STACK #140 Jun 2016

STACK

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TIME MILLER

Deadpool director Tim Miller explains why he never gave up on bringing Marvel’s cult superhero to the screen

F or a hardcore comicbook fan like Tim Miller, the opportunity to make your feature film debut with one of Marvel’s cult favourites was a dream come true. However, it almost didn’t happen. The co-founder of Blur Studio, which specialises in visual effects and animation for the motion picture and video game industries, Miller was taken on as director in 2011 and even went as far as shooting some test footage.

However, the project became bogged down in development hell at the studio and at one point Deadpool looked, err, dead in the water. “We got it to a point where it was either make it or not, and Fox decided not,” he recalls. “Hollywood is full of projects that don’t happen, so it wasn’t like I was shocked – but I was crushed. When it didn’t happen, the writers and I – and Ryan [Reynolds] too – we really never gave up. My agent said, ‘dude,

just walk away’, but I loved it so much. We kept pushing and I won’t tell you the long trail, but two things happened: the footage we’d shot leaked, and Simon Kinberg came on board as a producer. Fox really trusts him, and he’s a real gatekeeper for all the Marvel stuff at Fox. Simon said, ‘look, the script is great, and Tim’s not a total loser. I really think you guys should make this film’.” It proved to be a very smart choice. Deadpool is now the highest grossing

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