Earlier this year, Ryan Reynolds outraged a section of Deadpool fans when he declared that his upcoming sci-fi comedy Free Guy was “my all time favorite film I’ve ever done”. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Joe Keery, who is also a part of the movie, further confirmed that, apart from Reynolds being just as nice in real life as everyone suspects, Free Guy is going to be a truly special project that will be drawing from some classic Hollywood films.
“That was one of the things that when friends would ask me what the movie was about, I would say, “Yeah, it’s Truman Show meets maybe a little Back to The Future in there, maybe a little Ready Player One in there.” Yeah, it was a real blessing working with Ryan, though. He’s, like, the nicest dude I’ve ever met in my entire life.”
The trailer for Free Guy sets the movie up as something of a GTA-parody, where an NPC (Non-playable character) in an open-world video game, played by Reynolds, gains sentience and sets out to wreak havoc with the help of other characters and cheat codes. There is an element of Wreck it Ralph to the proceedings, with plenty of gaming-inspired action and side quests, and a lead character trying to complete his missions against all odds.
While the trailer presents Free Guy as a typical action-comedy, Joe Keery‘s comments hint there might be something more going on beneath the broad premise of a video game character going on a rampage. Particularly the reference to The Truman Show and Ready Player One makes it seem as though Reynold’s character might turn out to be an actual person instead of an NPC, stuck in a virtual reality that he needs to escape to return to the real world.
Such a narrative would add a great deal of depth to Reynold’s character, and is in line with the sentiment expressed by the director of the movie Shawn Levy previously, who described the film as a superhero origin story except without the tights, powers or pre-existing IP, but with a lot of heart.
“It’s not just spectacle – it’s very much connected to the characters. It’s the rise of an idealist in a world that is very cynical and dark.”
Aside from the nature of the plot, fans are also excited to have filmmaker/actor Taika Waititi and Ryan Reynolds lending their unique comic sensibilities to Free Guy. The two have already put their own spin on promotions for the film when they held a teaser interview during which they pretended this was the first time they had worked together, before being reminded of Green Lantern, at which point the two disappeared without another word.
Directed by Shawn Levy, Free Guy features a lead cast of Ryan Reynolds, Jodie Comer, Joe Keery, Lil Rel Howery, Utkarsh Ambudkar and Taika Waititi. It is scheduled to be released in December 2020. These quotes come from The Hollywood Reporter.