5 Deadpool Director candidates

So while the Deadpool movie continues to come together, I’ve compiled 5 candidates that would be perfect to bring the outstanding script by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick to screen. Whoever the director is needs to have a pedigree for action as there are several gritty set pieces throughout the course of the film. A penchant for humor is also necessary. Given that guys like Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez prefer to shoot films that they have a significant ownership stake in, guys like them are off the list.

THE WACHOWSKI BROS. They need this film. And bad. And they are pitch-perfect for it. Call up John Gaeta and tell him to get his bullet time camera’s set up, and fast, because they are going to need every one of them. The original MATRIX film is a masterpiece of mash-up film making incorporating the best of Hong Kong cinema, Anime, and comic books, a recipe that could be duplicated with great success with Deadpool. Ryan Reynolds is the perfect star to keep them on course, he provides the fuel for an engine that they would operate to a career renaissance. Speed Racer was under-appreciated on every level. It is a visual work of genius, ahead of its time on so many cinematic levels. Audiences weren’t prepared for the all out assault on their senses that Speed Racer attacked the public. It was also marketed and sold terribly and had the mis-fortune of following the original Iron Man by one week. It was buried in the Iron Man fever and the one true criticism I have of the film is that it was too damn long. But here they will be working from a frantically paced film provided by Rheese and Wernick, if they stick to the script, genius will follow. The Wachowski Bros. can ride Deadpool all the way back up to the top of the director food chain. There is no spoon!

Joe Carnahan – The Smokin’ Aces director can return to his more hard core roots and reunite with Ryan Reynolds and make beautiful, filthy music together. Smokin’ Aces was as fun a caper, shoot ’em up can be, the action was outstanding and the laughs were everywhere. His A-Team film was balls-to-the-walls entertaining, it’s mediocre reception still baffles me. The cast was great, the action was slick and the story was….safe. That won’t be a problem here, again, the Deadpool script is state-of-the-art brilliant and Carnahan can put A-Team’s failure to launch behind him while putting his new big budget muscles to better use.

Genndy Tartakovsky – This guy directs the very best animation and has been doing it for over a decade. SAMURAI JACK, STAR WARS:CLONE WARS, SYM-BIONIC TITAN. Animators as live action directors can work spectacularly. Look at the first Narnia film, Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe directed by Shrek’s Andrew Adamson, the performance of that film has yet to be equaled by its predecessors. WALL-E’s Andrew Stanton is prepping John Carter Warlord of Mars and The Incredibles helmer Brad Bird is currently filming Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol with Tom Cruise and Jeremy Renner. Tartakovsky is a one of the kind talent, the Deadpool film is literally a cartoon filmed in live action and there is none better qualified to pull off the translation than the creator of Samurai Jack himself. If none other than George Lucas turned to Genndy to transition his cast of Star Wars characters to the visual language of animation, then who better to bring Deadpool to live action kick ass awesomeness. Home run.

Sylvester Stallone – Don’t laugh. He can and should do this. Even though this is the longest of the long shots for the exact reason Tarantino and Rodriguez avoid work they don’t generate Stallone should bring his R rated, Rambo/Expendables directing acumen to the comic book genre. As surefire as Expendables 2 is, this is even more so. Stallone could elevate his brand just as Clint Eastwood has over the years by taking his directing skills beyond roles suited for himself. Expendables was gritty and hard core while still retaining a charm and humor that rocketed it to the top of the charts for weeks. It’s international gross was nothing to sneeze at and it was powered by a cast of geezers. Stallone and Ryan Reynolds coupled with the script by Rheese and Wernick would power Deadpool to the top of every action junkie ages 18-65. Sure fire.

Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick – Duh. These guys were bound to be sitting in the director’s chair before long, it was just a matter of when not if, and now they are slated to direct their first feature, the comedy DOC AND HOWIE in early 2011. Let them cut their teeth on Doc and Howie and start warming up those twin director’s chairs on the Deadpool film for them. They wrote the script, reportedly with Ryan Reynold’s input, and who better to pull this off than the author’s themselves. If Ryan trusts them, than so can we! Again, as with the Wachowski Bros. just put a call into John Gaeta and get those bullet time camera’s ready to line up STAT!

So, there’s five directors who would pull off a fantastic vision of Deadpool. Any one of these choices will create a compelling, commercial vision for a DEADPOOL film that FOX can exploit for years to come. It’s a no-brainer. Time’s a wasting….let’s get this baby rolling!