DEADPOOL, the brain child of Ryan Reynolds, has been nominated for a Writers Guild Award alongside Oscars favourites La La Land, Manchester by the Sea and Moonlight. The foul-mouthed superhero received both critical acclaim and huge financial success during its February release last year.
With a risk-free budget of just £47 million, Deadpool managed to rake in a whopping £636 million at the global box office – making it the eighth highest grossing film of 2016. If that wasn’t enough, Reynolds is now being showered in awards nominations for his first outing as the Merc with a Mouth. Most recently Deadpool won Best Comedy and Best Actor in a Comedy at the Critics’ Choice Awards. Having also picked up gongs at the MTV and Teen Choice Awards, the film is now contending with 2017 Oscars favourites for a Writers Guild Award.
Only a few hours left for Oscar voting. Too late for a write-in campaign for an ineligible movie? pic.twitter.com/kR4nrRrULv
— Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) February 23, 2016
Deadpool will go up against Arrival, Fences Hidden Figures and Nocturnal Animals in the Best Adapted Screenplay category. The screenplay was written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wenick, both of whom are penning Deadpool 2 – which will be released in a year’s time. While fans can find out if Deadpool has won on February 19, there’s also the Golden Globe Awards this Sunday January 8.
Reynolds and the movie are up against Ryan Gosling and La La Land in the Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy) and Best Actor (Musical or Comedy) categories. Even if Oscar favourite La La Land beats Deadpool, the sheer number of nominations for the comic book movie could well see it given a nod at the Academy Awards themselves.
However it’s not just this superhero who could change the usual award snubbing of comic book movies.
Reynolds recently revealed he had seen part of Hugh Jackman’s final Wolverine outing, Logan, and said it is a serious Oscar contender. While Jackman has said it will be his ninth and final movie as Wolverine, Reynolds is trying to convince him to join Deadpool in a crossover movie – something the Aussie actor is seriously considering, having called it a “perfect fit”.