Ryan Reynolds To Star In First Rom-Com In 10 Years, ‘Shotgun Wedding’
Actor Ryan Reynolds is a very versatile thespian. He’s played all kinds of characters on the silver screen from funny to serious. He’s been an FBI agent, a CIA operative, someone who was buried alive, the hitman’s bodyguard, and the Green Lantern. Most recently, he’s been earning rave reviews as the star of the Deadpool series in which he plays the sarcastic superhero.
Many of Reynolds’ female fans, however, have been waiting for the handsome 42-year-old star to do another romantic comedy. He romanced actress Tara Reid in 2002’s National Lampoon’s Van Wilder, Amy Smart in 2005’s Just Friends, and took viewers on a journey to figure out who his real true love was — Isla Fisher, Elizabeth Banks, or Rachel Weisz — in 2008’s Definitely, Maybe.
But it was his 2009 film The Proposal that really sealed his deal as a leading man. Filmgoers loved his on-screen chemistry with actress Sandra Bullock, who played the boss that he must marry so she can get her work visa and not be deported to Canada. The movie, which also starred Betty White, Mary Steenburgen, and Craig T. Nelson, grossed more than $317 million worldwide, won the award for Favorite Comedy Movie at the 36th People’s Choice Awards, and took home three Teen Choice Awards, including Choice Summer Movie – Romance.
On Tuesday, January 29, it was announced that Reynolds will be making his long-awaited return to the rom-com genre in Lionsgate Film’s Shotgun Wedding.
According to Deadline, the movie is about an engaged couple who planned an extravagant destination wedding, but never could have imagined that criminals would hijack it. As they work together to save their families, they rediscover why they fell in love with each other in the first place.
“I haven’t done a romantic comedy since The Proposal, but I just fell in love with Shotgun Wedding. It’s so refreshing and surprising. I can’t wait to bring it to life,” said Reynolds in a statement.
He will co-produce the movie, through his Maximum Effort production company, along with Todd Lieberman and David Hoberman of Mandeville Films — the two men who helped him create on-screen magic with The Proposal.
“We’ve been looking for an opportunity to re-team with Ryan. He’s a rare actor who can do it all, and we are so excited to have found the right film for all of us,” said Lieberman and Hoberman.
Shotgun Wedding, which will be directed by Jason Moore (Pitch Perfect), is slated to start shooting this summer. The female lead and other characters have yet to be cast.
Since it will be a while before the rom-com hits movie theaters, Reynolds fans can satisfy their fix with two movies in 2019. In the live-action film Pokemon: Detective Pikachu, due out May 10, he voices the titular character, and he is also in the Michael Bay-directed action-thriller 6 Underground, due this year from Netflix, about billionaires who fake their own deaths and then form an elite vigilante squad to take down criminals.
