Taika Waititi has joined the cast of ‘Free Guy’.
The 43-year-old director-and-actor is set to star alongside Ryan Reynolds in the video game inspired action/comedy by 20th Century Fox, which is being directed by ‘Stranger Things’ executive producer Shawn Levy.
Taika earned critical acclaim for his films ‘What We Do in the Shadows’ and ‘Hunt for the Wilderpeople’ before rising to international fame for his role in Marvel’s 2017 ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ – which he also helmed – playing supporting character Korg.
The movie will follow Ryan, 42, as the titular Guy – a bank teller who discovers that he’s actually a character living within an open-world video game – while Taika will play the owner of the company that makes the game, which is soon to be shut down.
The comedy will be penned by Matt Lieberman and Zak Penn and the cast will also feature ‘Killing Eve’ actress Jodie Comer and ‘Stranger Things’ star Joe Keery.
The ‘Deadpool’ star will produce via his company, Maximum Effort, while Levy is also producing with his 21 Laps Entertainment banner along with Greg Berlanti and Sarah Schechter of Berlanti Productions and Adam Kolbrenner.
George Dewy will executive produce alongside Dan Levine of 21 Laps and Mike Ireland will oversee the project for 20th Century Fox, which will continue to produce films under Disney ownership.
Taika is soon set to helm and co-write a TV adaptation of ‘Time Bandits’ – the pilot for a potential TV series based on Terry Gilliam’s 1981 fantasy sci-fi movie.
The pilot is reportedly being created for Apple, with the potential to turn it into a full series if it is well received.
Anonymous Content, Paramount Television and Media Rights Capital are co-producing the episode, whilst Waititi, Gilliam, and Dan Halstead will also serve as the project’s executive producers.
Taika Waititi joines the cast of Free Guy
