Why Fox won't let the 'Deadpool' Movie be as awesome as that test footage...
Deadpool - Test Footage (2011, Directed by Tim Miller)
So Deadpool test footage was leaked this week, and it was incredible. It was funny, it was gory, and the effects were mind-blowingly good. Â Brilliantly directed by first-time director, but effects whizz Tim Miller, the footage exploded all over the internet, before Fox panicked and took it all down. If you haven't seen it yet, I wish you all the best trying to find somewhere it hasn't been taken down yet, or someone who cleverly stored a copy of it *cough cough*.
I've never read any of the Deadpool comic books. In fact, I can count the comic books I've read on one hand - Kick Ass, Kick Ass 2, R.I.P.D, and Revenge. This is one of the reasons I tend to avoid a lot of comic book movies - they tend to isolate people who aren't so familiar with the source material.
It is for this reason the the Deadpool footage may be the best superhero footage since the first Kick Ass movie. Forgetting the bizarre Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, this is a brilliant introduction into Deadpool's world. Immediately we can understand who Deadpool is, what he does, and the tone of the proposed movie. And everyone seems to love it. I cannot stress enough how awesome this footage was.
Sadly, this movie will probably never get made. This is why:
Whilst recently speaking to a friend who's had personal experience with Marvel Films, he told me something really interesting - Superhero movies can't be funny anymore. Jokes DO NOT travel. Quips do.
Look at Marvel's most successful film, The Avengers. In the United States, it made  $623,357,910, 41% of it's overall box office. Internationally, it made  $895,237,000, 59% of it's box office, with the main bulk of this coming from China, which bought in $84,100,000, almost $4,000,000 more than the UK. Or take their second most successful film, Iron Man 3. Worldwide, it made an incredible $1,215,439,994. 66.3% of this is from international sales. Movies, mainly superhero movies, tend to do much better internationally than they do domestically. Sad, but true. China's yearly box office figures exceed $1.5 billion, movie studios like Fox are gonna do all they can to keep this. That means jokes are out, and dialogue-less action is in. The new Transformers movie has just made over $1 billion, and it is (with one or two exceptions) about as far removed from funny as you could get.
The Deadpool footage is funny. Properly rude and properly funny. Whilst funny superhero movies may do good business relatively (Kick Ass did good business domestically and internationally, pulling in over three times its $30 million budget), they still come in way less than the standard $120 million budget of a Marvel movie, a risk far too big for a major studio.
Look at the top 10 worldwide box office grosses. Look at the top 20. Hell, look at the top 50. How many of them are MPAA R? Or BBFC 18? None. Absolutely none. Certainly in America, teenagers make up the majority of a movie-going demographic. For them to see a movie on their own, or with friends, it has to be PG-13. As Deadpool currently stands, it's a very definite R, probably translating to a BBFC 15. There's a beheading. A guy gets graphically run over by an SUV. In a 1 minute 48 second clip, the one 'fuck' that the MPAA allow for a PG-13 is used. Any more, and there will be more, will result in an immediate R rating. Ridiculous, I know, but them's the rules. If you're interested in this, let me highly recommend 'This Film Is Not Yet Rated', a 2006 documentary about the utter idiocy of the MPAA.
For a major motion picture, especially one that needs to have international potential to tick a studio's boxes, any sort of censorship concern domestically or internationally could be the difference between the movie getting made, or being dead in the water.
As big of a Reynolds fan as I am (see this post for my proof: http://goo.gl/92XP9w), let's be honest - he's not the greatest asset for a superhero film. The words 'Green Lantern' are surely enough justification for any studio to try and unjustly shove Reynolds out of their superhero project. Perfect though he is for Deadpool - his voice fits perfectly, his mannerisms fit perfectly, his delivery fits perfectly - paired with a first time director, it's another risk that Fox can add to the ever-growing list of why Deadpool may not deliver.
Personally, I think Deadpool would be a success. There's enough buzz generated by this test footage and a large enough fan-base to ensure that Deadpool could well exceed the $100 million mark. But in 2014, studios are more scared than ever. Movies cost money. Tickets cost money. Every single studio movie that comes out nowadays has to compete for your 9 pounds, 9 dollars or 20 yuan. Deadpool, as it currently stands, is too much of a risk for Fox, in a time when movie studios cannot afford to take risks.