With each passing year, the lines delineating theatrical release movies from those made for streaming services get more blurred. Top-tier talent and grand, big-budget movies are no longer only the dominion of the theaters, as streaming services are aggressively creating marketable films with recognizable names to entice subscribers. Given this new paradigm, this latest news is still impressive and quite the coup. Netflix and Skydance Media will co-produce Six Underground, an original feature film to be directed by Michael Bay and star none other than Deadpool himself, Ryan Reynolds, to premiere on the streaming service next year.
Netflix has worked with Will Smith, Adam Sandler and Cary Fukunaga, but Six Underground will be the first Netflix project for Michael Bay and Ryan Reynolds. The plot details for Six Underground are being kept under wraps at the moment other than the unsurprising, yet no less welcome knowledge that this will be an action movie. It is also described as an event level film, indicating that the scope of this will befit the talent involved. And if this actor and director pairing weren't intriguing enough, the film is based on an original idea from Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, the two writers who previously worked with Ryan Reynolds on both Deadpool films. They also wrote Zombieland and are writing the upcoming Clue film, which Reynolds is starring in.
It is encouraging that some of the core creatives involved with this film already have a working relationship that has proven successful in the past. Bringing Michael Bay on is also interesting. This isn't just one of the many movies that Michael Bay's name is attached to as a producer either, as he will actually be directing it. If there's one thing Michael Bay knows, it's how to work with big-budget action. He usually does action on the grandest scale possible, so I am curious to see how ambitious this project is. It will be good to see Michael Bay do something that isn't Transformers again too, as he tends to do his best work when not dealing with robots in disguise.
Ryan Reynolds is, of course, coming off of the record-breaking Deadpool 2 which premiered to $301 million worldwide last weekend and is currently sitting atop the box office. The actor has proven that with the right material, he is a leading man that audiences like to see. Michael Bay's last film was Transformers: The Last Knight, which made $605 million at the box office last year. Having these two names involved with a Netflix movie is a boon for the service and definitely something worth keeping an eye on.
I'm interested to see what the combination of Ryan Reynolds and Michael Bay in a Netflix original movie produces. Netflix seems to allow its creators plenty of freedom to do something different, and just based on the names involved, it seems like this could be the streaming service's biggest movie to date. Six Underground is aiming to start production this summer with an eye towards a release on Netflix in 2019. For everything hitting the streaming service this year, check out our guide.
