Tim Miller helmed the first Deadpool movie
The director of the first Deadpool film has revealed the pay packet he took home for creating the flick that kicked off the foul-mouthed franchise.
Whatever you think of the Deadpool films, the first one was undeniably a bit of a miracle.
The movie, which had been written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, was in production purgatory before test footage leaked of Ryan Reynolds as the masked fourth-wall-breaking superhero.
Emma Corrin on Deadpool 3 cameos
Credit: LADbible
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While Reynolds has always hinted he may have been the one to leak it, it has never been revealed.
The reaction to the footage was overwhelming and the first movie was directed by Tim Miller.
Miller did not return for the second or third films, but is still proud of his work
When asked about the film, the director told Collider: “You know what I feel? Nothing but pride. I mean, I feel like every time I walk down the aisles out there on the floor of CCXP and I see all these Deadpool figurines, I think they wouldn’t be here if we hadn’t made that film.
“I feel uniquely fortunate that I could be part of it.
Miller directed the first Deadpool, but didn’t come back for 2 or the duo film with Wolverine (Laura Cavanaugh/FilmMagic via Getty Images)
“Then, then my second thought is, I wish my director deals had a piece of the merchandising so that I could get some money from all of that.
“You guys might not know, but it’s not really a profitable thing to be a first-time director in Hollywood, and I’ll tell you exactly.
“I got $225,000 [£179,550] to direct Deadpool. I know it sounds like a lot of money, but for two years of work, that’s not a ton of money. Not that I’m not grateful, I’m f*cking grateful, that’s the way it is because you’re supposed to when you’re a first-time director.
“My agent said ‘Dude, you make more on an episode of The Walking Dead!’”
While $225,000 does sound a lot, the news left fans shocked when placed among the context of how much the film, and its subsequent sequels that don’t happen without the first, made.
None of this would be a reality without the first film (Disney)
The first film made over $600 million, with the resulting flicks making $585 million and just over $1 billion.
This doesn’t even factor in the mountains of cash that Deadpool will have earned Marvel in merch.
Fans on Twitter were shocked to find this out.
One estimated he made roughly 60k a year from the film, tweeting: “$112,500 a year minus tax minus 10% to agent and/or manager minus 10% to a lawyer and you end up with (roughly) 60k a year making something that is going to make billions. the reality of Hollywood”.
The director has thankfully gone on to maintain a level of success that makes Deadpool seem like less of a fluke.
He created Love, Death and Robots, a Netflix anthology show with a score of 86 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and 8.4/10 on IMDb.Featured Image Credit: Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images for Prime Video/20th Century studios
Topics: Deadpool, Film, Marvel, TV, TV and Film, Ryan Reynolds, Deadpool & Wolverine
Michael Slavin
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Updated 10:33 29 Jul 2024 GMT+1Published 17:52 28 Jul 2024 GMT+1
Deadpool and Wolverine fans left disappointed after finding out truth about opening scene
Say ‘Bye Bye Bye’ to what you thought was real
While the Olympics might be dominating most of our screens right now, the latest Marvel film has also been drawing plenty of viewers since landing in cinemas on Thursday (25 July).
Yep, Deadpool and Wolverine has finally arrived, packed with savage jokes, ‘wild’ cameos and hidden roles.
Deadpool and Wolverine trailer
Credit: Marvel
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And the movie’s opening minutes sets a record that’s higher than the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film series combined thanks to really pushing its R-rating.
Filled with swear words and brutality, Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman certainly open this third Deadpool with an absolute bang. However, fans have still been left a little disappointed after finding out the truth about it.
The movie opens with some serious moves. (Marvel)
During this record-breaking opening scene, fans see Deadpool throwing some mad shapes with some serious full-out choreography to the iconic NSYNC song ‘Bye Bye Bye’.
It’s not the first time we’ve seen Reynolds’ red-clad superhero having a little jig in the films, only it’s not actually Reynolds.
I mean, you might not be totally surprised by that, but the star had a dance double for the Marvel films, with professional dancer Nick Pauley donning the suit.
The dancer has previously appeared in music videos for the likes of Katy Perry and worked with Doja Cat.
Nick Pauley is the man behind the moves. (Instagram/@nickfpauley)
In disbelief, fans took to X to say: “I thought it was Ryan who danced Bye Bye Bye so well,” as many agreed they were ‘hoping’ it was really Reynolds.
One did note: “It was too good to be true for Reynolds to dance so good.”
As another simply put: “F**k I knew it wasn’t Ryan.”
Someone else commented: “Oh come on, I thought it was Ryan! Thought he learned it from the Best… Stray Kids.”
Pauley took to Instagram to celebrate the film’s premiere as he said the secret had ‘been so hard to keep’.
He wrote: “I can’t believe I have the honour of being @vancityreynolds ‘dance’ double for the opening scene of the entire movie!!! Like what?!? What is life?
“I went to the premiere on Monday and watching the footage back was pretty surreal. I hadn’t remembered what I freestyled in between the choreography, and it was hilarious to watch it back and be like ‘oh my God now I remember doing that’.”
Pauley thanked the team for their ‘encouragement and enthusiasm’ as fans said it was ‘the best opening for a superhero movie’ they’d ever seen.
Many agreed: “You don’t know how much I enjoyed that scene Bro, it is the best intro to a movie in history. It was making an intro, not a masterpiece, you are the best Bro.”
Deadpool and Wolverine is in cinemas now.Featured Image Credit: Marvel
Topics: Film, Marvel, Ryan Reynolds, TV and Film, Deadpool, Deadpool & Wolverine
Jess Battison
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Updated 15:10 6 Aug 2024 GMT+1Published 15:11 6 Aug 2024 GMT+1
Ryan Reynolds made brutally honest comment about role he hated while at the premiere for the movie
The actor was pretty honest about his thoughts on the movie
Ryan Reynolds made a brutally honest comment about a role that he played many years ago.
Reynolds fans will know that the actor has so far starred in four Deadpool movies, but he described one of them as ‘a very frustrating experience’.
Reynolds at the premiere of X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Jeff Vespa/WireImage)
Almost a decade ago, Reynolds, now 47, was at the X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie premiere when a reporter asked him about whether he would like to return to the role he played in the film, moving forward.
“Absolutely, the character I’ve wanted to do forever. This is only a brief introduction,” he said.
“I think the idea is to spin off.”
And right he was, of course, as there’s now been three movies – Deadpool, Deadpool 2 and most recently, Deadpool & Wolverine.
Ryan Reynolds sends Rob McElhenney hilarious birthday message
Credit: X/@vancityreynolds
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Reynolds also spoke about his character in the Origins movie being played with his mouth sewn shut.
“It’s pretty awful when your mouth is sewn up, it makes lunch a sad place,” he added to the reporter.
Reynolds later elaborated on his feelings about the movie, explaining that he was essentially forced to do the film, despite issues with the script.
“It was a very frustrating experience,” Reynolds recalled to Entertainment Weekly. “I was already attached to the Deadpool movie. We hadn’t at that point written a script yet.
“[Origins] came along and it was sort of like, ‘Play Deadpool in this movie or we’ll get someone else to.’ And I just said, ‘I’ll do it, but it’s the wrong version. Deadpool isn’t correct in it.’”
Reynolds added that at the time, they were in the middle of a Hollywood writers’ strike, which took place between 2007 and 2008.
“So we were in the middle of production, there were no writers, no anything. Every line I have in the movie I just wrote myself because in the script we had, it said, ‘Wade Wilson shows up, talks really fast.’ I was like, ‘What?! What am I supposed to do with that?’” Reynolds added.
Reynolds spoke about the role in X-Men Origins: Wolverine (20th Century Fox)
The franchise has still been a huge success, with the much-awaited Deadpool & Wolverine hitting cinemas last month.
And it seems Reynolds definitely had fun filming this one.
Reynolds and co-star Hugh Jackman – who have been mates for over 20 years – said they had a lot of fun together on set, while Reynolds admitted that that he felt ‘sad’ when filming was over.
“Deadpool is one of those characters who’s very unpredictable,” he told PA News Agency.
“I don’t know if I could speak specifically to that style, other than to say that I feel more free when I play the character than almost anything else in the world.
“I recognise how rare that air is to breathe. And on our last day of shooting, I don’t think I’ve ever been more sad or depressed to be walking off of a film set every day.”Featured Image Credit: YouTube/20th Century Fox
Topics: Celebrity, Ryan Reynolds, TV and Film, Deadpool, Deadpool & Wolverine, Marvel
Lucy Devine
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Published 16:42 13 Dec 2024 GMT
Tom Cruise was paid highest ever amount for a single movie role and it’s a mind blowing amount of money
There’s a reason why he’s paid the big bucks
Nobody has been paid more for their appearance in a single movie than Tom Cruise was in Top Gun: Maverick.
It makes some sense, Cruise is one of the most recognisable movie stars of all time and you couldn’t really bring back the Top Gun franchise for the first time in almost four decades without him.
No Cruise, no Maverick, and without Maverick you can hardly have Top Gun: Maverick can you?
Top Gun: Maverick – Official Trailer
Credit: Paramount Pictures
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According to Variety, the upfront salary Cruise commanded for Top Gun: Maverick was somewhere in the region of $12 million to $14 million (£9.4 million to £11 million).
However, the monetary masterstroke came when Cruise also secured an agreement to get a portion of the ‘first-dollar gross’ from the film, meaning that he would be getting a portion of the movie’s total box office take rather than the profit afterwards.
The key with these mega-payouts tends to be negotiating a percentage of proceeds from the film to either replace or supplement the salary that goes along with starring in it.
Having seen the film, Tom Cruise earning $100 million for it sounds fair enough. (Karwai Tang/WireImage)
If the movie does well, then you’re going to be quids in. If not, then you’ll be wishing you asked for cash upfront.
Plenty of other actors have taken a percentage of the proceeds from movies they’ve been in, but those deals are generally for a film’s profits so the actors get a chunk of whatever is left over once production costs and the marketing budget have been paid off.
For example, Jim Carrey negotiated a 36.2 percent cut for his part in the 2008 movie Yes Man, which meant he needed the movie to make a profit for him to be paid.
The deal Cruise secured meant that even if Top Gun: Maverick hadn’t made a profit he would still have earned a significant sum from the box office on top of his millions of dollars in salary.
In the end, Top Gun: Maverick brought in revenues of over $1.4 billion (£1.1 billion), meaning that Cruise was estimated to have been paid more than $100 million (£79 million) for his part in the film.
He ended up being worth the fee. (Paramount)
In total, there have only been five movies (and six productions) where an actor earned more than $100 million for being involved with them, and three of them are for Tom Cruise.
He signed good deals to make money from the backend of Mission Impossible 2 and War of the Worlds, so they sit among Top Gun: Maverick as his most financially successful films.
Meanwhile, Will Smith earned about $100 million for his part in Men In Black 3 while Bruce Willis got a portion of the profits from The Sixth Sense to bring his earnings up.
Keanu Reeves technically holds the record for the most money earned on a single production with $156 million (£123 million), but not for a single movie since The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions were made together.
It’s not a bad little earner, this showbusiness thing.Featured Image Credit: Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Paramount Pictures/Paramount Pictures
Topics: Tom Cruise, Top Gun, TV and Film, Money
Joe Harker
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Updated 15:50 26 Jul 2024 GMT+1Published 15:47 26 Jul 2024 GMT+1
Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively’s kids make Hollywood debut with hidden role in Deadpool and Wolverine
Two of Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively’s kids have a hidden cameo appearance in Deadpool & Wolverine
*Minor spoiler warning for Deadpool and Wolverine*
With Deadpool and Wolverine now out, I think there was one question probably ringing out in the heads of everyone watching – “Wait, how the f**k did they hide all these cameos?”
The film has a truly wild collection of cameos from some of the biggest names around, including massive Marvel returns.
But don’t worry, we’ll save that for another day.
Deadpool and Wolverine promo featuring Lady Deadpool.
Credit: Marvel
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One sequence, however, that was seemingly full of cameos, but harder to figure out who is who, is the Deadpool corp arriving and getting in a scrap with Deadpool and Logan.
This includes Lady Deadpool, which was widely speculated to be Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds himself, or even Taylor Swift.
Two of the Deadpool variants in the film, however, are Kidpool and Babypool.
Kidpool has a few lines and Babypool… well is a baby, so they just kind of make noises at them.
There was a great deal of speculation of Kidpool being played by Percy Jackson star Walker Scobell, who’d previously worked with Shawn Levy and Reynolds on The Adam Project, but he didn’t end up appearing.
Lady Deadpool was long rumoured to be played by Blake Lively. (Marvel Studios)
Instead, it was a family affair, as if you look in the credits Kidpool and Babypool were played by Blake Lively and Reynolds’s kids.
Kidpool is played by their seven-year-old Inez Reynolds, whilst Babypool is played by Olin Reynolds, who is just one.
Bad luck for James and Betty Reynolds, their other two kids, as they clearly didn’t make the cut.
They are not the only members of the family to make a cameo though.
After much speculation, the credits do confirm that Lively does indeed voice Lady Deadpool – though she did not provide the body work for the role and her face isn’t shown.
Lively and Reynolds with James and Inez Reynolds back in 2016. (Matt Winkelmayer via Getty Images)
One fan posted on X to say: “Blake Lively being Lady Deadpool is hilarious though I wish it was Taylor Swift.”
As someone who writes articles about films for a living, I also wish it had been Taylor Swift.
While another fan said: “Blake Lively was Lady Deadpool omfggggg.”
A third fan went as far as to call for a spin-off starring Blake Lively.
They said: “Yeah, I’m going to need a Blake Lively Lady Deadpool movie ASAP.”
This isn’t the only cameo though, as Matthew McConaughey plays ‘Cowboypool’ – which is exactly what it sounds like.
At this point, if you told me I was in Deadpool & Wolverine then I may have to believe you as it seems likely quite literally everyone is in the film.
Except Taylor Swift unfortunately.