Deadpool/Wolverine - In Production.

[jo]

Oct 23, 2023 10:52:03 GMT -5 jo said:

This time, greeting a youngster who is a co-Libra -- a Canadian who always wears a red mask






HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Blake's Other Half!

[jo]

[jo]

x.com/DP3_news/status/1717559656359297295?s=20

Deadpool 3 News and Updates
@dp3_news
Shawn Levy talks about Deadpool 3 on Happy Sad Confused podcast. Casting rumors, Ryan Reynolds & Hugh Jackman friendship, Taylor Swift as Dazzler rumor and getting people to do cameos. (Starts around 24:48)



If you don't have time to listen to the hour-long interview, you can cherry-pick and locate the moments when he discusses Real Steel & Deadpool 3, by looking at the bar.

Jo

[jo]

Interesting stuff from the interview --

*Of all his movies, the one that gets the most attention up to now is REAL STEEL. A lot of people asking for a sequel.

*He mentions that Stacey Snider was also involved in Real Stee. That is because former Fox President Stacey Snider used to work with Dreamworks which was the studio that produced Real Steel.

[jo]

[jo]

If you're wondering why Shawn Levy is doing so many interviews... talking too much.

That is his way of promoting Deadpool&Wolverine, or at least keeping it fresh in the minds of people as the fate of filming is still undetermined.

He can do so without being accused of scabbing because both of his guilds (Directors & WGA) are strike-free!

Lol!


Jo

[jo]

Hope this is true!

Variety
@variety
“...The writing is clearly on the wall that the industry shutdown is in its final days,” wrote an IATSE business agent. “We are confident that our members will be returning to work within the next few weeks.”

[jo]

Another evaluation of the ongoing talks --
from Deadline.com

BREAKING NEWS
SAG-AFTRA & Studio CEOs Plan Talks Into Weekend In Hopes Of Reaching Deal

HOME
BUSINESS
BREAKING NEWS
SAG-AFTRA & Studio CEOs Plan Talks Into Weekend In Hopes Of Reaching Deal
By Dominic Patten, Anthony D'Alessandro

October 27, 2023 4:38pm


EXCLUSIVE: SAG-AFTRA and the studios don’t have a deal, but they are planning on talking more.

Any agreement between SAG-AFTRA and the studios to end the 106-day strike by the 160,000-strong guild looks almost certain to not be coming tonight, though the two sides are still in deliberations right now (Update – 5:51 p.m: the talks are now over for the day). However, it’s our understanding that the guild and the AMPTP have agreed that talks between the parties will go into the weekend — Saturday and Sunday, if necessary.


SAG-AFTRA’s Duncan Crabtree-Ireland Is “Cautiously Optimistic” As Two Sides Return To Negotiating Table
Sarah Paulson on picket line
Thousands Of Stars Including Sarah Paulson, Chelsea Handler, Jon Hamm, Daveed Diggs, Christian Slater & Sandra Oh Tell SAG-AFTRA Leadership: “We Would Rather Stay On Strike Than Take A Bad Deal”
Whether those talks will continue at SAG-AFTRA’s Wilshire offices or virtual is still TBD, we hear.

We also hear that the reaction today by AMPTP president Carol Lombardini and the major studio Gang of Four — Disney’s Bob Iger, Netflix‘s Ted Sarandos, Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav and NBCUniversal’s Donna Langley– to the guild’s latest proposals wasn’t all green lights and parking spaces. “Underwhelmed,” was how one source close to the virtual session described it.

Yet, with all parties aware of the stakes at this juncture, “the AMPTP recognizes that there’s some terms there to continue to build on and talk through,” a studio insider states. The Gang of Four were less involved today than this week’s previous two sessions, with Lombardini taking the lead Friday


After shifting away in the last set of renewed negotiations from the revenue sharing demand that had been DOA with the AMPTP for months, SAG-AFTRA on October 11 proposed an approximately 57¢ per subscriber annual charge for the streamers. The notion proved the breaking point for the studios, who who walked out suddenly and suspended talks.

Speaking the next day, Sarandos deemed the proposal “a bridge too far” and “a levy on subscribers.” Noting the percentage proposal was not locked in and open to negotiations. guild president Fran Drescher and chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland threw shade on the co-CEO’s reaction, and he and his C-Suite colleagues taking their ball and going home.

After Iger contacted Crabtree-Ireland on October 21 to re-start talks on October 24, the studios this week put on the table an offer of increased bonuses based on the success of streaming shows and movies and a rise in minimum rates. Using their now ratified deal with the Writers Guild as a roadmap of sorts, the studios had put forth a 7% increase in minimums. In their self-described “comprehensive counter,” offered Friday, SAG-AFTRA shifted its ask from an 11% rise to 9%, sources on both sides tell us.



In response to what has been a largely quiet day as both sides stay huddled, one key source close to talks remarked, “If I don’t hear anything, that’s a good thing, because it means they’re talking.”

Yesterday the vibe in the five-hour face-to-face meeting by those on the studio side echoed what SAG-AFTRA Crabtree-Ireland told Deadline on the pickets, one of “cautious optimism” for a new deal. At the same time, sources on both sides warned about reading too much into that, as major sticking points, like success-based compensation and, to a lesser degree, AI, remained.

Later Thursday night, once talks between the studios bosses and the guild had concluded for the day, an open letter was released with signatures from a slew of prolific actors including Julia Louis Dreyfus, Jon Hamm, Sarah Paulson, Chelsea Handler, Christian Slater, Sandra Oh, Daveed Diggs, Pedro Pascal, Carrie Anne Moss, Leslie Odom, Jr., Lizzy Caplan among several others who told the SAG-AFTRA Negotiating Committee that “We would rather stay on strike than take a bad deal.”

The move, which was very similar to the June letter by a slew of stars that included Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, and Amy Schumer who told SAG brass that they were ready to strike, underscored the slew of members who aren’t apt to make peace with the AMPTP just yet. Last week, a very different zoom call took place with George Clooney, Emma Stone, Jennifer Aniston, Tyler Perry, Scarlett Johansson and more whereby the A-list actors, many of whom are also established producers, were proposing to pay more into union coffers to remove union dues caps. SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher, in an Instagram video on the evening of October 19, respectfully pointed out such a sincere gesture wouldn’t be legal and “does not impact the contract that we’re striking over whatsoever.”



Looking at bleak Q4 results and repeats, many studio sources are anxious that if a deal can’t be reached in the coming weeks then the blow to an entertainment industry that has seen a complete global production stoppage of Hollywood TV and feature films will make at least the first half of 2024 a complete write-off. As many members of the guilds, other unions and those who are vendors to Hollywood have gone six months with no significant work, that industry schedule wipe-out would come in addition to a $6.5 billion drop the California economy has suffered since May of this year, which includes the impact from the now settled writers strike, and the loss of 45,000 entertainment industry jobs

Just today, Disney delayed two big movies on the 2024 theatrical release calendar to 2025: Pixar’s Elio and the live-action version of Snow White starring Gal Gadot and Rachel Zegler. Earlier this week, Paramount pushed Mission: Impossible 8 from next year to 2025. Altogether that’s already an estimated $1.5 billion that will be missing from the global box office next year, not just a minus for studios by movie theaters still recovering from the pandemic.

However, throughout the course of changing mediums in Hollywood history from global TV syndication to the video age, actors have had to always fight for residuals from novel technology changes. To understand how many haven’t been seeing the benefits of streaming, one writer connected to Lucasfilm’s Andor series told Deadline before the WGA strike that they’d make more in their career from the ABC broadcast of a handful of episodes versus the show’s life on Disney+.

Or as recently overwhelmingly re-elected Drescher asked in a 100-day actors strike exclusive column on Deadline: “So, where is the money?”

“Clearly, it’s not in the old residual payment structure designed for linear TV and it’s not in the current residuals compensation for streaming. It is in the pockets of the CEOs and on the balance sheets of the companies,” she said, partially answering her own question.

“Sadly, I’m not at all surprised that our employers, bedazzled by the vast sums of investor money being thrown at their businesses, didn’t consider the performer’s ability to make a living in SVOD while they were negotiating their own rich deals,” the SAG-AFTRA boss added.

And that’s why everybody’s working this weekend, to paraphrase Loverboy’s big hit from the 1980s.

[jo]

Plan of action??

The Wealth Dad
@thewealthdad
Kevin Feige in the MCU all-hands meeting on Monday after #LokiS2 E4 cliffhanger, Daredevil showrunner & creative team updates, and private jetting Ryan Reynolds & Hugh Jackman back to set to finish Deadpool 3 after SAG-AFTRA deal wraps this weekend:

Or just wishful thinking by an overexcited fan?

Let's hope that a deal is reached this weekend, though!


Jo

[jo]

deadline.com/2023/10/actors-strike-deal-near-final-stretch-1235586671/comment-page-3/#comments

Summer’s big starter title, Marvel Studios’ Deadpool 3, is 50% complete and won’t make its first weekend of May release date. The hope was for the Ryan Reynolds-Hugh Jackman movie to resume filming in January, although with each day of the strike, that goal, as well as a new TV season, remain in limbo.

No one expected that they have completed the first half of the movie ( presumably the large outdoor encounters and other filming priorities) including editing. I wonder if the required CGIs and visual effects have also been addressed for the completed scenes?

So I wouldn't put it unthinkable that Shawn Levy is organizing things so they can expedite completion as fast as possible. Also, those supposed social encounters with actors Ryan & Hugh may not be as innocent as the photographs show. They have the support of the studio ( Disney & MCU), the Hollywood set who wants to see them succeed in the coming year (hopefully in early summer) and the excited fanbases!

Jo

[jo]

Deadpool Updates
@deadpoolupdate
·
2h
In ‘DEADPOOL 3’, the TVA will reportedly be recruiting the prime version of each hero to create an army to fight against Kang The Conqueror.

The film is expected to lead directly into ‘AVENGERS: SECRET WARS.’

(via:
@mytimetoshineh
)

[jo]

MyTimeToShineHello
@mytimetoshineh
Deadpool 3 is about the TVA picking up the PRIME versions of each hero to create a multiversal army to fight the Kangs. And they picked Hugh Jackman's Wolverine to recruit but he's not fully on board. That is what the movie is about.

[jo]

And as always - he's the reluctant hero

[jo]

Brian Pollard
@brianboruff
The only thing that sounds good about this, is finally seeing #RyanReynolds and #HughJackman together on screen as #Deadpool and #Wolverine.
Not sure about the storyline though...sounds like
@kevfeige
ruining #Deadpool3 with more TVA nonsense.
Is #MsMinutes going to be in it too?

C'est la vie! Kevin & MCU is the financial sponsor - so, it is logical for the movie to tie up with other related studio projects.

Take it or leave it?? Deadpool said "I'm in!" -- and then thinks of a way to integrate himself fully into the future movies. Yeah, Deadpool

[jo]

Supposedly --

RUMOR! In #Deadpool3 the TVA will collect PRIME versions of each hero to create a multiversal army to fight the Kangs.

And they chose Hugh Jackman's Wolverine to recruit, but he wouldn't be totally on board.

According to
@canwegettoast
, the film is always a film #Deadpool . His antics with Cable's time machine attracted the attention of the TVA and he became their prisoner.

When Deadpool discovers TVA's plan for a multiversal army, it gives him the motivation to escape and try to convince Hugh Jackman's Wolverine to come with him.

[jo]

LOL!
How did Hugh take the news that he will be wearing the iconic Wolverine question --

*Shawn sharing the moment!

*Clip is about another movie...at 4'20", the Jackman reaction again

[jo]

Post Cred Pod
@postcredpod
·
1h
Shawn Levy on 'Logan' being canon in #Deadpool3 and remaining respectful of the beloved film 🎙️

Full interview dropping soon 👀

“I have always said that I can’t wait for Deadpool 3 to come out because all I want to do is give interviews alongside Ryan where we talk about our reverence for the movie Logan,” Levy explained.

“Logan is canon. We love Logan. That happened. I want the world to know, as the producer and director, all of us share a deep love and respect for Logan, every aspect of how it’s crafted, and all the events that take place.”

[jo]

The way things are going, the main interest seems to be all about Wolverine

No one asks what is the story of Deadpool in this movie


Shawn is doing all the promo -- the actors are still on strike. Sneaky

[jo]

From koimoic.com --

Deadpool 3 director Shawn Levy finally broke his silence about the Ryan Reynolds & Hugh Jackman starrer's title. Read on!
By Ankita Mukherjee -November 1, 2023

'Deadpool 3 vs Wolverine' Or 'Deadpool 3 With Wolvie': Shawn Levy Teases About Ryan Reynolds & Hugh Jackman Starrer's Title!

Did Deadpool 3 Finally Gets A Title? Shawn Levy Breaks Silence & Says “Boy, It’s Tough One” ( Photo Credit – Wikipedia ; IMDb )


It was huge news when it was first announced that Hugh Jackman‘s Wolverine would be collaborating with Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool in the third movie of the franchise. Since then, we have been waiting with bated breath for an update on the movie or the release date and so on, but nothing came in because of the ongoing SAG-AFTRA Hollywood strike.

Now, while we still wait for the other details, the director, Shawn Levy, has opened up about the title of the movie. It’s interesting as well as disappointing at the same time, as the director finds it quite challenging to narrow down to one name that will fit the massiveness of Wolverine and the subtle sarcasm of Deadpool. Scroll to find out why!


In a recent interview with Wired, Shawn Levy talked about a lot of things, including naming Deadpool 3’s title. Breaking his silence about the same, he said, “No, there’s no title yet. I sometimes refer to it as ‘Deadpool versus Wolverine’ or ‘Deadpool and Wolverine’ or ‘Deadpool 3 With Wolvie’—we’ve got a few titles we’ve been bandying about, but boy, it’s a tough one.” The director further opened up about when they are planning to release the movie and revealed, “We have an idea of when we’re desperately hoping to come out, but it’s all dependent on the resolution of the strikes.”


When asked if he ever had a chat with the Marvel boss regarding Deadpool being ‘R-Rated,’ the director said, ‘F*ck yes’ and shared that not only Kevin Feige but Marvel and Disney have also supported him in portraying ‘Deadpool-ian, audacious, R-rated tone’ in the movie. Shawn Levy further added, “Some of the jokes are dirty, some of them are cultural observations, but that’s what we love about Deadpool, that he knows he’s in a movie, even though the stakes are real.”

He further shared, “Our movie is very loyal to that DNA too, with tremendous Marvel and Disney support, in making fun of and being self-aware about everything, including themselves.”

[jo]

[jo]

[jo]

DiscussingFilm
@discussingfilm
·
23h
Shawn Levy says ‘DEADPOOL 3’ doesn’t have a final title yet.

“I sometimes refer to it as ‘Deadpool VS Wolverine’ or ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ or ‘Deadpool 3 With Wolvie’. We’ve got a few titles we’ve been bandying about.”

(Source: wired.com/story/shawn-levy-deadpool-3-stranger-things-star-wars-netflix/)

My suggestion ( made in jest -LOL)

JoAB
@joab46466753
·
5h
Replying to
@discussingfilm

WOLVERINE RETURNS
("deadpool 3")
🤩😍🤩

[jo]

From Wired - Long interview with Shawn Levy :

Taylor Swift, Star Wars, Stranger Things, and Deadpool Have One Man in Common



BY ANGELA WATERCUTTER

BACKCHANNEL
OCT 31, 2023 6:00 AM

Taylor Swift, Star Wars, Stranger Things, and Deadpool Have One Man in Common
What exactly makes a Shawn Levy project? One thing’s for sure, the director is a hell of an entertainer.
Shawn Levy in spotlight
PHOTOGRAPH: EVELYN FREJA

When I meet Shawn Levy on an August day in Brooklyn, I expect him to be sweating. Why? For one reason, it’s sticky-humid outside, and I’m dripping like a swamp creature. The other is that the big blockbuster Levy has been filming these past few months, Deadpool 3, might not wrap in time to hit its 2024 release date, on account of the Hollywood actors strike.

The Big Interview
Taylor Swift Star Wars 'Stranger Things' and Deadpool Have One Man in Common
Read more deep, weird, smart conversations with the most important people in our world.
Levy is not sweating. Well, his manly hands are, but that’s only because—as he takes pains to assure me—he has just washed them in the restroom. No other reason for the dampness, he adds, smiling slyly. Gross.

Perhaps this is to be expected, coming from a director of such juvenile delights as Night at the Museum and Free Guy, his movie about a self-aware NPC (played by Ryan Reynolds) that became a surprise mid-pandemic hit. Levy is the big kid of entertainment—one entering, it seems, a kind of dirty-dad-joke era. As we chat, he tells me that directing a Deadpool movie, and specifically being around Reynolds as the Merc with a Mouth, has caused him to start working (a little) blue, both on set and off. See: that handwashing joke. “Holy shit. I am disgusting,” he says. “I’ll make jokes sometimes, and my wife and daughters are like, ‘Who are you?’ I just scream, ‘Blame Ryan!’”

As scapegoats go, beloved actor Ryan Reynolds isn’t a bad one. Levy, wearing a loose navy T-shirt and jeans, also comes off as so downright earnest, so Canadian, his shifts into R-rated territory feel less icky than refreshing. Not that Levy has ever been the type to stay in one lane. His new project, premiering November 2 on Netflix, is a four-part adaptation of Anthony Doerr’s Pulitzer Prize–winning World War II novel, All the Light We Cannot See; it promises to be pretty much the opposite of Deadpool 3. He has also made robo-smashfests (Real Steel) and romcoms (Date Night). And the ’80s throwback Stranger Things, of course, which he executive produces alongside the Duffer brothers and often directs.

Levy opens our conversation by telling me that he’s a musical theater nerd who became the man he is today thanks to summers spent at the paradigmatic theater-kid performing arts camp Stagedoor Manor. It shows. The man is an animated (but not sweaty) ball of energy. He has just wrapped the photo shoot for our interview at a hip warehouse studio across the street, and, as a first salvo, he remarks on the trendiness of the coffee shop I’ve chosen. “The likes of which this middle-aged fucking father of four” has never seen, he says. “Whatever neighborhood we’re in, let the reader know this is a bastion of cool.” Levy might not think he belongs here—but somehow, as the guy who always knows how to give the people what they want, he fits right in.




Angela Watercutter: How was the photo shoot just now? I always wonder what it’s like for directors to be directed.


Shawn Levy: I was acting a lot in high school and college, and the whole reason I started directing is I didn’t like having to feel self-conscious. Even at 22 I was like, “Oh, that’s going to keep me from being great.”


You must be referring, in part, to the time you spent at Stagedoor Manor, the summer theater camp that also produced Natalie Portman and Sebastian Stan.

I didn’t just go to Stagedoor Manor. I was partially defined by Stagedoor Manor.


Tell me.

On day two, I got cast as Danny Zuko in Grease. I’ve long held a theory that what made me audacious enough to think I might make it as a Hollywood director was having been cast as Danny Zuko at 13.


So how stoked are you about the Stranger Things stage play about to open in London?

It’s thrilling for the Duffer brothers and all involved, but I think it might be extra thrilling for me because I am a theater geek. This is my worlds colliding.

These things do happen when you make a hit show, of course.

You have to remember, when we made Stranger Things we had no idea if anyone would watch it. Back when Netflix didn’t tell anyone how many people watched, there was no metric except cultural noise. The weekend it opened, I’m seeing social media light up. I called Netflix and said, “You know, I think this is gonna be something. Maybe we should think about merchandise and other aspects.” I remember the answer from the Netflix exec was, “With all due respect, we’re in the subscription business.”

Whoops.

That was how unprepared all of us, including Netflix, were for the franchise that this would become.


That thing you mentioned about not getting data from Netflix, is that still an issue? Or do you get a little more intel when you’re the guy who gave them Stranger Things?

I might get a little bit more inside scoop on the data, but not much, to be honest. When Stranger Things 2 premiered, they still didn’t announce data. I was just getting this sense in the nooks and crannies of the unsaid that we were more than popular, that we were record-setting for that corporation. There were very honest conversations where I implored them to share information with us, and those conversations led to “how about we share it with the world.” I’m not saying I’m responsible for that data sharing, but it’s been fascinating being at Netflix for a decade now to see the evolution of a culture.

Right. Now anyone can see the Netflix Top 10 anytime. Having that vantage, and having made studio movies and Netflix series, what’s your take on the streaming wars?


As a producer and director who does comedy and drama, film and television, long form and short form, I’m overjoyed that one form of consumption hasn’t obliterated the other. But I’ve been at Netflix long enough now to see there needs to be a more rigorous oversight of the output.

Meaning shelving movies like Batgirl to save money?

Listen, there’s no question we’ve made original films for Hulu and Disney+ that have been removed from those platforms. Rosaline with Kaitlyn Dever for Hulu. A beautiful original film called Crater that was removed from Disney+ within two months of premiering. But all of us who work in storytelling—an endeavor that’s now referred to as content creation, but I refuse to subscribe to that lexicon—are in some ways passengers to an evolution of culture and how people consume stories and how companies have to balance their priorities, many of which are fiscal. I’m a grown-up. I get that.

So are the streaming wars over?

I think we are thankfully beyond the debate of whether it will be streaming or theatrical. I think it will clearly be streaming and theatrical.




Speaking of which, what’s the status of Deadpool 3? You were about to shoot in London when you came back to New York, right?

No, I was shooting. Just to say the obvious, my passionate hope is that by the time anyone reads this article these two strikes will be over, and we as an industry will be back to work, including Hugh [Jackman, who is reprising his role as Wolverine] and Ryan and me and our several hundred crew members who were in the literal middle of filming Deadpool. I’m really hopeful that we get to a legitimately fair, equitable resolution soon.

You seem passionate about it.

I see how brutal the toll is, not simply for the actors and writers on strike, but for the ecosystem of a creative industry where many thousands of crew members in every aspect of the filmmaking process can’t go to work.




Sounds like you would also like to get back to work. Where will you go when the strikes end?

Within weeks of the strikes ending we will be back in the United Kingdom shooting the second half of Deadpool.





Emma Corrin was talking recently about being cast in Deadpool 3 and how it was an “absolute mindfuck” to be introduced to the secrecy of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We’ve all heard the jokes about the Marvel snipers who will shoot if you reveal plot details, but it got me thinking: The first two Deadpool movies were made before Disney completed its acquisition of 21st Century Fox. How big of a deal is it that yours is the first Deadpool movie that’s being made sort of under the MCU banner?

It’s epic.



Yeah?

That privilege and expectation was not lost on Ryan and me. We spent months working on and honing the story and screenplay in advance of the writers strike. I’m wary of spoilers—

You must spoil.

I’ll simply say the whole challenge and North Star priority on this movie was to embrace and take advantage of membership in the MCU without sacrificing or abandoning the raw, gritty, grounded DNA of Deadpool. It’s very much still the Deadpool we all love, but with many new opportunities.


Does that include cameos?

It sure might. Thank you internet for doing my work for me.

Can you confirm any of them?

If Marvel didn’t come assassinate me, Ryan Reynolds would. Ryan and I spend a lot of time together in real life, scrolling Twitter and reading the daily rumors. I feel like the number of cameos in Deadpool 3 is rumored to be in the eighties, and it ranges from Taylor Swift to Jennifer Garner. I love that there’s so much misinformation out there, no one can tell what might be real.




You already have the biggest cameo: Hugh Jackman.

It can never be overlooked that the dominant characteristic of this movie is that we’re the lucky ones who get Wolverine. That has been a joy unlike any I’ve ever had. As someone who grew up on Greek myths and loved the iconic scale of that storytelling, I love that. It sounds very nerdy and super gee-whiz and rosy-eyed, but if you saw some of the pictures on my phone …





Show me.

Only if they’re off the record. You couldn’t even describe them.



Shit. OK. [Out of fear and human weakness, I don’t press further. Too great a burden.] Did you end up in any sort of hangups with Marvel? Like, with the content? Let me put it this way: Can you still be R-rated?

Fuck yes.


Good.

Not only have Kevin Feige and Marvel and Disney supported this extremely Deadpool-ian, audacious, R-rated tone, they’ve also supported our super meta, self-referential self-awareness. Some of the jokes are dirty, some of them are cultural observations, but that’s what we love about Deadpool, that he knows he’s in a movie, even though the stakes are real. Our movie is very loyal to that DNA too, with tremendous Marvel and Disney support, in making fun of and being self-aware about everything, including themselves.



Including the Taylor Swift cameo that is definitely happening.

Including the Taylor Swift cameo that this interview neither confirms nor denies.



I had to try.

Sure you did.


Perfect segue: What’s up with your Star Wars movie? Is there a script?

There’s an idea. We have been frozen since the writers strike. We’re stalled.


At least it’s still happening.

The last few years have been a little surreal, but also quite thrilling because all the goals that I had and semi given up on are coming true. I always wanted to make a period piece drama, then I got the rights to All the Light We Cannot See. I’m doing Deadpool. And I got the call from [Lucasfilm president] Kathleen Kennedy, who basically said, “I see what you’re doing, particularly Free Guy and The Adam Project, both of which have a certain sense of audience delight and playfulness that many of the best Star Wars movies have had.”

Is that what she asked for in a new Star Wars?

She was very clear that it was open terrain as far as subject matter and theme and timeline. She was willing to bet on my interests as long as it felt like a Shawn Levy movie.

Do you know where your movie will take place in the larger Star Wars timeline? Pre-Skywalker, post-Skywalker, etc. …

I like being alive, so I won’t say more.


You mentioned the idea of something being a “Shawn Levy movie,” and I’m wondering where something like All the Light fits into that. It’s not exactly sci-fi or comics or a family comedy.

I often make jokes in my edit room with my editor, who has been with me for almost 20 years. We’d be watching a harrowing emotional scene set in war-torn France in the early 1940s, and I’d sit on the couch and say, [imitates movie announcer voice] “From the director of Cheaper by the Dozen and Big Fat Liar comes a different kind of comedy—this one with Nazis.” I’m aware that the arc of my career is very broad.



With so many streaming services and studios and formats now, does everyone in Hollywood kind of need to be a polymath? Does everyone need a movie, and a TV show, and a producer credit on a documentary?

I think it’s dangerous to be only one thing. That applies to life too. For years now I’ve bounced between comedy and drama, horror and farce, big movies and small movies. The nature of the culture now is so far-ranging, and it’s like there’s no one river. I’m not much of a nature expert, but that might be the right word.





Sure.

I don’t know if you’ll use this—it sounds more name-droppy than I intend, but it’s on topic. When I did Real Steel with Hugh Jackman, Steven Spielberg was one of the producers. He’s remarkable in a lot of ways he’s not famous for. Just an in-the-trenches collaborator. One day he leaned over to me and said, “You know, you direct like you’re sitting in the audience.” That stopped me in my tracks. Because he found a way, in one sentence, to articulate the core of how I operate.




So are you friends with Steven now?

I’d love to tell you we have coffee every Friday, but sadly, no. We’re both busy. But I’m in touch with him, and he’s always very generous. When I was making Real Steel, he was making War Horse and still watching every frame of my dailies, every night while he was making his own movie. He would send me hand-drawn storyboards, talking about, “Hey, maybe instead of going from a master shot to a close-up …” And he’s literally sending me iPhone pictures of his drawings. That was remarkable. I’ve always tried to be available for other directors like Steven was for me.




Reminds me of the famous story of Spielberg finishing Jurassic Park while starting Schindler’s List.

When people point out, as you have, that I’m premiering an adaptation of a Pulitzer Prize–winning World War II drama less than a year before I’ll be premiering Deadpool and Wolverine, I’m like “Yeah, that’s a pretty big pendulum swing, but it ain’t Schindler’s List and Jurassic Park.”




You said “Deadpool and Wolverine.” Is that the actual title of Deadpool 3?




No, there’s no title yet. I sometimes refer to it as “Deadpool versus Wolverine” or “Deadpool and Wolverine” or “Deadpool 3 With Wolvie”—we’ve got a few titles we’ve been bandying about, but boy, it’s a tough one.



I ask because with the strikes and all, the release dates keep moving around, and I swear at one point it was going to come out the same weekend as Captain America: Brave New World.

No, no.


That changed, yeah?

I think what you’re referring to is that first big weekend in May. But I think they moved Captain America, which finished shooting. Now we have an idea of when we’re desperately hoping to come out, but it’s all dependent on the resolution of the strikes.





That sort of kills the game I was going to play with you, which was to ask you what your Barbenheimer portmanteau would be for Deadpool and Cap.

Captain Pool?



Right, or like Dead America, which is terrible.

Terrible, but also profound. But no, I can’t imagine Marvel would do that to themselves. We’re definitely not on the same date. There’s just a lot of pieces on the chessboard.



I interviewed Ryan for Free Guy a few years ago, and he mentioned that you two would always be working on the script on the train to and from set, even as you were filming. Is that something you’re also doing on this movie?

What we stumbled into on Free Guy is a creative soul brotherhood, a creative intimacy, a simpatico—that’s the word. That developed and deepened on The Adam Project. The same has been true on Deadpool.


I’m now going to ask a question that I pretty much have to ask everyone these days: How do you feel about AI?

I feel like we’re living in a historic moment in which we literally cannot anticipate the pervasive impact of this technology. I’m certainly daunted and anxious, but I also recognize that it’s both unavoidable and unknowable. Which is why the issues around how it will be used are hard to even navigate.


Do you feel it’s coming for your job?

I maybe naively think the very nature of art and artistic expression is human and defined by things other than thought, facts, and ideas. They’re defined by feeling. In that regard, I’m fairly confident I’ll have a job a few decades from now.


I do want to see what an AI trained on Deadpool would do, though.

I will say this: Being around and ingesting data has an impact even on us humans. I was the family comedy director for many years. I have four daughters. I’m Canadian. I’m pretty clean, I don’t work blue.


Now you’re disgusting! In what ways?

Sexually-tinged dialog. The pansexual openness of Deadpool is delightful.


I’m actually glad you brought that up. When it comes to queer representation in comic book movies, it seems like Deadpool was ahead of all that.

I couldn’t agree more. I love that Deadpool is so audaciously ahead-of-his-time fluid.


It seems even more revolutionary now that schools in some places in the US are trying to ban queer books.

Imagine being scared of ideas. That’s weak.


There’s been talk of a Free Guy sequel. Is that something that’s been floated?

It’s been floated, it floats, because Ryan and I love that movie. I’d say it’s a big maybe, but boy it would sure make us happy.


Are you going to end up pulling a Spielberg and working on multiple things at once?

I will be watching dailies of Stranger Things while I’m making Deadpool; I’ll race to Atlanta to direct part of Stranger Things, and then on to Star Wars after that.


So Stranger Things 5 is far along?

The writing wasn’t complete when the strike started. We’re supposed to start filming in June, and we are on hot standby ever since. It’s killing us, because these fucking kids, they will not slow down the aging process. I beg them to do so, but apparently AI can’t do that. Actually, AI could do that, just not in real life. Only onscreen.

[jo]

You already have the biggest cameo: Hugh Jackman.

It can never be overlooked that the dominant characteristic of this movie is that we’re the lucky ones who get Wolverine. That has been a joy unlike any I’ve ever had. As someone who grew up on Greek myths and loved the iconic scale of that storytelling, I love that. It sounds very nerdy and super gee-whiz and rosy-eyed, but if you saw some of the pictures on my phone …

[jo]

You said “Deadpool and Wolverine.” Is that the actual title of Deadpool 3?

No, there’s no title yet. I sometimes refer to it as “Deadpool versus Wolverine” or “Deadpool and Wolverine” or “Deadpool 3 With Wolvie”—we’ve got a few titles we’ve been bandying about, but boy, it’s a tough one.



I ask because with the strikes and all, the release dates keep moving around, and I swear at one point it was going to come out the same weekend as Captain America: Brave New World.

No, no.


That changed, yeah?

I think what you’re referring to is that first big weekend in May. But I think they moved Captain America, which finished shooting. Now we have an idea of when we’re desperately hoping to come out, but it’s all dependent on the resolution of the strikes.