When Ryan Reynolds The path to making the third installment of the iconic mercenary began Deadpoolwhich is now a global box office phenomenon and is approaching being one of the most iconic films in the Marvel universe in cinema, one of the conditions it set was that the director had to be Shawn Levy.
The filmmaker spoke about how Reynolds approached him to offer him the project: “I was filming The Adam Project with Ryan in Vancouver and he says to me: ‘I know you’re going to say no, but I’m only going to do Deadpool again if you direct it,'” the director said in an interview with Chronicle Scenario.
“And I told him that I would love to direct that film, because the truth is that if you work in that monumental cinematic space, as I did from the films A night at the museum“It is a dream to be able to tell a story on that kind of fabulous and imposing canvas,” he added.
Owner of a career as a director marked by success that includes blockbusters such as Free Guythe trilogy of A night at the museum and the remake of The Pink PantherCanadian Shawn Levy is also a respected producer who was nominated for an Oscar for the arrivalAnd although his career is mostly cinematic, he has played a very important role in the global phenomenon called Stranger Things.
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But without a doubt, for the filmmaker the challenge of making Deadpool & Wolverine It has become the “most exhausting and also the most rewarding” task, because he was able to develop a project freely, breaking the myth of what Disney could allow as a company known for its moralistic projects: “The story has room for everything you can imagine, also taking into account the legacy, the mythology and all the toys of the UCM,” he said.
The film also allowed him to fulfill a childhood dream: “I was always a fan of movies.” Marveland I was already a fan of Deadpool and a big fan of Wolverine“So the opportunity to join the Deadpool franchise and do something remarkably different was exciting to me,” he added.
The director explained that although comedy has been one of the elements that has distinguished his filmography, before returning with Deadpool & Wolverinehad tried not to fall into pigeonhole:
“I think I very deliberately made my career about not pigeonholing myself into anything. I became known as the director of family-friendly comedies, and I loved that space, but I didn’t want to be defined by that. The reason I started my company, 12 Lapswas to be able to be creative in different ways, and that led to the arrival already Stranger Things“, said.
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“Suddenly, I find myself directing things like Free Guy: Taking controlwhich is an action comedy, but also things like The Adam Projectwhich is science fiction, but it is also emotional,” he commented.
And just as Reynolds required it to be Shawn Levy the filmmaker for the film, the director emphasized that the actor has also helped inspire a project that focuses on fun and offering an entertaining experience within the cinematic universe of Marveland that now there is a breath of fresh air in the cinematic world of the franchise that had fallen into films that seemed to stagnate its creativity:
“I think what brought Ryan and I together in the beginning, and what brings us together still, is that we share the craft of comedy. We’ve worked in that genre for most of our careers. We’re both funny. We both think a lot about what the ingredients of comedy are. But that’s not the only thing we’re interested in,” he continued.
Levy explained what it was like to work on the tone within the film with Reynolds after having worked together on other projects: “What perhaps interests us most is the emotional, and I hope that both Free guy as The Adam Project have shown that we are interested in human warmth and the emotion that lies beneath the laughter. And that was the key in the case of Deadpool & Wolverine“, he commented.
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“It’s going to be fun, but with this oil and water idea of Logan and Wade, two people who are built to hate each other, there’s another element. Of course, Wade is built to annoy Logan. And he does, but what is that story of animosity and how does it evolve into something that maybe resembles a brotherly thing? That’s the story we wanted to tell,” he added.
In Deadpool & Wolverinean apathetic Wade Wilson Wade makes his way into civilian life after leaving behind his days as the morally flexible mercenary Deadpool. But when his homeworld faces an existential threat, Wade must reluctantly suit up again with an even more reluctant Wolverine.
This is the synopsis of the film that has made the fantasies of many superhero fans come true by bringing together two of the favorite characters. Even more exciting because the other actor is Hugh Jackman with whom Levy also worked on Free Guy, but also on Steel giants.
The actors and the filmmaker thus had the aim of showing on screen something that happens outside of the productions, which is their own relationship: “We have made a film about friendship, about male friendship, made by friends (…) If you can have on screen something that also exists behind the cameras, it is always beneficial for the film,” said Levy.
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The filmmaker spoke about how he began to approach what they wanted to see on screen: “When we started working on the script, we were thinking about the architecture of the story. I know it will probably sound pretentious, but we were thinking about what would be the right structure so that this movie wouldn’t feel like just another sequel, or like a derivative repetition of the other two,” he said.
“But we knew we wanted these two original characters in the movie, and we knew they would fit together and give us material to make it exciting. Not to save the universe again, but to save the people that Deadpool loves,” he added.
“We knew it would do well, but the movie didn’t really have a reason to exist until the day Hugh Jackman called Ryan and asked if the three of us could do this together. And from that day on, we understood the movie. We saw it instantly,” the director added.
On the other hand, the film has already become a global box office phenomenon that gives Marvel and Disney a break, as they have not had the expected results in recent years and that implied another responsibility:
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“I am confident because we have built this film to entertain the public and I think we have achieved that. They give you money to tell stories. I want the people who give me the money to connect with the public to make more money. That is how it works. We are not making poetry or philanthropy, we are making global mainstream entertainment,” he emphasized.
But what the director hopes will be the unequivocal sign of success is laughter: “Let’s put it this way. If you’re working on something that has this cultural love, that’s a very powerful thing. It’s really powerful, and I know there will be moments that audiences are going to love, but I will also say that there are moments where they’re going to lose their minds, like the ten billionth, which is not a number, but I say that hyperbolically. There are moments in this movie that, if you can hear the dialogue over the laughter, we’ve failed,” he said.
“We saw it in the editing room, when I point out to Ryan that every time we show a particular scene, you can’t hear all three lines of dialogue because the audience is still laughing at the previous line. Every time we have this fraternal discussion, Ryan usually wins, telling me something like, ‘Great. You’ll have to watch the movie again,’” he added.
Finally, it should be noted that the film also serves as a bridge to the future of the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe): “What is at stake for the characters is greater than what is at stake globally in the MCU,” he said, highlighting that in this sense another difficulty was added, which was the (R) rating of the film due to the levels of violence:
“People think about the R-rated character, the language, the explicit violence, but what’s really fun about making a Deadpool movie is the self-awareness,” Levy said.
“Ultimately, this movie is as warm as any of the other movies I’ve made. It has more sincere human emotion than almost any X-Men or Deadpool movie I’ve seen. And yes, it’s funny, it’s gruesome, it’s outrageous and it’s bloody, but it’s also deeply emotional and I hope that combination of elements makes it an interesting experience,” he concluded.
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