Ryan Reynolds may be game to play the Merc With a Mouth indefinitely, but there are still roles for the Canadian actor beyond 20th Century Fox’s lucrative Deadpool franchise. Case in point: Deadline is reporting that Reynolds has opened negotiations to headline upcoming Skydance thriller Life, a role that would have him star opposite Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation breakout, Rebecca Ferguson.
Should the actor put pen to paper, Skydance’s space-bound feature would have him reteaming with Safe House director Daniel Espinosa, who happens to be working from a script pitched by Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese, hot off their work on Deadpool. Behind the scenes, Paramount is reportedly in line to distribute, with David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Bonnie Curtis and Julie Lynn all on board to produce.
Evoking an immediate comparison to Matt Damon-fronted survival flick The Martian, Espinosa’s Life orbits around a manned mission to the red planet that effectively brings an end to the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence. How advanced those lifeforms are is up for question at this early stage, though considering that Skydance’s feature has been pitched as a thriller, Ferguson’s (and potentially Reynolds’) existential feelings of discovery may soon be replaced by sheer terror.
High-profile space features continue to be all the rage in Hollywood, what with the Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt-fronted Passengers along with The Something, a space-set comedy starring Zach Galifianakis, Seth Rogen and Bill Hader. How exactly Life will place among the stars and, specifically, the tone and narrative that Espinosa, Wernick and Resse are creating, will be told in time, but we’re certainly intrigued.
Ryan Reynolds can currently be seen laying siege to genre conventions and box office records almost simultaneously in Tim Miller’s Deadpool.
