In the books, the mostly-insane Deadpool knows full well that he is a character in the comic book and he communicates directly to them throughout the stories in his infamous yellow dialogue boxes. The “fourth wall” terminology originates from old stage shows where it refers to the imaginary wall facing the audience.

Now we know for sure that in the movie, Reynolds will be talking to us who are watching in our theater seats.

Good! I love the guy and I want him to talk to me. Many others seemingly do as well since Deadpool was voted as the most wanted spinoff/sequel to the Wolverine origins film in a recent poll by MTV. Continue to Page 2 for the second half of this article…

Continue reading ‘Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool Will Smash The Fourth Wall’

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What Do X-Men Fans Want Most: Deadpool, Wolverine 2 or First Class?

Rob Keyes — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 01:30:03 +0000

In the wake of the financial success of the recent X-Men spinoff film featuring everyone’s favorite nice-guy Hugh Jackman as the overly nice Wolverine, there’s been plenty of talk, speculation and excitement over what the future holds for X-Men film franchise.

That being said, some don’t want that future at all. Not with Fox Studios anyways…

Shortly after the huge box office opening of X-Men Origins: Wolverine film, it was announced that Ryan Reynolds would be getting his own spinoff film for Deadpool – a character that wasn’t utilized right in the movie at all, to the point where they literally ruined him (the character and his life in the movie) to the dismay of many comics fans.

The bright side to that was the fact the Reynolds’ portrayal of Wade Wilson in his few scenes early in the film were spot on and in my mind, were the best part of the movie. Most agree that he was cast perfectly into the role before the movie even debuted and he sure proved them right. It’s unfortunate what they ended up doing with the character on screen out of his control.

What made the idea of Reynolds playing Deadpool even better was the fact that the Canadian actor loved the character and the books and he knew he (Wade Wilson/Deadpool) wasn’t being treated right in the movie. He said multiple times before the film came out that he’d love to make a proper Deadpool film based on the comics and he looked at the situation as an exciting opportunity to 1) play the ‘Merc with a Mouth’ and 2) to get the character introduced on screen in hopes of getting the chance to play him again under better circumstances.

Well, he was right and his movie was greenlit first out of the many X-projects in development over at Fox.

In addition to that, the folks over at MTV Splashpage held a little poll the other week to see what the fans wanted to see most of the potential sequel/spinoffs to X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

The votes pushed Deadpool into the winning spot but only by a bit. It had 32% of the votes with a Wolverine sequel at a close second with 28%. Who knows how many voters there actually were but its interesting nevertheless and it matches my tastes too. The other options were X-Men Origins: Magneto and X-Men: First Class.

For the Marvel Studios-based movies, I’ve made it well known in my writing that I’m most excited for Kenneth Branagh’s Thor film and for Fox’s ill-treated X-franchise, I’m most excited for the Deadpool spinoff.

Continue Reading ‘What Do X-Men Fans Want Most: Deadpool, Wolverine 2 or First Class?’

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Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: June 28, 2009

Niall Browne — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 02:58:59 +0000

This week:

The box office is Transfomed; Ryan Reynold’s career is Buried; Lorenzo di Bonaventura knows Jack Ryan; Zac Efron grows up and Daniel Craig moves into his Dream House.

Box Office

Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen blasted into the top spot with a powerful $201 million in its first five days. The Michael Bay sequel overcame horrendous reviews to show that all an audience wants is giant robots and Megan Fox. You can bet your butt that Transformers 3 will be on its way soon!

With a second weekend take of $18 million it looks like The Proposal is the bridesmaid. The Sandra Bullock comedy has now banked $69 million. A final take of $100 million is pretty much a cert.

The Hangover brought in $17 million bringing giving the hit comedy a mighty total gross of $183 million. Look for the film to cross the magic $200 million mark in a week or so.

Up has now hit the quarter billion mark for Disney/Pixar. After taking $13 million this weekend, it looks like the animated film has a few more weeks in the top ten.

Cameron Diaz’s terrible looking My Sister’s Keeper opened with a very mild $12 million. Unless a miracle happens it looks like Diaz’s days on the A-List are over. No wonder she’s set to re-team with Tom Cruise, but that’ll only slow the slide.

Year One dropped a huge 70% this weekend with a weekend gross of just under $6 million. With just $32 million in the bank this has to be a disappointment for all involved.

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 took in another $5.3 million giving the Tony Scott film a $53 million total. Look for the film to end with about $65 million.

Star Trek is approaching $250 million, making it the most successful film in the series.

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian took another $3.5 million from moviegoers giving the family fiilm a $163 million total.

Dropping out of the top ten is Land of The Lost and Terminator Salvation. The films have grossed $46 million and $121 respectively.

Movie News

1. Ryan Reynolds has chosen his next film project after the double whammy success of Wolverine and The Proposal .

Mr Scarlett Johansson will star in Buried, a film that sounds slightly more serious than the Hugh Jackman and Sandra Bullock starrers.

“Reynolds will star in Buried, playing a civilian contractor who’s kidnapped in Iraq and awakens buried in a coffin in the desert, armed only with a cell phone, a candle and a knife.”

Rodrigo Cortes will direct the film that starts shooting next month in Barcelona.

Will this be the role needed to finally break Reynolds onto the A-list? Maybe, but at least he has the Deadpool movie on the way.

Source: Variety

2. Moviehole spoke with Transformers producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura about the new Jack Ryan film. The block-busting producer stated that one of the main hold-ups with the film is that the filmmakers are worried that they won’t be able to top the other films in the franchise.

He also stated that he had been talking to Phillip Noyce who directed Clear and Present Danger and Patriot Games about returning to the series. The Australian director who is currently working on Angelina Jolie’s Salt hasn’t made a firm commitment though.

Lorenzo di Bonaventura said:

‘’No, we were just – we’ve been working – I mean, yes. We did talk about it, actually, prior to Salt. And we’ve been so focused on Salt that neither of us has really had time to think about talking about Jack Ryan. So, he’s going away on vacation now, for a week – or — vacation’s the wrong way. You know, he worked like crazy. He needed to take a week and breathe, so that’s what he’s doing right now.”

He also admitted that they were looking for a younger star to step into the shoes of Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck.

Source: Moviehole

3. Teen heartthrob Zac Efron will in a new untitled thriller for Mandate Pictures.
Nothing is known about the thriller that will be produced by Greg Shapiro, Jason Barrett and Leslie Dixon.

Dixon also wrote the script which is expected to be Efron’s foray into a more mature role after bolting on the Kevin Bacon role in the Footloose remake. Chace Crawford nabbed the lead in the remake and he will be joined by Julianne Hough.

Source: Variety

4. Daniel Craig is starting to fill out his between Bond schedule with a role in Jim Sheridan’s Dream House.

“Craig would play a man who moves his family to an idyllic small town, only to find his house haunted by its former inhabitants, who were murdered there.”

While the film sounds like the usual generic horror fair it should be noted that Irishman Sheridan has been behind such heavy hitting films as My Left Foot, In The Name of the Father and The Field.

Daniel Craig is set to return as James Bond in Bond 23. That won’t be its real title.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

That’s it for now. See you at the movies

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X-Men Origins: Wolverine Concept Art of Deadpool, Sabretooth & More

Rob Keyes — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 01:58:41 +0000

While X-Men Origins: Wolverine has come and gone as we pass over the opening peak of the summer movie season, there’s a ton to look forward for the X-Men franchise.

As we already know, X-Men: First Class, Deadpool and a Wolverine sequel are all in the works for Fox Studios and their X-Men franchise. Two of which (possibly all three) are spinoffs or will be connected to last month’s Wolverine origin flick. Because of that, what we have for you today is still relevant.

The following images are concept art for some of the support characters in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. They depict exactly what Live Schreiber’s Sabretooth character looked like on screen and some early variations of what Ryan Reynold’s character could have looked like as Wade Wilson and as Weapon XI (Deadpool).

The art is by Phillip Boutte Jr. and Jerad S Marantz, take a look and see what you think [Click to enlarge]:

The Weapon XI post-augmentation images are a little extreme but would have worked on screen if that character wasn’t one and the same as Deadpool [insert sad face]. If that were some clone or other experiment who was fed a bunch of mutant powers, I would of dug it as he looks freaky as hell and would make for a cool villain in the final confrontation.

As for the pre-augmentation image of Deadpool/Wade Wilson, it looks cool too. You can see the resemblance to the modern Deadpool costume from the comics mixed with a mercenary outfit. Seeing this makes me wonder why they went so overly simple with what Reynolds wore in the film.

Either way, it may hint at something he could wear at some point in the Deadpool solo flick that he’s currently planning. The Canadian star confirmed that we will see the infamous red-and-black costume in the film and that it will closely follow the comics – just as he wanted all along leading up to the release of Wolverine.

I think the concept art is pretty cool and I think Ryan Reynolds is more cool. With him in charge of the project (at least seemingly for now), I have hope for this movie even though the last two X-Men films by Fox have let me down.

What do you think of the images and of Deadpool?

To see more of the art for characters including The Blob, Beak, Wolverine and others, check out the personal blogs of the two artists linked below.

Sources: Phillip Boutte Jr., Jerad S Marantz

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Ryan Reynolds Confirms ‘Deadpool’ Costume & Much More!

Rob Keyes — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 14:03:41 +0000

Two weeks ago, we reported that the Deadpool film is being designed to follow the comics closely and that Ryan Reynolds is intimately involved with the process. I’m a pretty big X-Men fan… I’m not a big of what’s happened with the latest X-Men movies however. X-Men Origins: Wolverine was disappointing and X-Men: The last Stand before it was terrible in my opinion.

One of the positives that came from the Wolverine solo flick was the introduction of Wade Wilson, played by none other than Ryan Reynolds who did a fantastic job. The character he played was mishandled in terms of the story and he wasn’t in the film long enough, but the thing it did to right, was help introduce him into the film world and open the doors for another spinoff film that would focus on the character.

Shortly after Wolverine’s successful (financially) opening, we learned that the production of the Deadpool film is being fast-tracked by Fox and that Ryan Reynolds seems to be the man in charge – somewhat of a relief after many months of worrying about how the character was to be treated.

Let’s look back at a bit of the history of the live-action adaptation of the character…

In February, the major marketing items for X-Men Origins: Wolverine were finally starting to show-up online as well as some early looks at some of the toys associated with the film. They gave us the first looks at several aspects of the film including how Wade Wilson would appear. This raised the immediate question of whether or not the filmmakers had ruined the character as they did with a few others in X-Men 3. It turns out that they kind of did, just as we expected. However, Ryan Reynolds was absolutely perfect as Wade Wilson in the few early scenes involving the character.

Unfortunately, Reynolds was busy with two other projects while Wolverine was shooting and as a result, his character wasn’t in the film much. This is why they decided to sew the character’s mouth shut after his weapon X augmentation so they wouldn’t need Reynolds to be on set for most of the shooting of the final battle and they instead could use a stunt actor with the same physical build to do the combat scenes. When asked about this in several interviews, Reynolds was clearly happy as can be about finally being able to play the character in a film and introduce him to the franchise in hopes of getting his own movie. He knew the character was different from the comics and he stated his hopes to one day make a Deadpool film translated directly from the comics and done justice on the silver screen.

In March, prior to the opening of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Reynolds was on the press tour, giving tidbits of information to the many news outlets throwing questions his way. Most of the questions focused in on the possibility of the Deadpool spinoff and asking him about how is character is portrayed in the Wolverine film. From his answers, you could tell he was apprehensive of how Deadpool was written in the film, and he continued to emphasize the point that he’s not playing Deadpool but the thing that will become him later, knowing full well that hardcore fans would not be impressed.

“I’ve had a couple of people approach me about meetings for a “Deadpool” movie but I think it’s absurd to think that way until this movie comes out. And I don’t even look at it like I play Deadpool in this movie. I really think I more or less play Wade Wilson, and I’m playing the creature that will eventually become Deadpool but in this movie it’s his newly formed version….so to speak.”

When asked about the trademark costume and mask as well as the scarring of Deadpool from the comics, Reynolds said:

“Ya, ya. Well, it’s an origin story, so again I don’t consider myself playing Deadpool. I’m the thing that will eventually become Deadpool. But ya, he’s scarred up. You’re gonna see the scars. That’s all in there.”

Again, what is he to do with these questions? He handled it all very well having to confirm that what we saw in the trailers was Deadpool, but not giving too much away. He definitely paid tribute to how the fans would feel about the character’s on-screen incarnation as he is a fan himself.

Continue to Page 2 for the new info on Deadpool…

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Ryan Reynolds: ‘Deadpool’ Movie Just Like The Comics

Rob Keyes — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 01:51:27 +0000

An X-Men film by Fox that’s just like the comics, you say? Nawwww…

Within a week of the financially (and not so much critically) successful debut of X-Men Origins: Wolverine at the beginning of May, it was officially announced that the long-speculated Deadpool solo movie would in fact be happening.

Before you go any further, you should know that this article isn’t holding back on spoilers from the Wolverine movie.

Normally, this news would have been awesome for all, except it isn’t because of what they did with the character in the Wolverine origin movie, which, let’s just say, didn’t please quite a few fans of the comics.

Ryan Reynolds, the absolute perfect casting choice for the role, played the part of Wade Wilson extremely well – but beyond his control, the folks behind X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie thought it’d be a good thing to deviate from the comics and make him the big bad villain for the final act of the movie. While that itself wasn’t really an issue, they went crazy with the character: Giving him multiple powers from other mutants that Weapon X had been capturing in the story.

Deadpool had his two main abilities in the form of healing and teleportation (in the comics, he has the mutant power of healing and a device that allows him to teleport) but he also strangely had the ability to fire lasers from his eyes (Cyclops’ optic blast power) as well as Adamantium swords that come out from his arms to rival Wolverine’s claws.

At the end of the film, Deadpool is beheaded by Wolverine – but that doesn’t kill the guy. After the credits, there were multiple little bonus endings and one of them featured Wade Wilson still alive, and thus, we have a spinoff for him.

HitFix caught up to the Canadian actor at a press event for his new movie, The Proposal, and asked him about the project. Reynolds said:

“Well, I’m intimately involved with it. We’re just trying to break a story right now and figure out who the villain is going to be and all that stuff. But, it’s going to be just like the comic books. I’m gonna have a messed up face and you may see some flashbacks of Wade earlier in his life, but primarily what you see is what you get in the comics and that’s the goal. And there is no better place to draw material from then the comics which are incredible.”

I wonder if that villain has anything to do with the report last week about Katee Sackhoff researching Typhoid Mary by collecting comics featuring the character. In the Marvel comic books, Typhoid Mary is involved in stories with both Deadpool and Daredevil and that would be a neat idea to tie all the movies together even more. Later, I’ll discuss more on the characters and bridging the films together.

Not only is Reynolds the perfect dude to play the “Merc with a Mouth” for his obvious physical presence and witty humor in all of his movies, but he’s also very knowledgeable of the comics and truly wants to make a film based strictly on them.

You can tell from the many press events leading up to the release of X-Men Origins: Wolverine that Reynolds wasn’t exactly 100% in support of the character’s treatment in the movie. He was surely ecstatic that the character was finally getting into the films and that he was playing him, but when the asked about specifics in regards to the powers, his appearance and what not, Reynolds professionally promoted the movie without being negative about any of it but he was sure hesitant on some things.

He handled it well by saying things like what we saw in the Wolverine story weren’t Deadpool but the precursor to what eventually does become Deadpool. That was a smart thing to say and a good way to quell the fears of the character not sporting his trademark outfit and having powers he shouldn’t… let alone, the mouth being sewn shut (which I still think had to do with the simple reason that Reynolds’ busy film schedule didn’t allow him the proper screen time to develop his character more and by sewing his mouth, the final act could be played mostly by a stunt actor).

On top of that, in multiple interviews he continued to say that he’d love to do a Deadpool film lifted straight from the comics and you can tell from his reactions to many questions regarding his role in Wolverine that he was guarded about what happens to him in that film… The good news is that he will finally be getting his own film as Deadpool and better yet, it sounds like it just may pay tribute to his proper Marvel Comics incarnation.

At least, we hope it does.

Click to continue “Ryan Reynolds: ‘Deadpool’ Movie Just Like The Comics”

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Taylor Kitsch Excited To Give Us More Gambit

Rob Keyes — Sun, 17 May 2009 04:51:42 +0000

Taylor Kitch who played the Ragin’ Not-So-Cajun in X-Men Origins: Wolverine is stoked about the possibility of returning to his character in the Wolverine sequel.

Rotten Tomatoes caught up with the Canadian actor of Friday Night Lights fame at the Cannes Film Festival and discussed what’s next for the mutant character he portrays. RT asked him about the possibility of him returning in the Wolverine sequel which Taylor surprisingly heard nothing about. He laughingly responded:

“Man, good on Hugh for doing that to his body again… I hadn’t heard that was going to happen! You have my brain going now about what I’d love to do with Gambit!”

As for his character and what he’d like to do going forward:

“I’m just excited to go deeper into Gambit. It’s a flattering thing when people say that the only sh***y part about the character is we didn’t see enough of him. If that’s the case, bring it on. I want to go deep into Gambit.”

While Gambit certainly needed some more screen time in the movie, that’s not exactly the only [crappy] part of the character. If you’ve seen the movie, you probably noticed that Gambit’s trademark accent went from dark with a hint of Cajun, to just a southern teenager accent in the plane scene, to nearly no accent at all in his final scene in the movie.

“I have the tools now to do some larger fights and I’d be really excited to get a chance to do that, too. I have so many ideas in my mind right now!”

Taylor underwent plenty of physical training to use and fight with his staff, so he’s physically ready. If there’s to be more movies feature my favorite X-character, I want to see done with a little more attention to detail, especially the voice.

If Wolverine 2 is expected to follow Hugh Jackman’s character on his adventures in Japan, I don’t really see Gambit playing a part of that. Could he have a cameo in the confirmed Deadpool spinoff or X-Men: First Class? According to producer Lauren Shuler-Donner, Gambit won’t be one of the First Class roster members and her reasoning is that he wasn’t part of Xavier’s first class… but neither will half of the characters they choose so that’s weird.

The Deadpool spinoff was announced pretty quickly after Wolverine debuted to a strong opening weekend despite very poor reviews. That was expected and in an earlier post, I stated that Ryan Reynolds’ solo film would likely be the first to be confirmed as it is the most bankable. Taylor Kitsch doesn’t yet have the star power to lead his own big budget X-Film so we can expect to continue seeing him play smaller roles in other characters’ movies – Problem is, it doesn’t fit with them.

I love the Gambit character and I love Taylor’s passion about the character. If he dedicates himself to voice training like he does the physical stuff, we could be in for a treat.

Where do you think we’ll see Gambit next?

Source: Rotten Tomatoes

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Fox Building on Wolverine’s Mojo With Deadpool Movie

John Scott Lewinski — Wed, 06 May 2009 13:45:59 +0000

Fresh off the almost $90 million opening weekend for X-men Origins: Wolverine, Fox is rushing ahead on a similar treatment for Marvel’s favorite mercenary, Deadpool.

If you’re keeping score along at home, a Deadpool movie would be a spinoff of a spinoff of the original big screen adaptations of X-Men. Ryan Reynolds played the wisecracking super gun for hire in Wolverine, and will return in the title role.

Spoiler Alert Below:

The movie’s version of Deadpool is beheaded by Wolverine, but a post credit sequence on some prints unveils that the mercenary survived.

End Spoiler

While the new movie seems like a sensible enough move considering the success of the first X-Men Origins, there’s a risk here. If you walk down the street in any American neighborhood, your fellow pedestrians know who Batman is. They could pick Spider-Man and Superman out of a line-up. So, movies based on those characters become blockbusters. But, once you start to get to faces from the outer reaches of comic lore, the receipts can dwindle quickly (see Ghost Rider, Judge Dredd, The Punisher, Steel and (yes) Watchmen.

While Marvel Studios will act in a co-producer capacity, this will be a Fox Studios film.

No doubt die-hard comic book fans would catch a Deadpool flick, but would casual moviegoers flock to it in Wolverine-ish amounts? And there’s also the question of whether they’ll undo the butchering of the character (figuratively and literally) that took place in Wolverine.

Source Hollywood Reporter

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X-Men Spinoffs: Deadpool, Storm & Gambit With Rogue?

Rob Keyes — Tue, 05 May 2009 13:40:42 +0000

As we enter the aftermath of the opening weekend of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the discussions of spinoffs and sequels hit full throttle.

We’ve heard for a while now about the internal discussions at Fox about the many possible films that can branch out from the series so far. These include X-Men Origins: Wolverine 2, Deadpool, X-Men: First Class, X-Men Origins: Magneto and a Gambit solo.

Well, what’s it going to be?

With Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine origins movie banking nearly $160 Million worldwide this weekend, we can expect to see some green lights on upcoming Fox productions in the X-Men franchise.

For now, let’s talk about what the actors want to see in the future. The other day, I wrote about Ryan Reynolds and his desire to not only have his own Deadpool solo movie, but to feature the character Cable as his opposite in the film. I’m all for that idea as I thought Ryan Reynolds as Wade Wilson in the Wolverine movie was one of the best parts (pre-Weapon XI that is).

For those who don’t know the character, Cable is the son of Scott Summers (Cyclops) and Madelyne Pryor (Jean Grey’s clone) who was taken to the future only to return as a much older and hardened mutant. This will certainly not be his origin if he is ever to appear in the movies. At least, not until the X-Men franchise is rebooted in the not-too-distant future.

I also thought that Cable would be a good character to introduce into the X-franchise and I proposed that a good place for his introduction would be in X-Men: First Class as it will bring back major characters Cyclops and Jean Grey back into the mix (and possibly Emma Frost). That way, Cable would known by audiences by the time Deadpool is made.

So, out of the solo possibilities, Deadpool seems a more likely choice than Gambit, if not for the fact Ryan Reynolds has significantly more star power than Taylor Kitsch.

As for Gambit, he is one of my favorite characters from the comics and of the classic nineties animated series. In the movie, he does not earn such praise from me.

While Gambit is a cool character and Taylor Kitsch a good actor, together they do not meet the basic needs of what many fans of the character want. Gambit needs his Cajun accent and his French catch-phrases – that is essential.

In the comments section of Screen Rant’s review of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, you may have seen my review of the movie where I discuss a few of the characters. In it, I talk about how Gambit came off as some cocky southern kid and didn’t have the coolness or suave that the real Gambit puts forth. He wasn’t a bad character in the movie; he was just a weak character who could jump 50 feet high and nothing like the Marvel versions.

Regardless, Gambit is one of the spinoff possibilities. What does Taylor Kitsch, the actor who plays him want in a Gambit spinoff? In speaking to MTV before X-Men Origins: Wolverine hit theaters, the Canadian actor of Friday Night Lights fame said:

“I would love to go darker… [Gambit] in Vegas was fun, but I want to go into the Thieves Guild part of his story.”

“How cool would it be to see him stealing things to survive because the stakes are so high?… Of course, as an actor, I’m always going to the darker side, but for him that would just be way more intriguing.”

“Come on, Fox… Let’s do it.”

Click to continue “X-Men Spinoffs: Deadpool, Storm & Gambit With Rogue?”

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A Deadpool Spinoff? How About ‘Cable & Deadpool?’

Rob Keyes — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 16:43:19 +0000

During one of the many press events for X-Men Origins: Wolverine in recent days, MTV had a chance to catch up with Ryan Reynolds, who plays the character Wade Wilson in the film.

In their brief interview, MTV asked him about what other mutants he would like to see Deadpool face-off against in his own spin-off feature film. Reynolds responded:

“There are all kinds of villains… You’ve got Black Tom — all kinds of characters that you could really make great use of.”

There are many characters indeed, but one stands out in particular for the Canadian actor and husband of other Marvel actor Scarlett Johansson. That mutant he’s talking about is Cable.

“The ‘Deadpool/Cable’ stuff is great… I’ve never really cast that character in my head. He’s such a complicated character.”

In our discussions here at Screen Rant on which characters could be in X-Men: First Class, I made a joke about including Cable in the upcoming prequel as one of the mutant characters that could be introduced. Well, now it makes much more sense to do just that and have some sort of origin for his character in preparation for a Deadpool spinoff. It seems like a great idea to me and another cool way to tie all the movies together as well as prepare future storylines for the idea of time-travel.

For those who don’t know; in the comics Cable is the son of Scott Summers (Cyclops) and Madelyne Pryor (Jean Grey’s clone) who was taken to the future only to return as a much older and hardened mutant. I know it sounds strange and in the movies I’m sure they won’t even get into that storyline. So instead, I threw out the possibility that since Emma Frost is in X-Men Origins: Wolverine and likely in First Class (she’s Cyclops’ current love interest in the comics), it would be interesting to see a different take on the story with Cable being the future son of Emma and Cyclops instead.

There’s not much else they can do since we know what happens with Cyclops and Jean Grey in the X-Men trilogy – so, there won’t be any cloning and marriage going on with the characters. In Wolverine’s spinoff, we see that Fox reversed the order of who Cyclops meets first, having introduced Emma Frost before the X-Men are even formed and before Scott Summers even meets Jean Grey.

Since we first heard that Deadpool was to be featured in the Wolverine solo movie and then later heard that Ryan Reynolds would play the part (a perfect casting choice), there’s been talk and speculation over the character also getting his own spin-off. Those talks have become a very serious possibility pending the success this weekend of X-Men Origins: Wolverine and in recent interviews with producer Lauren Shuler-Donner, she’s continued to relay that Fox is in internal discussions over that potential project as well as a Gambit spinoff.

The character of Wade Wilson, who takes the codename Deadpool in the comics and will do so in future X-films, has a strong following amongst comic readers and hence there’s quite a bit of apprehension over the changes made to the character in the film.

Artwork by Amanda Connor

However, by the end of the film, it is said that in the movie, the character is set up for potential future stories. A story involving Cable would be a pretty neat idea. In the comics, Cable and Deadpool had their own series together that lasted several years until recently where they split from each other as a result of the major Marvel X-Comics event, Messiah Complex. They now both have their own solo series’.

Rob Liefeld, creator of the “Merc with a Mouth” spoke about the possible Deadpool spinoff a few weeks back and said this via his Twitter account:

“Talked to producers of ‘Wolverine’ yesterday and they said that there are definite plans to spin off ‘Deadpool’ if the box office works”

Along with Liefeld and Donner, Reynolds is also fully supporting the idea of getting him and his character their own on-screen debut. As a fan of the Deadpool comics himself, Reynolds dream is to be able to make a movie strictly based on the comics – Having his own solo title would give him that chance.

If you see the Wolverine flick this weekend, stick around after the credits. You may get lucky and get the secret ending involving Deadpool (there are multiple different endings after the credits depending on which prints of the movie your theater receives).

What do you think of the idea of introducing Cable into the movie franchise and having him a key player in the Deadpool film?

X-Men Origins: Wolverine opens tomorrow, Friday May 1st and I’ll be there.

Sources: MTV

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