How Ryan Reynolds hit Free Guy got the video- game look of Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto
- Shawn Levy turned down the chance to direct the movie, but changed his mind when Reynolds said that together they could make ‘a new Truman Show’
- Free Guy is the latest example of video games and movies learning from each other, with a cross-pollination of ideas between the two
Shawn Levy turned down Free Guy the first time he was approached to direct it.
“I think I read about a third of the script and said, ‘You know what? This should probably be some hardcore gamer that you get to direct it,’” says Levy over Zoom. “And I moved on.”
Years later, Ryan Reynolds reached out to the Night at the Museum director after he received the script, without knowing Levy had previously been considered to direct it.
“I didn’t tell Ryan that I had already read it,” Levy recalls. “I said, ‘Why are you calling me? I’m not a hardcore gamer.’ Ryan says ‘[Let’s] take a video-game premise but make a movie that is not just for gamers. Let’s make a new Truman Show, a movie about personal awareness and empowerment and the very relatable notion that you can live in the background or you can step forward to be seen and effect change.’”