Deadpool’s writers discuss their 6-year trek & the main lesson for Hollywood

Ever since DEADPOOL made bank at the box office, we've since heard about an R-rated WOLVERINE III and an R-rated cut for BATMAN V SUPERMAN. While some claim that those may have been in place BEFORE the success of Tim Miller's flick, there's no arguing that it will be a lot easier to release R-rated comic book fare going forward. However, it may surprise you to know that the film's lead writers, Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese, don't attribute DEADPOOL's success to the R-rating. Not entirely, anyway. In speaking with Indie Wire, they opened up about their 6-year journey to get the film made and what lesson Hollywood should take from all this. You can read the entire interview here, but I've included the highlights below.

Paul Wernick on the success of DEADPOOL:

Vindication is a good word for it. Relief is another. As hard as we worked to get this thing made, pushing the rock up the hill and having it roll down on us over and over again over the course of six years, the fact that it does have a happy ending is just especially gratifying.

Rhett Reese on why audiences responded to Deadpool:

He’s a wonderful character in that he’s both funny and tragic and I think audiences really latched onto that. I think he made them laugh, but I also think he elicited feelings from them in his relationship with Vanessa, in his own fears, insecurities and self-loathing. I think people really felt for him so I think what’s great about Deadpool is that he’s at this confluence of heart and laughter and that proved to be a winner for us before with ZOMBIELAND and it’s always something we try and get into our projects. We like to make people laugh, but we also like to get them misty eyed a little bit.

Wernick on whether or not more comic book films should be rated R:

That shouldn’t necessarily be the lesson that everyone takes from DEADPOOL – that all super hero films should be R-rated. It’s great that some of them will be R — a lot of our favorite movies from childhood, DIE HARD, TERMINATOR, THE MATRIX, they were all R-rated action movies. More than anything, the lesson we hope people take away is: you’ve got to take risks. Sometimes that risk will be an R-rating, sometimes it won’t, but to trust the lunatics is the lesson to take away from DEADPOOL’s success.

While I'm sure we'll see examples of Hollywood taking the wrong lessons from DEADPOOL, in the end I have a feeling this might benefit comic book fans more than hurt them. After all, even Marvel's Daredevil has pushed the boundaries of TV ratings and that proved to be a major success as well. It's not that we need R-rated comic book films, but the option to have them available should make it easier for artists to tell their story.