Four In The Mix For 'DEADPOOL' Female Lead; Includes Taylor Schilling And Rebecca Rittenhouse

Deadline reports that four actresses are in the mix for the female lead in Tim Miller's Deadpool. The film is the X-Men spin-off that has Ryan Reynolds reprising the role of Wade Wilson the sane alter-ego of the mutant mercenary Deadpool.

The they include Morena Baccarin (Serenity, V, Homeland, Firefly), Taylor Schilling (Orange Is The New Black, The Overnight),  Crystal Reed (Teen Wolf, Crush) and Rebecca Rittenhouse (The Red Band Soceity). It was previously reported that T.J. Miller and Ed Skrien were in talks for roles as well.

I have to admit I'll be rooting for both Taylor and Rebecca for the unnamed role.

The role is either going to be mutant prostitute Vanessa Geraldine Carlysle aka Copycat who becomes romantically involved with Wilson or fellow mercenary Neena Thurman aka Domino.

In the original script, Copycat was the female lead but since the extensive rewrites they could have replaced her with the more fully formed character like Domino which of course could further help setup X-Force. Neena becoming an X-Men member on the X-Force team.

In a shocking twist Fox and Miller could try to include both mutant ladies.

Production is expected to startup soon in Vancouver Canada with a release date of February 12th, 2016.



SOURCE: DEADLINE

X-MEN Spinoff X-FORCE In The Works As Jeff Wadlow Signs On To Write And Possibly Direct, Will Cable Be The Focus?

THR confirms rumblings the Fox is looking to announce an X-Force film at Comic-Con. They add that Kick-Ass 2 director Jeff Wadlow has been hired to script the X-Men spinoff and could even direct it. Wadlow's connection to Matthew Vaughn (director of First Class and producer of Fantastic Four reboot) and Mark Millar (creator of Kick-Ass and Fox's Marvel consultant) might have nudged the studio to select him.

There's no word on the lineup which has been changed over the years. Yet, there has been talk Fox is looking for a way to introduce a film focusing on Cable and is a staple of the comics. The more recent incarnation of the group includes Wolverine, Domino, Psylocke, Archangel, Deadpool, Warpath, X-23 and Fantomax. I would assume that Fox wants to connect these franchises together and would like see Wolverine/Deadpool involved in some way. While Jeff is writing this, I'd like see Matthew Vaughn return to the X-Men franchise and be allowed to have his own set of mutants to play with.

Marvel Unwilling To Create Any New X-Men Characters Because Of Fox?

Ever since Marvel Studios started making their own films and subsequently bought by Disney there seems to be tension between between Marvel and other rights holders. Rob Liefeld in an extensive  interview with WordBallon points out that Marvel hasn't created any new X-Men characters and it's not based on laziness. The comic book writer/creator is responsible for giving birth to Cable, Deadpool, Domino, Feral and X-Force. So when he talks X-Men he does have insider information. He's also been in active talks with 20th Century Fox over the Deadpool movie and possibly adding Cable to the X-Men films. 

Liefeld states Marvel/Disney isn't in the business of creating characters only to hand them over to 20th Century Fox for new additions to their films. Currently the studio holds the film rights to all the characters in the X-Men universe (hero and villains) which is an extensive group. I'm not sure if that also means that Fox gains rights to new characters as they are introduced in the comics. It's further pointed out that Marvel holds the toy rights to X-Men First Class but didn't release any over the summer when it was released. Since they would have competed with Captain America and Thor toys which Marvel gets a bigger profit from. He's pointing out Marvel is undercutting Fox's growth of their X-Men franchise where they can.

My take is that Marvel is smart by not helping Fox by handing over new characters bound by an old rights deal. They could feel the deal was unfair since it was drawn up during Marvel's financial troubles during the 90's and might not have predicted the future of the company. Hopefully there will be a way to wiggle the film rights back to Marvel other than cutting a billion dollar cheque which Rob suggests. I feel when the studio uses up all the villains they'll end up selling the rights back. The X-Men universe doesn't have a lot of film-friendly villains which must be annoying for Fox.