So far, there’s really nothing bad you can say about the success of “Barbie.” Greta Gerwig’s comedy film has shattered records and become the runaway hit of 2023, leading a much-needed resurgence for the struggling cinemas. However, “Barbie” has had some unintentional consequences, including throwing a wrench in the development of a sequel to another popular film, “Free Guy.”

READ MORE: Ryan Reynolds Cites “Too Much Money” For ‘Green Lantern’ Failure & Questions If A ‘Free Guy’ Sequel Is Really Necessary

In an interview with Collider, “Free Guy” filmmaker Shawn Levy explained why the success of “Barbie” has made it much more difficult to work on a sequel to his popular film starring Ryan Reynolds.

Continue reading ‘Free Guy 2’: Shawn Levy Says The Success Of ‘Barbie’ Has Made Development Of His Sequel Difficult at The Playlist.

It’s hard to argue that Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds has finally hit his stride as an action star with a string of genre pics that audiences have reacted rather well to with the “Deadpool” movies, “Free Guy,” and “The Adam Project.” Those last two movies saw him work with filmmaker Shawn Levy (“Stranger Things,” “Real Steel” ) as the pair are getting ready to begin shooting “Deadpool 3” this spring in London with Hugh Jackman reprising the beloved Wolverine role one more time.

Continue reading Ryan Reynolds Cites “Too Much Money” For ‘Green Lantern’ Failure & Questions If A ‘Free Guy’ Sequel Is Really Necessary at The Playlist.

Ethan Tobman may be the hardest working Production Designer in show business. If he’s not, he’s certainly one of the most talented. Over the past year his real-world versions of a virtual video game world grounded Shawn Levy’s “Free Guy,” he collaborated with Taylor Swift on her 10-minute “All Too Well” short film and a live “SNL” performance. He also recreated the ’90s for the highly anticipated mini-series “Pam & Tommy,” a love story that sparks with the infamous Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee sex tape, and designed a set that will be the center of Mark Mylod’s “The Menu,” a fall prestige drama starring Anya Taylor-Joy and Ralph Fiennes, among others.

Continue reading Ethan Tobman: Designing For ‘Free Guy,’ Taylor Swift & ‘Pam & Tommy’ [Interview] at The Playlist.

Every Tuesday, discriminating viewers are confronted with a flurry of choices: new releases on disc and on-demand, vintage and original movies on any number of streaming platforms, catalog titles making a splash on Blu-ray or 4K. This biweekly column sifts through all of those choices to pluck out the movies most worth your time, no matter how you’re watching.

Spooky season is upon us, and streaming companies and home video distributors are looking to scratch that itch with HD upgrades of several horror classics, as well as a new installment of a recent scary franchise.

Continue reading The Best Movies To Buy Or Stream This Week: ‘The Green Knight,’ ‘Free Guy,’ ‘Halloween’ 4K & More at The Playlist.

The box office stories of the Summer Movie Season 2021™ have been giving film fans whiplash for weeks. One story talks about how “Black Widow” has a monster opening weekend and shows how cinema is rebounding after the pandemic. A week later, the film is viewed as an unmitigated disaster and Scarlett Johansson sues Disney. Last week, it was “The Suicide Squad” debuting well under expectations, showing how COVID is back and theaters are doomed.

Continue reading ‘Free Guy’ Exceeds Box Office Expectations As ‘The Suicide Squad’ Gets Killed In Its Second Weekend at The Playlist.

Shawn Levy‘s (“Stranger Things,” “Real Steel“) new film “Free Guy” has been winning audiences over. A large feat, given the film, is an original property and one of the few non-blockbuster franchises. However, that soon will change. Actor Ryan Reynolds took to Twitter (See below) to announce that Disney and 20th Century Studios confirmed to the actor/producer that they want “Free Guy 2.” It sounds like Disney is happy with the high-concept action-comedy and see potential in the project they inherited during the merger with 21st Century Fox.

Continue reading Ryan Reynolds Announces Disney Wants ‘Free Guy 2’ at The Playlist.

Director Shawn Levy (“Stranger Things“) and actor Ryan Reynolds are out promoting their new sci-fi action comedy “Free Guy,” a rare studio blockbuster based on an original idea. They had recently reunited for the time-traveling Netflix pic “The Adam Project,” their close working relationship has fans curious if Levy might be considered to direct “Deadpool 3,” the R-rated sequel that might end being the first big “X-Men” film to be made under the creative control of Marvel Studios. 

READ MORE: ‘Free Guy:’ Ryan Reynolds Excels In This Heartfelt, Hilarious Action-Comedy [Review]

During an interview with Inverse, Shawn Levy was directly asked about an online rumbling that he might end up making “Deadpool 3” and if he’d be interested in working with Marvel, his response seemed to tease the possibility. 

Levy coyly responds to their question with a potential hint he might be in the mix for the directing job.

Continue reading Shawn Levy Addresses A ‘Deadpool 3’ Directing Rumor & Says He Would Love To Work With Marvel: “I’m A Massive Fan” at The Playlist.

Guy (Ryan Reynolds) is the last character you’d play in a video game. A teller at a bank that’s consistently robbed, he gets the same coffee every day (a medium, cream, and two sugars), wears the same clothes (a blue button-up and khakis), and every morning joyfully greets his pet goldfish. He’s an NPC (a non-player character), living at the behest of the gun-toting characters wearing sunglasses. Guy is happy in this repetitive, bottom-rung existence until he sees the swaggering Molotov Girl (Jodie Comer).    

Continue reading ‘Free Guy:’ Ryan Reynolds Excels In This Heartfelt, Hilarious Action-Comedy [Review] at The Playlist.

Just as things were seemingly returning to normal – albeit slowly for some – it would seem that we may be going back to studios possibly shifting release dates for their more prominent properties. Or maybe “Clifford the Big Red Dog” is simply an outlier. That said, for the time being, there’s plenty of films on the docket worth keeping an eye out for in a month full of original content and few titles (such as the well-regarded “The Suicide Squad“) based on existing properties.

Continue reading 13 Films To Watch In August: ‘Suicide Squad,’ ‘Candyman,’ ‘Coda’ & More at The Playlist.

The 74th Locarno Film Festival will take place in person from August 4 to August 14 in Locarno, Switzerland, and the festival’s film lineup has been announced via The Hollywood Reporter. The Swiss event was founded back in 1946 and is one of the longest-running film festivals in the world.

READ MORE: ‘Halloween Kills’ To Premiere At Venice Film Festival As Jamie Lee Curtis Honored With Lifetime Achievement Award

Studio pics at the Piazza Grande lineup will include Ferdinando Cito Filomarino’s thriller “Beckett” that features performances from John David Washington and Alicia Vikander, Shawn Levy‘s video game adventure film “Free Guy” led by Ryan Reynolds and Jodie Comer, John Swab’s actioner “Ida Red” starring Melissa Leo, and Liesl Tommy’s biopic “Respect” starring Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson.

Continue reading Locarno Film Festival Lineup Includes ‘Beckett,’ ‘Ida Red,’ Abel Ferrara’s ‘Zeros & Ones,’ Gaspar Noé’s ‘Vortex’ & More at The Playlist.

NPCs (non-player characters) don’t sound like an enticing premise for a video game or video game movie. It mainly refers to those drony figures who walk around open-world games with zero agency. They provide atmosphere, possibly a side-quest for the player if they’re lucky, but not much else. But what if an NPC discovered the initiative to become a player in the game they inhabit? That’s the premise of “Free Guy,” a new Ryan Reynolds vehicle.

Continue reading ‘Free Guy’ Trailer: Ryan Reynolds’ Videogame Action Comedy Finally Comes To Theaters In August at The Playlist.

With the announcement that “Black Widow” is going to Disney+ Premier Access on the same date as it does theaters, combined with the news yesterday that Dwayne Johnson’s “Jungle Cruise” is doing the same, theater owners were rightfully concerned that the Mouse House was destroying the theatrical exclusivity window for good. Well, according to a recent investors call (via THR), Disney CEO Bob Chapek confirmed that some of the biggest films remaining in 2021 (“Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” and “Free Guy”) are coming to cinemas exclusively…but the window is shrinking considerably.

Continue reading Disney Will Only Commit To A 45-Day Exclusive Theatrical Run For ‘Shang-Chi’ & ‘Free Guy’ at The Playlist.

So… I guess we’re back? If you’re an American, chances are you’ve been vaxxed to the max already and or are probably awaiting your second dose, which should come quickly.  As we already noted, folks like Marvel are already flexing, welcoming audiences back to theaters, and well, that means nature is healing, right? Cinema is healing too, and with New York vowing to reopen fully on June 1, that probably means the rest of the country isn’t far behind.

Continue reading Summer 2021 Preview: Over 50 Movies To Watch at The Playlist.

Let the domino effect begin. The fallout has started, but it’s not as bad as once thought. Marvel‘s “Black Widow” just moved to July 9, from May 2021 (day and date), and has caused a small chain reaction of release dates for Disney. The biggest move aside from the Marvel film is Disney’s Live-Action “Cruella,” which is now being released day and date in theaters and on Disney+ with premier Access on May 28.

Continue reading ‘Cruella’ Shifts To Day & Date May 28 Slot, Marvel’s ‘Shang Chi’ Moves To Labor Day Weekend & Pixar’s ‘Luca’ Goes To Disney+ at The Playlist.

It seems like only yesterday I was talking about how a Dutch cinema owner said “No Time to Die” was going to be delayed (again) from this April until November. Wait, it wasn’t yesterday, it was actually earlier today. And according to a new report from Variety, “No Time to Die” isn’t the only film that is on the bullet train to Delaysville.

READ MORE: Dutch Cinema Owner Claims ‘No Time To Die’ Is Delayed Again Until November 2021

In a macro sense, it’s unfortunate that the COVID-19 vaccine is taking longer than anticipated to reach the general public.

Continue reading ‘Black Widow,’ ‘F9’ & More Reportedly Will Be Delayed Unless Things “Drastically Improve” Over The Next Month at The Playlist.

Normally, when a studio announces delays and release date changes for more than half a dozen major films, that would be a huge bit of news. However, coming off of last night’s absolutely massive Disney Investors Presentation, the studio coming back and making several release date changes doesn’t seem to be all that consequential. But hey, if you want to know why some of your most anticipated Marvel films aren’t hitting their original (but also delayed) dates, here you go.

Continue reading Disney Reshuffles Release Schedule: ‘Thor 4,’ ‘Black Panther II,’ ‘Free Guy’ & More Delayed Again at The Playlist.

Video games are littered with drones, mindless characters in the background known as NPCs, a non-player character. But what if one of those NPCs gained agency all of a sudden, had a voice, and became free of the constraints and limitations of background slavery? That’s the premise, essentially of “Free Guy,” a new high-concept, hi-tech science-fiction action-comedy from director Shawn Levy (The “Night at the Museum” series, and “Stranger Things”) starring Ryan Reynolds.

Continue reading ‘Free Guy’ Trailer: Ryan Reynolds Action Comedy Videogame Movie Is Probably Coming Out In December. Maybe… at The Playlist.

It seems like the world is falling into chaos while we are stuck at home, but at the very least we can take comfort in knowing we are definitely not NPCs in a video game world. That is not the case in the first clip for “Free Guy,” in which Ryan Reynolds’ non-playable-character sits inside his apartment as the outside world goes insane, and a whole lot of stuff blows up.

Continue reading Ryan Reynolds Shares ‘Free Guy’ Clip And New Release Date at The Playlist.

Sorry folks (and by folks, I mainly mean Harrison Ford), but it appears that the long-awaited “Indiana Jones 5” is getting delayed…yet again. So, all that talk recently about the film starting production this summer doesn’t seem like it’s going to actually pan out. But for Disney, moving “Indiana Jones 5” is just one of the major moves the studio announced today.

READ MORE: Marvel Studios Shifts Phase 4 Release Dates: ‘Black Widow,’ ‘Eternals,’ ‘Captain Marvel 2’ & More

According to THR, Disney has decided to delay “Indiana Jones 5,” “Jungle Cruise,” and “Mulan” in an attempt to figure out what to do in light of the COVID-19 pandemic shutting down productions and cinemas for the foreseeable future.

Continue reading ‘Indiana Jones 5’ Moves To 2022 & ‘Mulan’ Lands In July As Disney Continues To Shuffle Release Dates at The Playlist.

Video games, where people can sit down for a couple hours (or many hours depending on how hardcore you are) and just play. Players will often meet Non-Playable Characters (NPCs) along the way who can give quests or just tell you little tidbits. Well it seems that one NPC will become self aware in “Free Guy.”

Directed by Shawn Levy (“Night at the Museum”), his film will showcase how an NPC bank teller called Guy, played by Ryan Reynolds (“Deadpool”), will discover he is just a background character in the fictional video game, Free City.

Continue reading ‘Free Guy’ Trailer: Ryan Reynolds Is An NPC Bank Teller In Shawn Levy’s Video Game Action Comedy at The Playlist.

Honestly, it’s a miracle that the cast introduction video for the upcoming film “Free Guy” even exists. How can you get any work done when you have Ryan Reynolds and Taika Waititi in the same room together? Well, somehow Fox made it work and released a new video with the cast of the upcoming action-comedy that features the two men joined by Joe Keery and the recent Emmy winner Jodie Comer.

Continue reading Ryan Reynolds & Taika Waititi Have A Curious Case Of ‘Green Lantern’ Amnesia In New ‘Free Guy’ Video at The Playlist.

It’s the “Green Lantern” reunion you’ve been waiting for! Taika Waititi and Ryan Reynolds are about to team up once again (hopefully, with better results than that 2011 abomination) for an upcoming action-comedy film.

THR is reporting that Waititi, along with actor Utkarsh Ambudkar, has signed on to co-star in the film “Free Guy,” which stars Reynolds and is directed by Shawn Levy.

Continue reading Taika Waititi Reunites With His ‘Green Lantern’ Co-Star Ryan Reynolds For New Action-Comedy, ‘Free Guy’ at The Playlist.

We’ve literally been covering the long-gestating “Uncharted” film for the past 8 years. The adaptation of a popular video game has had numerous filmmakers and stars come and go, teasing fans with a potential blockbuster franchise. Names like David O. Russell, Robert De Niro, Mark Wahlberg, Scarlett Johansson, Neil Burger, Seth Gordon, and Chris Pratt have all been linked to the film in one way or another over the last decade.

Continue reading Director Shawn Levy Leaves ‘Uncharted’ Adaptation For A New Action-Comedy Starring Ryan Reynolds at The Playlist.