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There are two absolutes in this world; Ryan Reynolds is hilarious and video game movies tend to suck. However, the last thing you would expect would be for the two to collide. As it happens, not only will the Deadpool actor be lending his voice to the titular role of Detective Pikachu, but has also signed on to play the part of a rather unfortunate bank worker who discovers he’s an NPC in a virtual world not so dissimilar to the Grand Theft Auto series. We’re not sure if this counts as breaking the “video game movie” curse, but at least the premise sounds hilarious!
According to an article on Cultured Vultures –
“Video game movies are notoriously difficult to get right, with many, many more misses than hits. Think monumental failures such as Alone in The Dark, Street Fighter and House of The Dead. Quite remarkably, a quick look at Rotten Tomatoes shows that not a single adaptation of a game has registered a fresh rating (the Dwayne Johnson-starring Rampage comes closest, with an almost respectable 53%). Yet an original film written by Matt Lieberman, and inspired by open-world games such as the GTA series, looks to change all that.
Actor Ryan Reynolds and director Shawn Levy are on-board for the project, entitled Free Guy, which sees Reynolds playing a bank teller who suddenly realises that he is a background character in a ruthless action-adventure game. No date has been set for shooting, with Reynolds’ next projects including Michael Bay’s 6 Underground and voicing the lead role in another game adaptation, Detective Pikachu.”
The project sounds like it could make for an amusing deconstruction of the video game tropes many of us have come to enjoy. After all, we don’t think twice about what happens to the average NPC when we’re in the middle of a firefight. Here’s hoping that it manages to bring in the laughs instead of falling head first into a game over screen.
Be sure to check out the video below to see our picks for the Top 10 Ryan Reynolds Performances.