MTV recently got the chance to speak to Zombieland writers Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese who will be in charge of bringing Deadpool to life on the big screen. They were only hired last month, however are already outlining the film and have been developing it on a near-daily basis with Ryan Reynolds.

“We just absolutely adore the character and the comic,” explained Wernick. “And tonally, it’s right up our alley. He’s the unstable, smart-ass, self deprecating guy — and they say write what you know, so [we’re perfect for it].”

“What’s great about Ryan is that he’s been the keeper of the Deadpool flame for many years, he’s loved the character since forever; he lives it and breathes it,” Reese said of some of the specific ideas Reynolds has brought up to them. “We’re a little newer to Deadpool, although we’ve done a bit of catching up. One of the nice things about working with Ryan is that he tonally gets it — if we ever do something that is off the Deadpool path, or if it doesn’t feel like Deadpool, he catches it.”

“The movie is going to kick ass,” Wernick said, confident of the end result of their collaboration. “It’s going to be great.”

“It’s not going to be your father’s superhero movie, or even your older brother’s superhero movie,” added Reese. “It’s definitely going to be irreverent and fun, and we owe a lot to that character, because it’s a wonderful character.”

It’s great to see the writers have the same amount of enthusiasm as Reynolds. Obviously its early days yet, however I think Deadpool has the potential to be a fun, cool superhero movie. Over recent years the genre has started to get all dark and serious, but I think Deadpool (along with Kick-Ass) will give us a break from that.

We’ll get a better indication of what to expect when they hire a director, which should be sometime this year depending on how the scripting progresses.

Last month Ryan Reynolds said that they were having meetings with a number of potential Deadpool writers, “all of which had amazing and slightly disparate takes from one another”. Now 20th Century Fox and the producers have decided that Zombieland writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick will be the guys to write the script.

From Variety:

20th Century Fox is making progress with its “X-Men” spinoff, “Deadpool,” and has tapped “Zombieland” scribes Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick to pen the screenplay.

There is no timetable on the Marvel property, though Reynolds has a window after wrapping the “Green Lantern” this summer.

Reese and Wernick, who wrote “Zombieland,” will stay true to the mythology of “Deadpool” given that Reynolds is a huge fan and protector of the property.

The tone of “Deadpool,” which features an antihero as opposed to the more traditional heroic comicbook protagonist, is very similar in tone to “Zombieland.”

Reese and Wernick also wrote the script for Venom before Gary Ross came on-board to make it his own, so they are no strangers to comic book territory. However Deadpool will be a bit different to the films we have seen so far as it will be breaking the 4th wall. Deadpool will be talking directly too the audience, so Reese and Wernick will have to make sure it works without it coming across as cheesy or laughable.

One positive aspect, though, is that they won’t have to take into account any events that took place in X-Men Origins: Wolverine (which would have been kinda difficult considering the character was decapitated).

At the moment Ryan Reynolds will be focusing on Green Lantern which will be heading into production early next year, however he recently spoke to MTV and gave an update on Deadpool, which he says is on the verge of getting a writer. He also mentioned that they have a list of dream directors, one of which is Quentin Tarantino.

“You think directors for a movie like this and you immediately picture [Quentin] Tarantino or somebody like that,” Reynolds told MTV News. “Obviously Tarantino is a guy that likes to direct his own material, so there’s a good chance he wouldn’t be the guy. We all have our lists of dream directors.”

Funnily enough Tarantino revealed last week that he was offered Green Lantern years ago.

Anyhow, back to Deadpool:

“I think at this point everyone’s just focused on getting the right script and the right tone and the right writer involved and I think from there, the world’s your oyster,” explained Reynolds of the film’s current status. “If you get that right, you’re going to get an amazing director.”

As for where that search for a writer is taking them, Reynolds said that aspect of the project is still in the meeting phase. However, he’s hopeful that an announcement will be made in the near future.

“That’s just right now being decided,” he said. “There’s been a lot of meetings and we’ve met with a bunch of different writers, all of which had amazing and slightly disparate takes from one another. So we’re figuring that out right now. Hopefully soon.”

Ryan Reynolds has had a 2009 that could be described as ‘above average’. The Proposal was a hit, he got to play Deadpool which he’d been wanting to do for years, and he married Scarlett Johansson. While he won’t be on-screen much in 2010 and I doubt he’ll be getting married again, he will be suiting up early next year to play Hal Jordan in Green Lantern.

MTV caught up with Reynolds recently to talk about the past year, and they asked him about both Green Lantern and Deadpool.

I’ve known about “Green Lantern” my whole life, but I’ve never really followed it before. I fell in love with the character when I met with [director] Martin Campbell. When I sat down with him, I really got what it is that this guy is all about. When you have a guy like Martin Campbell, part of his charm is that he has ba–s of titanium, and the other part is that he’s slightly crazy, and you have to be to take on something with the scope of “Green Lantern.” He’s less of the director and more of a general. He just really knows strategies, he knows the intricacies, and his attention to detail! It’s infectious. I sat down with him, and I could not even believe what he was saying. When I went to the meeting, I was entirely cynical. I thought, “What the hell, I’ll see what they have to say,” and I left the room with a completely different perspective.

Martin Campbell is the director responsible for Casino Royale, which successfully rebooted the Bond franchise. Everything so far is pointing towards Green Lantern being a cool movie, and Warner Bros. need it to be great if they are to compete with Marvel and it’s Avengers line-up.

Now for Deadpool:

Finding the tone of that character alone is such a difficult prospect. I’ve been in so many meetings lately about “Deadpool” and meeting all these writers. Everyone is always looking for that one line, “What is that character?” and for me it’s kind of like, “There’s a guy, and he’s in a highly militarized comedic fame spiral.” That’s not an easy thing to write — an entire screenplay, let alone a franchise. I had a blast playing Wade. Every line I had in that was stuff I thought he would say. It wasn’t something that a writer said to me. It was fun to really create that character, including everything he spits out of his awful mouth.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine will be released on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK next week, and UK magazine Empire flew out to the US to have a one-one-one with producer Lauren Shuler Donner. As expected, they asked her for updates on Wolverine 2, X-Men: First Class, Deadpool and X-Men Origins: Magneto and she had a lot to say.

Wolverine 2

Donner says that Wolverine 2 is the furthest along out of all the projects and will focus on the relationship between Wolverine and Mariko, the daughter of a Japanese crime lord, and what happens to him in Japan. She says they wanted an “A+ writer” so they got Chris McQuarrie (Valkyrie, The Usual Suspects) who has tightened up the story and has “got really immersed in the whole thing”. 20th Century Fox will also be working with the Japanese Fox executives as they “don’t want to portray the way [Japanese people] speak, dress and act in an inaccurate way.” Although it is “likely the characters will speak English rather than Japanese with subtitles”.

Donner finishes by saying “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.”

X-Men: First Class

According to Donner the script is not finished and they aren’t where they want to be yet. They are trying hard not to make it too similar to the previous trilogy and want to make it different. Donner also admits that the Harry Potter movies are “role models” for them but they “want it to be like the recent, darker Potters. It should not be a kiddie movie – we’re in the X-Men world so you can’t suddenly change the tone.”

She says that there’s still friction between mutants and the outside world, but First Class will be set before anyone knows mutants exist so it will probably have a more secretive edge. Regarding the characters Donner says they will be in Xavier’s School but they will also be off on adventures and some will be “naughty children”. She gives Cyclops as an example who is “a tough kid that bobbed from foster home to foster home, until he ends up at the school and becomes the leader.” None of the characters have been cast yet, but they plan on turning First Class into a whole new franchise so “the casting of the child actors will be all-important.” I’m not sure how young the actors will be but they’ll probably be young enough so we see them grow up on-screen.

Deadpool

Deadpool will be a complete reboot as they want to “ignore the version of Deadpool that we saw in Wolverine and just start over again”. Donner says it will be a “dark, snarky, very funny movie” and they are just working out which villain(s) to incorporate. They hope to have a writer on-board by next month and are currently talking to a few. “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!”

X-Men Origins: Magneto

…won’t be seen for a while, if ever. Donner says the film is “at the back of the queue” out of all the films and she isn’t sure if the script David Goyer wrote is ever going to be made. “Maybe it’ll get made in five years – who knows? I can tell you that Ian McKellen won’t be playing the character the whole way through. We used Lola technology in X-Men 3 to de-age Ian and Patrick for one scene, but it’s very expensive. To do that for a two-hour movie would be prohibitive financially. And to find a younger actor to fill Ian’s shoes, that’s pretty daunting. It’s not easy.”

Summary

The X-Men franchise peaked in 2003. 20th Century Fox have since been too involved with the creative process and we have ended up with disappointments. Although, they have hired Chris McQuarrie to write Wolverine 2 and there is a chance Bryan Singer could return to direct. If that happens Wolverine 2 may actually be a good movie.

If Fox don’t screw things up they could have a new franchise with X-Men: First Class. The films won’t be as good as the Potter ones, but that franchise ends in 2011 and there will be a gap in the market. They need to get an “A+ director” involved.

I’m not that much of a Deadpool fan but from what we’ve heard they want to stay close to the source material. When we find out who they hire to write and direct it will give us an indication whether it’s a potential new superhero franchise or just doomed.

I’ve been wanting to see a Magneto movie ever since it was announced they were making one. Over the years I’ve questioned whether David Goyer is actually the right man for the job, but I don’t think he is. I’d rather get a great Magneto movie in 5+ years than have a sub-par movie start filming next year.

Which movie are you looking forward too (if any)? Can 20th Century Fox bring the X-Men franchise back up to the level it once was?

A meeting took place today to discuss the Deadpool movie that 20th Century Fox announced they were making a few months ago. Rob Liefeld, who created Deadpool, attended the meeting and Twittered his reaction afterwards. Here’s what he had to say:

Walking into Deadpool movie meeting!!! Yowza!

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!!!

Clarification, Cable definitely NOT in Deadpool movie, but possible role in future X-films….not First Class.

Donner Company is on top of making the Deadpool movie that fans want. They get it. He’s funny, tortured, clever, a bastard and mucho action!

I guess if the creator of the character is happy then that’s a good sign for the fans. Even though Deadpool/Wade Wilson appeared in X-Men Origins: Wolverine they are planning on giving him a mini-reboot instead of trying to work the ending of Wolverine into the movie. While this probably won’t make sense timeline-wise, I think it’s better in the long run and will allow Deadpool to have an origin movie all superheroes seem to need.

A few weeks ago it was announced that Ryan Reynolds would be suiting up to play the Green Lantern having beaten off competition from Justin Timberlake and Bradley Cooper. However, earlier this year we saw Reynolds play Wade Wilson aka Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine and we soon learned that a spin-off featuring Reynolds as the character was in development. One guy playing two superheroes in two different franchises for two rival comic book companies (Marvel vs. DC). How could this be!? Will it work? Well Reynolds doesn’t have a problem with it:

From Entertainment Weekly:

“There’s no rule that says you can’t play two different characters in two different comic book universes. There’s so many interesting comic book characters out there, I would love to do others.”

If Deadpool will be as close to the source material as they are saying it will be then Reynolds will have a scarred face and a mask, which would reduce the problem (if there is one). At the moment I can’t really see a problem, but that is probably because the films are just getting started. Would people be fine with Robert Downey Jr. playing a DC superhero while still playing Iron Man? How about if Christian Bale became Captain America or another Marvel equivalent? (It won’t happen, i’m just using it as an example).

Well that didn’t take long. This morning it was reported that Bradley Cooper, Ryan Reynolds and Justin Timberlake were in the running to play the lead in Green Lantern, and now according to Variety Reynolds has emerged victorious.

Ryan Reynolds has landed the coveted role of “Green Lantern,” getting the starring role in Warner Bros.’ live-action film based on the DC Comics hero.

Martin Campbell will direct. The studio is still working on the picture’s budget, but production is expected to begin in January.

The news caps off a memorable summer for Reynolds, who played Deadpool in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” a performance that prompted Fox to begin development on a spinoff film. Reynolds followed that by starring opposite Sandra Bullock in the romantic comedy “The Proposal,” which crossed the $100 million mark this week.

Warners and Campbell chose Reynolds, who vied for the superhero role along with “The Hangover” star Bradley Cooper and Jared Leto. The momentum built for Reynolds in the last week, as he was the only actor whose option was extended.

Personally I was backing Bradley Cooper, simply because Reynolds will probably be set up for the next few years with Deadpool and it’s not fun when you have one actor hogging multiple superhero roles. But I suppose he can do both as Green Lantern is gearing up for filming in January and Deadpool doesn’t even have a script yet.

Are you happy that Ryan Reynolds got the role? Would you have preferred a different actor that didn’t make Warner Bros. final 3?

I may have missed out on this weekend’s pre-Transformers box office winner, The Proposal, but I’ve found myself many a time watching movies I would consider mediocre only to see a single performance lock me in for the whole running time. Ryan Reynolds proved it once and for all in last year’s Definitely, Maybe that he was capable of holding an audience’s attention in a romance. His previous work in broad comedy produced equally stand-out performances, even when the rest of the film rots around him (Just Friends, for those who were wondering).

Now, Reynolds has signed up to play the lead in an independent dramatic film called Buried, which will see him playing a civilian contractor who is kidnapped in Iraq and wakes up buried in a coffin in the desert with only a cell phone, a candle and a knife.

Sounds interesting, if cryptic. Variety has the rest of the details:

Rodrigo Cortes will direct a script by Chris Sparling; production will begin this month in Barcelona.

Peter Safran will produce through his Safran Co. banner with Adrian Guerra of Spain-based Versus Entertainment, which is financing the film. The picture will shoot entirely in Spain, which is home to Cortes, best known for directing “The Contestant.”

[Reynolds] decided to go the indie route as a way to stretch his acting chops in a movie with a claustrophobic premise, and one in which he holds the screen through most of the picture.

It looks like we’ll be getting Buried while Fox decides how they are going to resurrect the Deadpool character, which is totally fine by me. Reynolds is one of those actors who manages to escape from horrible movies with reputation in tact, but it’s probably not a bad idea to let the guy set sail in his own show before shoving him into the constantly mis-handled 20th Century Fox X-Men property.

After Buried, we’ll all be able to make a better judgment about Reynolds talents and – hopefully – Ryan can make the jump to dramatic leading man.

He could also break up with Scarlett Johansson and toss her my way for Christmas, because I’m kissing this movie’s a** after one Variety announcement.

Within days of X-Men Origins: Wolverine being released 20th Century Fox announced that they were developing a Deadpool spin-off, with Ryan Reynolds back playing the Merc with the Mouth. Since then we haven’t heard anything more about it, however Reynolds recently spoke to HitFix and it seems he is pretty involved creatively.

“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’m assuming this would take place after X-Men Origins: Wolverine, however I think they should just do their own thing and not focus on what happened in Wolverine too much. It’ll be two or three years before we get to see Deadpool on screen, but it will be an interesting movie to follow.