Producer Lauren Shuler Donner talks Deadpool and X-Men fatigue

March 10th 2014, 10:07pm

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Here I am with your first DEADPOOL movie update for the year 2014.

How long have we been talking about a solo DEADPOOL flick? Since the Cretaceous period, right? Has anything happened? Nope. All we hear about is how people are eager, how the script is coming along, how the future of this flick is unsure, etc. But I really wish that someone would just come out and be for real about the status of it. If it’s not going to happen the right way, don’t force it. Then there’s that whole PG-13 marketability vs. an R rating.

Collider sat down with producer Lauren Shuler Donner who dished on the latest on the project:

Collider: You’re working on X-Force, we’re talking about how there should be a New Mutants movie. Fox has all these mutant characters; when do you think we will see more movies announced?

DONNER: I think we have to figure out how many X-Men films a summer can handle without getting into X-Men fatigue. And I just mentioned New Mutants off the top of my head because that’s a personal passion of mine. I’m not saying that’s Fox’s next movie, please don’t misquote me or I’ll get a call. But we have to be very careful. As you all know there’s a Deadpool script that is out there, and you know about X-Force and you know about Fantastic Four. There’s a summer, there’s a year, say 2014, 2015, how many can you put out? Take into consideration there are also Marvel movies coming out then. At a certain point people want to see other movies besides comic book movies so you have to be really careful what you’re going to pick, and how many are going to be released within a year.

Collider: People say the Deadpool script is awesome, and clearly should be rated R. An X-Men movie has to be PG-13, but what about doing Deadpool at a lower budget point, releasing it at a different time than the middle of May? Is that an option, because Marvel is clearly not walking the R-rated path.

DONNER: Right. I agree.

Collider: I was hoping for more than “I agree.”

DONNER: First of all, the Deadpool movie should be $50m in any event, whether it is PG-13 or R. Because it’s a single character, it doesn’t involve that many of the other mutants, which means not many other powers, which is CGI, which is what costs so much. It would be a lot of action, but it should be — and because it’s a standalone character, just like the Wolverine films, we keep them at a smaller budget, so it should be a $50m budget regardless. And I am a producer who NEVER discusses her budgets, EVER, ever ever. But that one should be kept small. As for the rest of it, I can’t really talk about it. I’d love to take the movie, it’s a really good script, we’ll see.

Collider: We all want that.

DONNER: Good! I’m glad! Write Fox and tell them. Thank you.

So I have to write Fox now? Will someone just give me some money and write a letter to Ryan Reynolds so I can get this started? Because I will. As for a smaller budget, shouldn’t that bump it up to the “easier to make and expedite” list? If the script is good, what’s the issue? X-MEN? Okay, how about you don’t release an X-MEN movie for one year and try some other heroes on for a change? I love X-MEN. I do. But come on! It’s been going on like over four years now. If you don’t do it soon then there’s probably not a point.

Or did we already pass that point? Solo Deadpool or no?