Rob Liefeld Calls On Dwayne Johnson To Play Cable In X-FORCE

Ahead of 20th Century Fox's Comic-Con announcement that they'll be making an X-Force film with Jeff Wadlow scripting. The comic's creator Rob Liefeld has been quite vocal online about the project. Revealing recently that Cable and Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) would be the focus of the film. He's gone to Twitter again and called out Dwayne Johnson to consider taking the role of Cable.

Johnson has had a massive year earning close to a billion dollars in box office thanks to G.I. Joe: Retaliation and Fast And Furious 6. Making him a bankable choice to take a superhero role. He's currently shooting Hercules and might be involved with G.I. Joe 3 down the line. There had also been talk of possibly taking on a villain role in the Terminator reboot. Personally, I'd rather see Dwayne tackle his own Marvel franchise with X-Force than playing a character like Luke Cage. Johnson actually had to turn down the part of Drax in Guardians of The Galaxy because of his commitments to Hercules.

Hey @TheRock I'm throwing Cable out there once again. Marvel doesn't have a character this big left in their catalogue. 5 million copies!
— robertliefeld (@robertliefeld) July 15, 2013

Rob Liefeld Says Cable And Deadpool Will Be In X-FORCE, Confirms Ryan Reynolds?

Rob Liefeld the creator of Marvel's X-Force along with characters such as Cable and Deadpool tells ComicBook (via CBM) his creations will be involved in the film. What that will look like in the long run is yet to be seen since there are other fan favorite characters from the X-Force lineup. It remains to be seen which other members of the X-Force team will make it into the film. However, it might be a sure bet that Domino will be in there as she is also a Liefeld creation and staple character of the series.

“I can pretty much eliminate some sites suggestion that the Milligan X-Statix stuff is in the mix. An X-Force film is Cable. Is Deadpool.”

Liefeld also Tweeted this concerning casting for the film “Ryan Reynolds IS DEADPOOL! Cable could be many…”. Giving the impression that Ryan Reynolds will indeed be apart of the film. The Deadpool film might lead into X-Force or it might be delayed even more to push X-Force forward first to gather more audience awareness for Deadpool.

VIDEO: Why Tim Miller Is Going To Blow Us Away With Deadpool

I don't often have a reason to make a video so I've held off to post any. However, when hearing that production on Tim Miller's Deadpool starring Ryan Reynolds was heating up at 20th Century Fox I put together one highlighting the works of Miller and his VFX house Blur Studio. The company is mostly known for in game and trailer video game cinematics but have also worked on films like Avatar. While the prospect of an R-rated script from Zombieland screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick should be enough. Miller's extensive work bringing to life amazing action sequences is also a reason keep fans on their toes. Not to mention his familiarity with genre characters and previously working effects for the first two X-Men films. The games featured in the best of reel I put together include X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Terminator Salvation, Mass Effect 2, Arkham City, Resident Evil: Operation Racoon City and Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Deadpool And Wolverine Shooting Within The Year?

20th Century Fox has a lot on their plate with their comic book films. They currently have Daredevil, Fantastic Four and an X-Men First Class sequel in different development stages. David Slade (Hard Candy, 30 Days of Night) is set to direct the Daredevil reboot and Josh Trank in talks for Fantastic Four. Matthew Vaughn is still being pursued to return for First Class 2 but hasn't signed on.

Two projects that have been delayed include the spin-off/reboot Deadpool and the Japanese saga The Wolverine. TheGeekFiles reports that a source from Fox confirms both films will go into production within the year. I assume they're still aiming for a summer 2013 release date for The Wolverine and I expect a late summer/fall  2013 release for Deapool. He's a rundown of the two movies and what's happened since their original announcements.

The Wolverine is expected to more of a one-off than a sequel to the Origins film. Taking inspiration from the Japanese saga written by Frank Miller and Chris Claremont. Solid source material considering the mess the first film was. The terrible disaster that effected Japan pushed back the Wolverine's original 2011 production date which was expected to shoot a good chunk of the movie there. Personal issues lead to the exit of director Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan, Requiem From A Dream) and James Mangold (Walk The Line, 3:10 To Yuma) stepped in. The film's script written by Christopher McQuarrie (Usual Suspects) ended up getting rewrites from Mark Bomback (Total Recall, Die Hard 4, Jack The Giant Killer). Again the film's expected Spring 2012 shoot was put into question when Hugh Jackman signed onto Tom Hooper's Les Miserables which is about to start production. It was confirmed that we'll be seeing characters like Silver Samurai, Viper, Yukio and The Hand.

Deadpool hasn't had as many issues as The Wolverine but still did have some during it's development. It's script written by the duo Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese who brought us the successful zombie comedy Zombieland ended up leaking online, revealing it's characters. Those included at the time of the leak Blind Al, Patch, Copycat, Ajax (villain) and X-Men member Colossus. While Fox seemed to freak out about the script being all over the web everyone who ended up reading it loved it. It will be interesting to see how many changes if any will end up in the final film.

Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez had been named as dream directors for the project. While Rodriguez took a look at the script and had talks with Fox he ended up making Spy Kids 4 instead. VFX expert Tim Miller ended up landing the directing job which seemed to confuse a lot of people unfamiliar with his work. He owns and works for VFX company Blur Studios making some of the best cinematic trailers for video games. Miller was involved in the effects departments for both X-Men and X2. It's expected that Blur will end up doing the Deadpool's effects. They've previously worked on films like Scott Pilgrim, Avatar and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

Ryan Reynolds had been eager to play Deadpool for years and was cast as Wade Wilson in X-Men Origins:Wolverine. The film was a total mess angering Deadpool fans who felt the studio ruined the on screen character. Ryan went on the defensive and the studio looked to push for a spin-off in the meantime. Even if Reynolds had been clamoring his constant involvement in giving fans a faithful Deadpool film it was questionable if he was going to stick around. During Green Lantern's production a trilogy had been brought up and it looked like Ryan could exiting Deadpool. Luckily for Fox, Green Lantern tanked and WB's rushed sequel didn't look like it was going to happen anytime soon. It's been confirmed yet again that Ryan is still attached to the project and is just waiting for the production date.

Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld recently confirmed that the studio has shot around eight minutes of hard-R test footage which he's been able to preview. It seems that pre-production is currently about to start and they're just waiting for a greenlight from both Fox and producer Lauren Shuler Donner. Donner confirmed not too long ago she would be pushing the studio to go with the R rating.

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.