Deadpool 2 to get re-release in a PG-13 version without the F-words
- Star and producer of profanity-laced live-action comic story hit has long resisted Fox studio’s call to release Deadpool versions teens can watch
- Ryan Reynolds has finally given in, meaning film will go up against Aquaman and Spider-Man films in lead-up to Christmas
And here Aquaman thought he would have the live-action superhero screen all to himself this Christmas.
On Friday, Ryan Reynolds tweeted out a poster for Fox’s Once Upon a Deadpool – a release that represents both a noble act of charity and a brilliant bit of box-office marketing.
Once Upon a Deadpool is a recut version of the R-rated summer sequel that tones down the language and violence to secure a PG-13 rating.
Or, as Reynolds tweets of the new version: “The only F word in this movie is Fred Aaron Savage.” On Instagram, he calls it “a fairy tale that gives zero F’s.” In the poster, Reynolds is pictured clinging to Savage while mounted on a reindeer.
The Deadpool franchise, so laced with 1980s references, stays true to such riffing here. Savage played the grandson being read the storybook tale in 1987′s The Princess Bride; in Once Upon a Deadpool’s new scenes, Reynolds will reportedly read his Deadpool adventure to the adult Savage in the same childhood bed.
Deadpool 2 grossed US$734 million worldwide this summer – nearly as much as the first film made in 2016. Fox had long sought a PG-13 version of a Deadpool film.
“Fox has been asking for a PG-13 basically since the start in 2006,” Reynolds told Deadline on Monday. “I’ve said ‘no’ since 2006. Now, this one time, I said ‘yes’ on two conditions. First, a portion of the proceeds had to go to charity. Second, I wanted to kidnap Fred Savage. The second condition took some explaining.”
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Reynolds said that US$1 of each ticket sold will go to a campaign that will be called “Fudge Cancer”.
Once Upon a Deadpool will open on December 12 and run in cinemas until Christmas Eve. That means it will go head to head with Sony/Columbia’s animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (opening December 14) and Warner Bros./DC’s Aquaman (opening December 21).
After all, what are the holidays without a convergence of red and green Spandex?
