- Title: Ryan Reynolds puts on his game face for 'Free Guy'
- Date: 10th August 2021
- Summary: UNIDENTIFIED FILMING LOCATION (AUGUST 3, 2021) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR AND PRODUCER, RYAN REYNOLDS, SAYING: "The energy part, that's my job is to show up prepared and ready to go and with enough gas in the tank to get it done, you know, but it's a labor of love. I'm also the producer of the movie. There's so many other aspects of it that I get to collaborate with other creatives on that really for me are the reasons to get up in the morning and get it done. It's so much fun."
- Embargoed: 24th August 2021 11:00
- Keywords: Free Guy Jodie Comer Lil Rel Howard MMORPG NPC Ninja Non-Playable Character Ryan Reynolds computer game gaming world genre
- Location: UNIDENTIFIED FILMING LOCATIONS; NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES;
- City: UNIDENTIFIED FILMING LOCATIONS; NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES;
- Country: USA
- Topics: Arts/Culture/Entertainment,Film,United States
- Reuters ID: LVA006EPP4BIL
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Ryan Reynolds' new film 'Free Guy' packs a lot into its nearly two hour duration.
The film, set in an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game), sees Reynolds as Guy, an NPC (Non-Player Character), who suddenly becomes more and more human after a chance encounter with a player named Molotov Girl (Jodie Comer).
"It's an action comedy adventure kind of film. Its inspiration is 'Back to the Future' and movies like that that," Reynolds told Reuters.
While Joe Keery, who plays the game's programmer Keys, says the film is about an "existential crisis", Lil Rel Howery, who plays NPC Buddy, describes the film as "romance, comedy, action and special effects and heart."
"I wouldn't necessarily call it a video game movie, even though it's set in an open world video game," said Reynolds. "We're kind of smuggling a lot of other themes into that premise."
The themes include free will, unrequited love and even gun control.
The film features a surprise Hollywood star cameo, dinosaurs, a gun-toting rabbit, crashing helicopters, and even a musclebound version of Reynolds himself called Dude.
"There are moments where you are in a full cop costume with an Uzi and you're shooting Ryan Reynolds and Utkarsh (Ambudkar, who plays programmer Mouser) is in a big rabbit suit and you're kind of like 'How the hell is this going on?" Keery said.
The film also features Taika Waititi as gaming studio head Antoine as well as some of the world's biggest gaming YouTubers.
Ninja, who produces gaming videos for his 24.1 million subscribers, may feature throughout the film, but he's uncomfortable seeing himself on the big screen.
"I'm like 'Dude, I don't want to watch that, man. I don't want to see myself on camera', which is funny because I'm always on camera so it's still a little weird," he said.
Despite its mass of ideas, cameos and themes, 'Free Guy', which hits cinemas on August 13 in the United States, seems to have won over the critics. It has a rating of 84% on review aggregate site rottentomatoes.com.
While gaming fans may enjoy the film, according to Howery, it may change the way they view computer games forever.
"If I play 'Grand Theft Auto' right now, because of 'Free Guy', I feel bad for all those regular people who are getting carjacked and all this other stuff because at first, it's just funny. I'm going to carjack somebody - hahaha - get out your gun. Now I feel like this game is insane like 'Leave that person alone. They didn't even do nothing to you. They're on their way to work.'"
(Production: Rollo Ross) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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