What a great time to be Ryan Reynolds. The guy has been churning out consistently terrific work for years, only to find the kind of massive box office success of his peers elusive. That is until Deadpool opened this past weekend and shattered records left and right, not only leading to the biggest hit of Reynolds’ career, but one of the biggest hits of the modern superhero movie era. So now Reynolds finds himself in the unique position of not just being in demand, but being in demand. Which leads to the question, what will he do next?
Well it’s possible his next big project is something he’s been circling since before the Deadpool numbers came in, as Deadline reports the actor is in talks to reteam with his Safe House director Daniel Espinosa on a sci-fi picture called Life. The story revolves around a manned mission to Mars that finds intelligent life. The most exciting aspect of this particular project? Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation breakout Rebecca Ferguson is attached to star as well and it boasts an original screenplay from Deadpool screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, whose passion and persistence (along with director Tim Miller and Reynolds) helped finally get Deadpool made following years of pushback from 20th Century Fox.
Skydance’s David Ellison and Dana Goldberg are producing the film, which is expected to be distributed by Paramount. It’s interesting to see Reynolds teaming up with Espinosa again, as the filmmaker has yet to really capitalize on the surprise box office success of Safe House. He signed onto a number of films in that movie’s wake, but thus far only Child 44 materialized, and that movie was dumped by Summit despite a solid cast of Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, and Noomi Rapace. With the red-hot Reynolds and Ferguson, plus the selling point of “from the writers of Deadpool,” this could very well be Espinosa’s comeback of sorts.
No word on how quickly Life will come together, but I imagine Paramount will want to strike while the iron is hot. Ferguson is currently filming the drama The Girl on the Train and may very well return for Mission: Impossible 6, which is expected to start filming later this year with Christopher McQuarrie returning to direct. As for Reynolds, Fox is no doubt working overtime to get Deadpool 2 ready as quickly as possible, which I imagine could get in front of cameras as early as late this year or early 2017. Good on you, Reynolds.
