The $7 million cuts that got Deadpool greenlit at the last minute

Deadpool is one of the year's most highly-anticipated films, but it almost didn't happen. Even after test footage leaked and fans were begging Twentieth Century Fox to make the movie, director Tim Miller and writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick had to slash $7 million from their projected budget. Worse, they had just 48 hours to do so.

"We, as a group, just put our heads together, got creative, and said 'How do we cut what is essentially nine pages out of a 110 page script?'" Reese told i09. Stressful though it must have been, the team pulled it off. The reduction of three enemy characters into one to create Angel Dust (Gina Carano), the removal of a motorcycle chase scene, and scaling down a gunfight in the third act all helped Deadpool finally get the go-ahead. Reese and Wernick even had a little fun with that last change, by having Deadpool forget his guns when the shootout would've taken place. Can't have a big, expensive gunfight without guns, after all.

"It was that last, lean and mean chop that got us to a place where Fox was willing to make it," Reese said. "The script was very efficient and not too long. That was a function of budget more than anything, but I think it really made the movie pace nicely."

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Directed by Tim Miller and starring Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, Ed Skrein, T.J. Miller and Gina Carano, Deadpool opened in UK cinemas on February 10, 2016. It will debut in US theaters on February 12, 2016.

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Images: Twentieth Century Fox