Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, if you clap your hands and wiggle your toes enough, Fox will make a Deadpool movie. At least that's the theory held by Deadpool and Zombieland co-writer Rhett Reese, who is single-handedly launching his own grassroots campaign, seen above, to get Fox to smell the roses and start telling the story of Wade Wilson. It's not like he's asking for your money. Just click and support the guy's cause.
Reese's cause is simple: Fox owns a property beloved by fans, and they're currently doing absolutely nothing with it. It'll cost a pretty penny, but Fox isn't making three Avatar sequels in a row for nothing, right? The Reese and Paul Wernick-scripted Deadpool was teased a little while back, when a page of their script was used in an effects reel shot and animated years ago - but it only recently saw the light of day. And yes, some of those people who only know Deadpool from his reputation probably thought it was one of the most obnoxious things they've ever seen. Of course, they were right, and that's the point. A Deadpool movie isn't going to give you the portentous speeches of an X-Men film or the broadly-appealing family-friendly glee of The Fantastic Four. Nope, Deadpool was made to antagonize and irritate.
Deadpool came around at a time when the superhero comics industry was beginning to look up its own Frank Miller-fueled ass. Grim and gritty had become the status quo, Robins were being killed by fan vote, the Phoenix was nuking galaxies, and the Punisher was gunning down entire mob families. The movies haven't reached that point of over-saturation in regards to nihilism, but there is a creeping suspicion that formula has set in for a few examples of the genre. Which is where Deadpool comes in. He's rude, sometimes idiotic, often reckless and never at all reverent. This genre has become big enough that a quipping character like Deadpool could deflate its own importance.
Reese is staging this plea at the right time: Guardians Of The Galaxy - a comic featuring characters with none of the fame or visibility of Deadpool - just went on to become one of Marvel's biggest cinematic success stories. Through Disney, Marvel was able to sell the general moviegoing public on Ronan The Accuser, The Collector and Groot. Why couldn't Fox do the same with the Merc With A Mouth? If anything, they owe the character's fans an apology for what was done to him in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, when he was turned into a silent, laser-shooting henchman, as bizarre a misreading of Deadpool's appeal as there has ever been.
Fox currently has a Marvel project slated for July 2018, and have given no indication what it could be. Maybe the X-Men will jump back into the fray two years after X-Men: Apocalypse. Maybe Fox will introduce X-Force. Or just maybe they'll realize they have a script, they have an actor (Ryan Reynolds), they have a director (Tim Miller), they have a fanbase, and they have a property they could adapt that will surely cost less than the latest X-picture. Stranger things have happened!
