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[Interview] Director David Leitch Talks ‘Deadpool 2’ Gore and Deleted/Extended Scenes

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Deadpool movies are R-rated when it comes to language and violence, and Deadpool 2 might be even gorier than the original. Director David Leitch said he had no trouble securing an R-rating from the MPAA, and in fact reigned the film in when he was in post.

“There were never any issues and we really did our best to self-censor in a way,” Leitch revealed to us.

“I think we made our choices to be bold where we needed to be bold and be irreverent where we needed to be irreverent. We swung for the fences in other places and in editorial we maybe reigned ourselves in because we didn’t want to subvert a comic moment or an emotional moment. It was a balancing act but the movie led us to a place where it is and we didn’t have any problems with the rating.”

Deadpool 2 has action scenes in which Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) decapitates bad guys and chops off their arms, not to mention all the injuries Deadpool suffers before his regeneration powers kick in. Even though the theatrical cut is his director’s cut, Leitch promises to share the excised gore at some point.

“Yeah, there’s fun stuff,” Leitch said. “I hope we get to share that in an extended cut or deleted scenes.”

“That would be fun to share with the audience but like I said, the movie that’s out there is what the movie needed to be. I think when you go out and direct a movie, you make some bold choices and you experiment in production. You really spread your wings, and then when you get in editorial you start to whittle away at it and carve it and sculpt it and finalize it. We’re really proud of where it stands theatrically but there’s a lot of fun stuff too that we would like to share with the audience that I think they’ll enjoy on the Blu-ray.”

One deleted scene we’re likely to see is an extended version of a fight scene from the film’s opening action montage.

“Look, there’s a single shot in the bathhouse fight with the yakuza that’s part of the opening montage that was a seamless 360 shot that’s really fun,” Leitch said. “It’s sword fighting in a bathhouse full of yakuza that I think at some point we’ll share with the audience in someway. If not on the Blu-ray, somewhere else.”

Leitch already choreographs R-rated action in movies like John Wick and Atomic Blonde. A superhero who literally chops people up did open up some new creative opportunities.

“I’ll say it is really fun and liberating,” Leitch said. “I know people have concerns about the level of violence, but in a rated R comic book film, it does allow your choreography to run wild. It’s sort of fun to be the 13-year-old boy with swords and do a crazy fight scene in a bathhouse full of yakuza. What other movie would I get to do that in?”

Deadpool 2 also features several fight scenes in which Wade Wilson kicks ass without wearing the red suit.

“I just didn’t want the red suit to drive the action,” Leitch said.

“Basically, it was either me or the story. Deadpool isn’t always in his suit and there are moments in this film where we really needed him to do it out of it.”

Outside of his suit, Wade is already covered with prosthetic makeup, which means Reynolds can be doubled by stuntmen in the same makeup. However, Reynolds does as much as Leitch will let him.

“Look, we can use all the movie magic tricks known to man,” Leitch said. “Coming from a stunt background, I do like to use stunt performers if I can in certain sequences. I’ll say this, Ryan is always game to get in there and do his fighting stuff. He’s really good at it. He’s been doing action movies for a long time. It’s good to have a great stunt double but it’s also good to have an actor who’s willing and that’s when you get the best combination of spectacle on the screen.”

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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