Free Guy introduces the world to your friendly neighborhood NPC, Guy, at the same time that Guy (Ryan Reynolds) is introduced to a whole new world. After meeting his dream girl, Molotov Girl (Jodie Comer), Guy levels up in a way that shouldn’t be possible – and learns his whole life has been a lie. The video game-inspired movie arrives in theaters on August 13.
Reynolds spoke to Screen Rant about collaborating with director Shawn Levy, adding Disney to the mix, and marketing with Deadpool and Korg.
Screen Rant: How did the script evolve from when you guys first started the project to when you saw it on the screen?
Ryan Reynolds: Well, it took on a life of its own, really. It was a script that I read; I sent it to Shawn Levy, and I said, "This is something I think we could do together." I loved the themes of it - particularly backdropped by the world we've been living in the last [few] years.
And we just jumped into it. Zak Penn and Shawn Levy and I all just started a massive rewrite that really went all the way through to the edit room. It was such a labor of love. But there's an old expression, "Listen to your movie because it will talk to you." And the reason why I keep working with Shawn and love Shawn so much is he believes in that same sort of idea as well.
So, we were pivoting and moving with this movie the whole time, and the script eventually found or took on this whole life of its own. And it's really, I think, probably the best film I've ever been lucky enough to be a part of.
Was this film made before the Fox and Disney merger? And if so, during the merger, did anything change because of it?
Ryan Reynolds: It was right at the cusp of the takeover where Disney bought Fox. Takeover sounds so sinister, I love it. I'm using it for the rest of the day.
Yes and no. We had gotten the green light before this acquisition happened. And once Disney bought Fox - and subsequently this movie - we were then able to exploit, if you will, some of the IP that Disney owns. There are easter eggs in this movie that are pretty crazy, and having seen it with an audience myself and seeing how people jump to their feet at certain moments in the movie - it's a lot of fun.
And none of that would have been possible without Disney's blessing and okay, so we were pretty excited to have that in our arsenal.
One of the coolest things I've seen was the marketing for this movie with Deadpool and Korg. How did that even come together?
Ryan Reynolds: The Deadpool and Korg piece was just something that we'd written over at Maximum Effort Marketing, my company. George Dewey and I wrote it out, tried to see if we could get it past Disney and if they would say yes. We didn't think they would - because they've said no to some other things [that] were kind of in that wheelhouse.
But they said yes. And then the next step was asking Taika [Waititi] if he'd be up for it, and of course, he was. Because Taika is just the greatest. We shot it, and it's probably the most expensive reaction video ever made.
