Ryan Reynolds Explains How The Deadpool Movie Finally Got Greenlit [Updated With Cast Shortlist]
By Germain Lussier/Feb. 6, 2015 4:20 pm EST
Then, almost out of the blue, the Deadpool movie got a greenlight and a February 12, 2016 release date. What was the change? Was it a tamer rating? A lower budget? Maybe, but star Ryan Reynolds says the main reason is fan reaction to the leaked test footage. Read more about the Deadpool movie below.
Update: There’s now a list of women who are testing for a key role in the film; we’ve got that below along with Reynolds’ comments.
Comic-book fans wanted a Deadpool spinoff for years, but it seemed like it was a dead proposition. How did the project suddenly get on the fast track to production?
Leaked test footage. Exclusively the leaked test footage, 100 percent.
Who leaked it?
So when you saw it online were you nervous? Excited?
I was excited, because you can look back at an email chain from all of us, the core group involved in Deadpool, saying “We should leak this, f—-,” like three years ago. Saying, “Hey, if this thing is going to stagnate, one of us should just say ‘Whoops, I slipped it online by accident.’” And nobody seemed to want to nut up and do that, myself included. Someone did it for us, years later, when we all completely assumed it was dead in the water.
Now, we get to make the movie. We don’t get to make it with the budget of most superhero movies, but we get to make it the way we want to make it, so that’s even more exciting than having a catered lunch.
It’s pretty funny that Reynolds doesn’t know how the footage leaked yet admits it was the footage that got the movie a greenlight. It’s hard to deny the claim. The footage leaked in August and in September the movie was a go.
Now, Deadpool, directed by Tim Miller, written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, starring Ryan Reynolds will be in theaters a year from now.
Update: Deadline reports that four women, and possibly five in the long run, are testing for the lead female role in Deadpool. They are Morena Baccarin, of Homeland and V; Taylor Schilling, of Orange is the New Black and Sundance debut The Overnight; Crystal Reed of Teen Wolf and Crush; and Rebecca Rittenhouse, from The Red Band Society.
