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Deadpool is a massive hit for 20th Century Fox, and then, eventually, Disney. So it seems strange to think that it was so difficult to get off the ground.
Tim Miller produced CG test footage in 2012 as a mock-up for what a live-action Deadpool movie might look like. It was used in a pitch, and studios rejected the project, unable to compute an R-rated superhero movie, despite the whole thing being effectively restarted as a viable genre by Blade. Hollywood remains run by largely clueless idiots.
Then, around Comic-Con 2014, the footage leaked online. Fans went wild for it, the response was so positive that 20th Century Fox executives had to admit they were completely wrong, and greenlight the project. The rest is history, including the pile of money that those executives now get to sleep on, like Smaug.
For years, star Ryan Reynolds denied any involvement in the leak. He even went so far as to take part in a Vanity Fair polygraph test in an interview over it.
Now, attending the Toronto International Film Festival and speaking with EW, Reynolds has admitted he was behind the leak:
“Yes, I cheated a little, but I think I was onto something that people would be interested in. And I’m grateful that I listened to that instinct, and I’m grateful that I did the wrong thing in that moment.
I’d shot test footage for it a couple of years before, and the studio just didn’t want anything to do with it. Deadpool’s a fringe character; people didn’t really know who he was, and I loved him. I was obsessed with it because I loved that he knew he was in a comic book movie. It was kind of meta, it was kind of new. But the test footage existed, and it really was a case study of how this could work. And they just wouldn’t do anything with it.
Some a–hole leaks it online and I’m like, you know, looking at the guy in the mirror brushing my teeth. And I’m like, ‘Dude, what have you done? This could be punishable by law!’ But the internet forced the studio to say, ‘We’re gonna make this movie,’ and 24 hours later, that movie had a green light.”
Deadpool made over $780 million at the global box office on a $58 million budget. Deadpool 2 made another $785 million, and Deadpool & Wolverine $1.3 billion. It means 20th Century Fox and Disney are unlikely to be too upset over this new information.
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