The rumors have been bubbling under for the past few weeks about whether director Robert Rodriguez (Sin City) might be called upon to direct Deadpool, the planned spin-off from last year’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine with Ryan Reynolds reprising the role of the "Merc with a Mouth" he played in that movie.
Last week at Comic-Con, Rodriguez was asked by MTV about the project and he confirmed he had received the script by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick (Zombieland) but wasn’t sure if he would direct or not.
Just one week later and the L.A. Times is reporting that Rodriguez is now in active negotiations to direct the movie and that it would likely happen after he finishes Spy Kids 4: Armageddon, which he’s currently shooting for release next year. Rodriguez does have a lot on his plate right now with Predators still in theaters and Machete coming out later this summer, and he has a few other original ideas he’s been developing.
One presumes that one way to stay in the public eye and maintain his relationship with 20th Century Fox would be to take on a high-profile superhero movie like Deadpool, which combines humor and violence, two things Rodriguez has made his specialty. The question is whether he could make the movie PG-13 or 20th Century Fox might allow Rodriguez to do what he does best when not having to soften things up for a younger audience. (Of course, having made four PG movies and working on a fifth, it’s not like Rodriguez would have problem making a movie that falls somewhere in between.)
