Sci-Fi Storm

We have to report the sad news that a stuntwoman working on the set of Deadpool 2 unfortunately was killed during a motorcycle stunt this morning on location in Vancouver near near Jack Poole Plaza. The cause is under investigation.

According to witnesses, the stunt had been rehearsed a couple times, but on the last attempt the motorcycle appeared to accelerate instead of slowing down at the end of some ramps and went out of view, but she apparently jumped a curb and crashed into the plate glass windows of the Shaw Tower. Emergency responders arrived quickly and treated the woman but she died at the scene.

Ryan Reynolds tweeted, “Today, we tragically lost a member of our crew while filming Deadpool. We’re heartbroken, shocked and devastated… but recognize nothing can come close to the grief and inexplicable pain her family and loved ones must feel in this moment. My heart pours out to them — along with each and every person she touched in this world.”

Quick editorial note – apologies for the broken links on social media…I had to switch methods due to API changes, and unbeknownst to be a combinations of plugins produced bad social media links. That’s all fixed now. I’m also getting my head above water again after being involved in a local theater production and attending Rhode Island Comic Con last weekend…

Deadpool 2 now has a new director in David Leitch, the former stuntman who directed 2014’s John Wick. He’s currently working on The Coldest City, starring Charlize Theron, James McAvoy, John Goodman and Sofia Boutella. Original directory Tim Miller left the project after creative differences with star Ryan Reynolds.

The CW has elected not to pick up back-end orders for its two freshman shows Frequency and No Tomorrow. This is unusual as the CW has generally given back end orders to nearly all of its new series. While they aren’t necessarily dead yet, hopes are very minimal as the ratings were extremely low. However, under the deal with Netflix, the shows will be on the streaming provider 8 days after the finale ends, so if it does well there, there could be enough impetus to pick them up.

Syfy, with Paramount Television and Universal Cable Productions, is developing a series based on Robert Heinlein’s Stranger In A Strange Land, about a man born and raised on Mars who comes to Earth.

Deadpool shouldn’t be the successful film it is.

Sure, it’s a superhero movie and that’s all the rage. And it’s a Marvel movie at that. And it exists within the X-Men universe (which one isn’t clear, even to the protagonist) and features a couple of them.

But it’s R-rated, with lots of violence, nudity and sexual references, it parodies the genre and itself, makes fun of the star, breaks the fourth wall, it opened mid-winter, the studio cut the budget, it stars the guy who previously played Green Lantern…the list goes on. At best, it could make a moderately-successful movie off of a “puny” (for superhero movies) budget of $58 million. Some of the most generous estimates saw maybe $80 million.

Then WHY is it approaching $250 million this weekend?!? Because it’s a frakkin’ good movie.

From the get go the film doesn’t take itself too seriously. Instead of naming the actors, director, etc. in the opening credits, it does so descriptively; Ryan Reynolds as “God’s perfect idiot”, Morena Bacarrin as “a hot chick”, the producers as “asshats” and the director as an “overpaid idiot” and the writers as the “true heroes of the movie”. This, while Juice Newton’s “Angel of the Morning” is playing, during a slow motion continue shot of what appears to be massive carnage.

The vulgar references are not only keeping with the character, but help keep the focus of the movie light despite the violence. And even the violence is handled with levity.

Deadpool may have shown the studios the true power of social media as well, as even Reynolds campaigned for and championed this movie heavily, while Fox seemed willing to throw it away. Could it have been done PG-13? Sure. But it probably wouldn’t have been nearly as interesting.

Deadpool is laugh out loud funny – and it takes a lot to make me laugh out loud. Go see it…but please, leave the 10 year olds at home.

In the “Marvel but someone else is in charge” department…

The X-Men franchise spinoff Deadpool movie is finally moving forward, and Ryan Reynolds will reprise the role he originated in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. In that film, the character of Wade Wilson, an amoral expert in martial arts, particularly with a pair of katanas he can wield fast enough to defend against bullets, is believed to be killed but instead is turned into Deadpool by Striker, having absorbed the ability of other mutants including Wolverine’s healing. Wolverine and Sabretooth appear to kill him, but some DVD materials imply he somehow survives.