Why the Soska Twins Should Be Directing the Next Deadpool!
News broke over the weekend that Tim Miller has exited the Deadpool sequel, and his departure is a bummer considering how great the first one was. This leaves a huge important superhero franchise without a director. There is a now a petition to get Tarantino to direct it with almost 500 signatures, but this cool idea is slightly absurd as an alternative, because he has made a career of only making films that he writes. Ryan Reynolds, and the powers at 20th Century Fox, need to look no further than the Soska Twins as the new directors. Here is why.
For as long as I have been following Jen and Sylvia Soska, they have been publicly celebrating their love of Deadpool. They know the franchise inside and out, and it would make perfect sense for someone who knows these characters so intensely to helm the film. From what I have read, Ryan Reynolds is the biggest Deadpool fan ever; he should set up a Deadpool trivia match. The Soskas vs. ANY other director that he is considering. The Twins would win.
However, just because they are super fans of Deadpool doesn’t necessarily make them right to direct such a big film; there are so many more reasons to hire them. We all know the way Hollywood works, and there are probably only a half-dozen directors that would be approved by the studio to handle a film of this scale and scope. Fox will want to hire a director with a track record of bringing in a huge film, a proven box office return, as well as someone who has worked within a studio system who understands the collaborative nature of a film this big. Fox needs proof that the new director is going to be able play at their level.
The proof is already out there. You need to look no further than their film American Mary to see the similarities. Both films deal with touchy subject matter; both are daring and bold with what could have been predictable or (even worse) cheesy subject matter. This is exactly why the Soskas are the PERFECT match to handle this particular sequel!
If you look at what made the original Deadpool film so great, it was because this film stayed true to the comic character and did not wuss out with a “safe” version. The nuanced character did the good AND the bad things that he was supposed to do. Deadpool didn’t just curse and be cocky; there is a very real love story driving the film, and that love story was not the typical boy meet girl boy loses girl love story. It was messy, unpleasant and layered. The cinematic gloss of both American Mary and Deadpool is on the screen while being mixed with the characters’ unflattering and dirty, unfiltered thoughts.
Art is not supposed to be safe, and great art has a sense of danger to it, and Deadpool delivered that under a façade of a funny superhero Hollywood blockbuster. This sequel needs to be just as edgy and unsafe as the first one. We as the audience were taken on a journey that, from the opening credit sequence, informs us that this film was not going to be safe or typical. The gloves have come off on the first film, and the second one would be a disaster if it was watered down with a “safe” director. Both Deadpool and American Mary make the audience hyper aware that anything can happen within, and we are left helpless to wherever they take us.
The Soska sisters have a proven an understanding of filmmaking within specific studio requirements because they were able to bring in a couple films within the WWE (billion dollar) brand and they did it with such style and elegance that WWE hired them again! Not to mention that the Soskas have a mastery of their own personal brand of social networking/marketing, which is something that Deadpool did expertly. The Twins have been active and engaging with their fans and have brought a genuine sense of fun to the horror community, as actual human beings, as horror fans, and as bold and exciting filmmakers.
James Gunn, Gareth Edwards, Rian Johnson, Scott Derrickson and Tim Miller are all kick-ass directors who didn’t have hundred million dollar franchises behind them when they were given the keys to drive the tentpoles that they respectively helmed. They were not on any studio-approved director lists at first, but now they are some of the most in-demand and beloved directors of our time.
We in the horror community should all be championing Jen and Sylvia Soska to be the directors of the next Deadpool. Just imagine what they will do with it, and imagine what amazing things they can bring to this franchise. The Soskas may be the only directors that I truly trust to “GET” Deadpool right on the second go-round. Imagine what they could do with a large budget like that; it would really let them shine. If Dead Hooker in a Trunk is their Evil Dead, then Deadpool could certainly be their Spider-Man.
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