Having made an absolute mess of the Merc with a Mouth’s first big screen outing, 20th Century Fox finally atoned for the character’s treatment in X-Men Origins: Wolverine this year with the release of Deadpool, the R-rated smash hit from director Tim Miller. During an interview with CinemaBlend to promote his new film Eye in the Sky, X-Men Origins helmer Gavin Hood has shared a few thoughts on the first incarnation of Deadpool, and why he feels the new version has succeeded:
“I think the character works so well now, because the character is allowed to be who the character really is, unencumbered by, you know, PG-13 requirements and a great deal of marketing debate,” states Hood. “I think the fact that the filmmakers kind of made that film below the radar — and I happen to know a little bit, only because my production designer from Ender’s Game, Sean Haworth, is a fantastic designer, was the designer on Deadpool. I remember when he was making the film, it was just a little bit more below the radar initially. And more credit to the filmmakers and to Ryan, that they took control of their character and got on and let Ryan do the film. Deadpool is a motor mouth, foul mouth character, and it’s very difficult with these big movies to, when you have to work within certain parameters that are set by, by [studio heads].”
SEE ALSO: Deadpool overtakes X-Men: Days of Future Past to become highest-grossing X-Men movie of all time
“Ryan is a huge talent and he has been able to just bring out his essence as an actor in a role that he really loved,” he continues. “You know, when he did the little cameo bit in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, it was exactly what we’ve been talking about. It was the studio attempting to plug in a few characters and test the waters. But now he gets to make his own movie and he did it with great courage and with the full force of his personality, so he deserves every success. I think he’s done really well, and I think it’s fantastic that they had the courage to just go ahead and make the film. They had to make it R rated, but can you imagine if they were trying for PG-13? I just don’t think it would have worked. Which is not to say that other films shouldn’t be PG-13. Of course you want that huge audience. But you’ve got to be very careful that you’re not torturing the material to fit a particular marketing strategy, and that’s what they didn’t do with Deadpool. They just made the film the way it needed to be made, I think.”
Deadpool sees Ryan Reynolds starring as the Merc with a Mouth alongside T.J. Miller (Transformers: Age of Extinction) as Weasel, Morena Baccarin (Gotham) as Copycat, Gina Carano (Fast & Furious 6) as Angel Dust, Ed Skrein (Game of Thrones) as Ajax, Stefan Kapicic (24) as Colossus, Leslie Uggams (Roots) as Blind Al and newcomer Brianna Hildebrand as Negasonic Teenage Warhead.
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