James Cameron read an early 'Deadpool' script years ago — here's what he thought
20th Century Fox
"Deadpool" is in theaters Friday, but it has taken over a decade to convince Fox to adapt a raunchy R-rated movie about a foul-mouthed, fourth-wall-breaking antihero to the big screen.
Screenwriters Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese told Tech Insider that at one time they even enlisted directors David Fincher ("The Social Network") and James Cameron ("Titanic," "Avatar") to read over early scripts for the film to try and help it gain attention.
"The project was so very difficult to convince the higher ups at Fox to do that Tim Miller came on as our director and he and Ryan and Paul and I we were kind of like this little creative terrorist cell," Reese tells Tech Insider. "We would conspire to come up with ways to convince the studios to change their minds because they would tell us no."
Some of those ideas included reaching out to Fincher and Cameron to get their advice on the film.
"And, we were like, 'Hmmm I wonder if we were to enlist David Fincher’s help, would that help?' And then David Fincher would read the script, and he would weigh in and suddenly we’d get a little life and then it would die again," he continued. "And then we’d say, ‘Uh, I wonder if James Cameron would be willing to help?’ And then he would read the script and he liked it and he would put in a good word."
Yes, James Cameron, who holds box-office records for not one, but two of the highest-grossing films of all time, took time out of making the next three "Avatar" sequels to read over an early "Deadpool" script.
That was heavily in part thanks to future "Deadpool" director Tim Miller.
20th Century Fox
"Miller ... he’s close with a fair amount of different directors. Fincher, in particular, he’s very close with because he did the opening credits sequence for 'Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,'" explained Reese. "But he’s also really tight with James Cameron because they flirted with doing a project together for many years."
"The Cameron story is particularly interesting because Jim has probably the biggest challenge of any filmmaker ever in these 'Avatar' movies," he continued. "You know, they’re gonna make multiple sequels at once. He’s trying to top the biggest-grossing movie of all time and yet Tim called him and said, ‘Hey, would you be willing to read this ‘Deadpool’ script? Just let me know what you think of it.’ And Jim said sure. So Tim emailed it to him and told us and we figured, 'Oh we’ll never hear back.'"
They did!
20th Century Fox
"The next morning, Cameron wrote us back and said, 'This is so cool. Why are they [Fox] not making it?’" Reese recalled. "And Tim was like, ‘That’s my question!’"
"We forget that James Cameron is also a writer and there’s nothing writers love to do more than procrastinate," added Wernick. "He was in the middle, I think of, ‘Avatar 2’ and he’s like, ‘Oh cool, a script. Now, I don’t have to sit down and write today. I’ll go read the script.’ He went off and read it that same day."
Reese says Cameron enjoyed it so much he offered to speak with Fox CEO Jim Gianopulos about the film. Miller took him up on the offer. There was just one little hold up.
"Cameron said, 'Well, I’m out of town working on 'Avatar' for a couple of months, but when I’m back in town and I’m in the same room with him [Gianopulos], I’ll ask him,'" said Reese. "And Tim thought — we all thought — ‘Well, that’s great, but will he really remember two months from now?’"
They thought they may have to remind Cameron, but they didn't.
"Two months passed and all of a sudden, out of the blue, Tim gets another email from James Cameron saying ‘Hey, I’m meeting with Jim Gianopulos tomorrow. Do you still want me to bring up Deadpool?’" Reese said. "Of course, we were just dead in the water at that moment and Tim said, ‘Yes, please do it.’ And Jim [Cameron] did and Jim [Gianopulos] heard him and we got some new life at that moment."
"That was the moment they [Fox] let us do the PG-13 version," added Wernick.
20th Century Fox
Wernick says Cameron helped Fox look at the film with fresh eyes. Though the two were allowed to write a PG-13 version of "Deadpool," ultimately, not even a push from Cameron could get this film made.
Instead, it took leaked test footage in July 2014 and a final push from fans to convince Fox to take a risk on the merc with a mouth.
"They [fans] were like, ‘You gotta make this. You gotta make this.’ Everyone got so excited," said Reese. "The studio took notice. And then Paul approached Simon Kinberg, the keeper of the flame inside the studio walls with regard to the X [X-Men] universe. Simon had actually read the script. Paul urged him to read it again, and he read it again and that combined with this big fan push ... Simon went in and talked with the higher ups and he got the ball rolling."
20th Century Fox
"We’ll always be indebted to him for that," he added. "He came in, he and his right hand man Aditya Sood came in and became a part of the terrorist cell and my God we made a movie."
"Deadpool" is in theaters February 12.
Check out the trailer below:
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