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[Interview] How David Leitch’s ‘X-Force’ Movie Became ‘Deadpool 2’

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Deadpool 2 makes a joke about the inevitable X-Force movie. It’s already in the trailers. Deadpool dubs Domino (Zazie Beetz), Bedlam (Terry Crews) and their team the X-Force. Domino herself calls out how derivative that name is. While Deadpool 2 is sure not to become an X-Force movie, director David Leitch was actually developing X-Force when he was called upon to direct Deadpool 2.

“Part of the function of this movie was to introduce X-Force and expand the world with Deadpool in it,” Leitch told us. “That was something that drew me to the material. I was on early developing X-Force for a brief amount of time, which is how I think my name came up so quickly for Deadpool 2. So I left that to do this film, helping to introduce these characters in this way.”

X-Force wasn’t quite at the point of choosing team members when Leitch left, but he got several in Deadpool 2.

“We were still in discussions about who it was going to be and who we wanted in,” Leitch said. “It was really early days. It was sort of right around that time. Honestly, a month into it, I was doing my research about how I saw the world and I was putting together my package and take about what X-Force could be for me as a filmmaker. They flipped the script on me and said, ‘Hey, would you be interested in doing Deadpool 2?’ So I met with Ryan [Reynolds] on that.”

Reynolds has been the champion of Deadpool ever since he played a wonky version of Wade Wilson in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Insisting that a real Deadpool movie be rated R, Reynolds even orchestrated the leak of a camera test that got the first movie greenlit. So he was equally discerning about the sequel.

“They had been working on some drafts,” Leitch said. “He had a real strong point of view about where he wanted to take it and I really liked it. As daunting as it was to step into a sequel that was so beloved, I really felt it was a good story and I wanted to tell it.”

An X-Force movie is inevitable, and there is already a New Mutants movie in production. It’s kind of funny, since the New Mutants comics introduced Deadpool, but the Deadpool movies came first. Leitch said he didn’t knowingly set up anything in New Mutants, but wouldn’t put it past Reynolds to sneak something in.

“Honestly, I don’t think we did,” Leitch said. “I say that because there are times when Mr. Ryan Reynolds might slip an Easter egg in through the art department that I might even be unaware of. I would think the Deadpool universe is standalone in some respects.”

Deadpool 2 opens May 18.

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[Review] Graphic Novel ‘Tender’ Is Brilliant Feminist Body Horror That Will Make You Squirm & Scream

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Tender Beth Hetland Graphic Novel

Beth Hetland’s debut graphic novel, ‘Tender,’ is a modern tale of love, validation, and self-destruction by way of brutal body horror with a feminist edge.

“I’ve wanted this more than anything.”

Men so often dominate the body horror subgenre, which makes it so rare and insightful whenever women tackle this space. This makes Beth Hetland’s Tender such a refreshing change of pace. It’s earnest, honest, and impossibly exposed. Tender takes the body horror subgenre and brilliantly and subversively mixes it together with a narrative that’s steeped in the societal expectations that women face on a daily basis, whether it comes to empowerment, family, or sexuality. It single-handedly beats other 2023 and ‘24 feminine horror texts like American Horror Story: Delicate, Sick, Lisa Frankenstein, and Immaculate at their own game.

Hetland’s Tender is American Psycho meets Rosemary’s Baby meets Swallow. It’s also absolutely not for the faint of heart.

Right from the jump, Tender grabs hold of its audience and doesn’t let go. Carolanne’s quest for romantic fulfillment, validation, and a grander purpose is easy to empathize with and an effective framework for this woeful saga. Carolanne’s wounds cut so deep simply because they’re so incredibly commonplace. Everybody wants to feel wanted.

Tender is full of beautiful, gross, expressive artwork that makes the reader squirm in their seat and itch. Hetland’s drawings are simultaneously minimalist and comprehensively layered. They’re  reminiscent of Charles Burns’ Black Hole, in the best way possible. There’s consistently inspired and striking use of spot coloring that elevates Hetland’s story whenever it’s incorporated, invading Tender’s muted world.

Hetland employs effective, economical storytelling that makes clever use of panels and scene construction so that Tender can breeze through exposition and get to the story’s gooey, aching heart. There’s an excellent page that depicts Carolanne’s menial domestic tasks where the repetitive panels grow increasingly smaller to illustrate the formulaic rut that her life has become. It’s magical. Tender is full of creative devices like this that further let the reader into Carolanne’s mind without ever getting clunky or explicit on the matter. The graphic novel is bookended with a simple moment that shifts from sweet to suffocating.

Tender gives the audience a proper sense of who Carolanne is right away. Hetland adeptly defines her protagonist so that readers are immediately on her side, praying that she gets her “happily ever after,” and makes it out of this sick story alive…And then they’re rapidly wishing for the opposite and utterly aghast over this chameleon. There’s also some creative experimentation with non-linear storytelling that gets to the root of Carolanne and continually recontextualizes who she is and what she wants out of life so that the audience is kept on guard.

Tender casually transforms from a picture-perfect rom-com, right down to the visual style, into a haunting horror story. There’s such a natural quality to how Tender presents the melancholy manner in which a relationship — and life — can decay. Once the horror elements hit, they hit hard, like a jackhammer, and don’t relent. It’s hard not to wince and grimace through Tender’s terrifying images. They’re reminiscent of the nightmarish dadaist visuals from The Ring’s cursed videotape, distilled to blunt comic panels that the reader is forced to confront and digest, rather than something that simply flickers through their mind and is gone a moment later. Tender makes its audience marinate in its mania and incubates its horror as if it’s a gestating fetus in their womb.

Tender tells a powerful, emotional, disturbing story, but its secret weapon may be its sublime pacing. Hetland paces Tender in such an exceptional manner, so that it takes its time, sneaks up on the reader, and gets under their skin until they’re dreading where the story will go next. Tender pushes the audience right up to the edge so that they’re practically begging that Carolanne won’t do the things that she does, yet the other shoe always drops in the most devastating manner. Audiences will read Tender with clenched fists that make it a struggle to turn each page, although they won’t be able to stop. Tender isn’t a short story, at more than 160 pages, but readers will want to take their time and relish each page so that this macabre story lasts for as long as possible before it cascades to its tragic conclusion. 

Tender is an accomplished and uncomfortable debut graphic novel from Hetland that reveals a strong, unflinching voice that’s the perfect fit for horror. Tender indulges in heightened flights of fancy and toes the line with the supernatural. However, Tender is so successful at what it does because it’s so grounded in reality and presents a horror story that’s all too common in society. It’s a heartbreaking meditation on loneliness and codependency that’s one of 2024’s must-read horror graphic novels.

‘Tender,’ by Beth Hetland and published by Fantagraphics, is now available.

4 out of 5 skulls

Tender graphic novel review

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