Movies News
Superhero Buzz: New Writers Nabbed for 'X-Force' and 'Deadpool 2'
Right now, we’re waiting to see what will come next for Fox’s X-Men movie series, which wrapped up multiple storylines in last year’s X-Men: Apocalypse. Meanwhile, Hugh Jackman’s X-Men spin-off Logan is already receiving rave reviews — such as this one by our own Erik Davis — ahead of its wide release on March 3.
Naturally, that makes us eager to hear about Fox’s other upcoming movies based on Marvel comic books. Now comes word via Collider that Joe Carnahan (above, left) is writing the screenplay for X-Force. Like many comic book series, numerous iterations of X-Force have been published over the years, though the primary focus remains on a group of military-minded mutants.
Carnahan has been in the news lately because of his plans to write and direct a new version of the superb, Indonesian-language action movie The Raid. In December, we heard that he’ll be directing Jackie Chan in the action movie Five Against the Bullet. Before that, Carnahan wrote a script for a big-screen adaptation of video game Uncharted, which is currently moving forward with Shawn Levy set to direct.
Carnahan’s also currently preparing to direct the third installment of the Bad Boys series. But before that happens, he’s obviously keeping busy with a slew of exciting projects.
In related news, Drew Goddard (top, right) has been hired to write a new draft of Deadpool 2, according to Collider. That may come as a surprise, since we’d already heard that Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, who wrote the Deadpool screenplay, have been working on the script for the sequel.
The report further indicates that Goddard is working directly with Ryan Reynolds on the script. Reynolds served as a producer on Deadpool and is doing so again on the sequel, so that aspect is not surprising; the original was a huge success at the box office, after all.
Goddard, who directed The Cabin in the Woods, is mostly known as a writer — see our own Peter Hall’s interview with him — and lately he’s been working on Netflix’s Marvel adaptations Daredevil and The Defenders. Perhaps his involvement will help get the script to the finishing stages, so production can still begin this year as planned.