Fox told me a number, Miller recalled while talking aboutDeadpoolwith EW last year.
The number had to start with a four.
And then it was up to the point where the senior execs at Fox were looking at it.
Credit: Joe Lederer
[Fox chairman] Tom Rothman just said, No.
We dont get it.
Tom told me, Love your passion but I just dont care for the script.
[Rothman,who now runs Sony, declined comment on the films development.]
Plus, I was a first-time director.
Its a particular confluence of momentum and money and talent that leads to any movie getting made.
And the answer was, Its not the right time, we appreciate your passion.
I wrote a lot of emails and Im sure I annoyed the s out of them.
Miller even offered to sacrifice the R-rating if it meant getting the movie made.
We lost a few fs and we lost a few sexual references.
But we didnt have to adjust the violence at all.
Wolverine is stabbing people with swords on his hands and thats happily PG-13.
(He now runs Sony Pictures.)
And I was horrified.
I immediately wrote Fox an email and said I swear on my daughters life I didnt leak this test.
But, he added, within two months we were greenlit.
The rest is history box office and otherwise.
