The history of this project started in a very depressing note. First off, this along with the X-Men movies are (currently not owned by Marvel Films) owned by 20th Century Fox. And Fox has had a bad reputation of treating their properties, probably the same way Tagalog producers treat mainstream cinema; everything is bent on making a profit and has little consideration for real quality. And a couple of years ago, the X-Men films had taken a very shitty dip in quality; what with films such as X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine which ruined the integrity of this mutant superhero franchise.
In May 2009, Ryan Reynolds portrayed the character Deadpool in "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" which was not only one of the worst superhero movies ever made; it also did not give the portrayal of Deadpool justice. Later, Around 2010, producer Lauren Shuler Donner wanted the film to reboot the character of Deadpool, ignoring the version in X-Men Origins: Wolverine and including attributes that the character has in the comics, such as breaking the fourth wall. But for such a long time, the Deadpool project just sat on the shelves, and was greatly ignored by the studio executives. Sure there were talks to make it. But the studio did not give it a green light.
Not until somebody did cleverly had to do something that made ripples to bring the project back to motion. In July 2014, the test footage for the film, which had been created with visual effects in 2012 and starred Reynolds through motion capture, was leaked online. Blur Studio, the company that created the test footage, subsequently released it officially. The footage received an overwhelmingly enthusiastic response online, and sent geeks around the world crying for a Deadpool movie. In September 2014, Fox finally gave Deadpool a greenlight. Reynolds "100 percent" attributed Fox's greenlighting of the film for production to the test footage leak, stating, after being asked who had leaked it, "I would have, if I had known it would have caused that!...Now, we get to make the movie. We don’t get to make it with the budget of most superhero movies, but we get to make it the way we want to make it"
Writer Rhett Reese admitted that about $7 million was deducted from the budget ostensibly last-minute, forcing further rewrites.
Tim Miller, who made his directorial debut with "Deadpool" has been credited by both Reynolds and motion capture supervisor Greg LaSalle with making efficient use of the budget, for example waiting to work on the CGI for Colossus until after the film was edited, cutting down on the cost of post-production.
Over the years of development, writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick wrote additional versions of the script, including a PG-13 version. But Deadpool was not your run of the mill superhero character. He was actually more of super-villain, as he was originally concieved, and the stories he was involved in were all very violent and very irreverent. It was inevitable for a proper Deadpool movie to be R-rated. And so it did take a stand and embrace that R-rating.
Now, fast forward to the present; the very low studio perceptions had been demolished by the massive success of the film. Deadpool set a new US record for the biggest single-day February opening – easily topping last year’s Fifty Shades of Grey. Deadpool also broke the record for the biggest single-day R-rated debut, set back in 2003 by The Matrix Reloaded. Here's the list of former title-holders, from Box Office Mojo:
Largest February Opening Weekend: $85.1 million; Fifty Shades of Grey
Largest 4-Day President’s Day Weekend: $93 million; Fifty Shades of Grey
Largest R-Rated Opening Weekend: $91.7 million; The Matrix Reloaded
Largest R-Rated Comic Adaptation Opening: $70.8 million; 300
Largest Winter Opening Weekend: $89.2 million; American Sniper
Largest Opening for 20th Century Fox: $108.4 million; Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
"Deadpool" continues to destroy records, recently passing $200 million in domestic grosses in the US box office. And recently, overjoyed with all the success, Fox has greenlighted the sequel. And yes, it will feature the character Cable, and will obviously be bigger. Let's just hope that it will maintain its kick-ass-good quality. "Deadpool" has now changed the game in Hollywood. Now, studios may have realized that an adult-themed super-hero movie is something that could be very good for profit. Finally, we might have that proper R-rating for something like Wolverine or Lobo... but hopefully, it will not mean that they will just freely abuse that R-rating standards inappropriately for subjects such as Superman, and Spider-man, which might stray off too far from its source material.
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