Video games, where people can sit down for a couple hours (or many hours depending on how hardcore you are) and just play. Players will often meet Non-Playable Characters (NPCs) along the way who can give quests or just tell you little tidbits. Well it seems that one NPC will become self aware in “Free Guy.”
Directed by Shawn Levy (“Night at the Museum”), his film will showcase how an NPC bank teller called Guy, played by Ryan Reynolds (“Deadpool”), will discover he is just a background character in the fictional video game, Free City.
This is a film right up Reynolds’ street, we have seen him play the comic relief in films (like “Deadpool” and in “The Hitman’s Bodyguard”) and this will be no different. You have to think that he is playing a bank teller with no personality, something which NPC’s tend not to have, yet he will have to become a hero to save the game when it gets into the hands of evil developers. That’s right, video game characters will be growing a conscience.
But video game movies have been hard to get right, and director Levy understands the struggle of that. Speaking to Empire, he said, “They have proven near-impossible to get right,” Levy continued, “I myself spent two years working on “Uncharted.” There’s something very scary about trying to do a literal transposing of an experience that audiences can already get in the game.”
Getting a video game movie right has proven to be difficult, with 2018s’ “Tomb Raider” reboot receiving mixed reviews as an example, it could be the turn of a decent video game movie, regardless of it being a fictional one or not. We do have Tom Holland’s “Uncharted” to look out for in the near future (whenever that is) but a good comedy can tide you over till we get right into Nathan Drake’s story.
Alongside Reynolds, there will also be a star studded cast, including “Thor” director Taika Waititi and Channing Tatum of “21 Jump Street.” Joe Keery from “Stranger Things” will be rejoining Levy, as well as Jodie Comer (“Killing Eve”) will also be part of the cast.
Here is the synopsis:
“Free Guy” tells the story of a lonely bank teller who discovers he is actually a background character in the open-world video game Free City.
The film is out in theaters July 3rd 2020. Watch the new trailer below.
