Justin Baldoni clearly wants to get Ryan Reynolds involved in the legal drama that’s unfolding between himself and Blake Lively, which is quite amusing. I approve of this decision. Let’s rumble.
Yes, the legal battle has now spread, and we have folks like Marvel president Kevin Feige, and Disney CEO Bob Iger becoming the latest industry figures swept into the drama. Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, has sent Feige and Iger litigation letters to preserve all relevant documents and data with regards to Baldoni.
Feige and Iger seem to be involved in this mess because of their participation in “Deadpool & Wolverine,” which starred Reynolds. The filing claims that Reynolds, with the possible assistance of Feige, purposely mocked Baldoni onscreen via the oafish “Nicepool” character.
More intriguingly, Tim Miller is now being dragged into the quarrel as well. What Ryan Reynolds did to Miller on “Deadpool 2” has been written about ad nauseum, and you can bet Miller, no doubt while under oath, will finally be telling his side of the story. If you remember, Reynolds decided to creatively interfere on “Deadpool 2,” which caused Miller to abruptly quit the movie.
Baldoni wants Miller as a witness to show as evidence a pattern of behavior from Reynolds. He believes Reynolds stole “It Ends With Us” from him much like the actor stole “Deadpool 2” from Miller.
The letter instructs the studio to preserve any documents and data “relating to complaints made against Ryan Reynolds by any person, including without limitation Tim Miller” and Miller’s departure from the film “Deadpool 2” as well as any instances of Reynolds exerting “creative control of any film project.”
Last we checked, Miller and Reynolds weren’t on speaking terms. They clashed hard during pre-production on “Deadpool 2” in regards to script and casting.
Back in August, TheInSneider reported that there were competing cuts of “It Ends With Us.” Apparently, Lively took over Baldoni’s edit despite his cut having scored higher with audiences. How did Lively get away with this? Well, for one thing, she had a powerful husband, Reynolds, who “basically took over the movie.”
Baldoni’s lawsuit additionally mentions that Reynolds rewrote parts of the “It Ends With Us” script without his knowledge and that he only found that out when Lively casually admitted it during a red-carpet interview. The filing additionally claims this caused on-set chaos as entire scenes were delayed, and budgets got stretched.
The short version: "Woman Unknown" was a compromise. The jury deadlocked over "Possible Love" and "NAZA," not able to com to terms, fell back on their #3, May el-Toukhy's film.