Free Guy
Free Guy is a 2021 American action comedy film directed and produced by Shawn Levy from a screenplay by Matt Lieberman and Zak Penn, and a story by Lieberman. The film stars Ryan Reynolds, Jodie Comer, Lil Rel Howery, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Joe Keery, and Taika Waititi. It tells the story of a bank teller who discovers that he is a non-player character in a massively multiplayer online game who then partners with a player to find evidence that a gaming company's CEO stole the player's game's source code. Lieberman began writing the script in 2016, which was acquired by 20th Century Fox shortly after. Levy passed on the script, but reconsidered after Hugh Jackman introduced him to Reynolds, resulting in him leaving the film adaptation of the Uncharted video game he had been developing. The acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney made Free Guy one of the first films produced by 20th Century to continue its production under Disney's ownership. Filming took place in Massachusetts and California between May and July 2019. After the film was delayed two times by the COVID-19 pandemic, it premiered at the 74th Locarno Film Festival on August 10, 2021, and was released theatrically in the United States three days later on August 13 in RealD 3D, IMAX, 4DX and Dolby Cinema formats by 20th Century Studios. It grossed $331.5 million worldwide. The film received generally positive reviews from critics for the concept, comparing it to science fiction films and action video games such as Ready Player One, The Truman Show, The Matrix, Grand Theft Auto, The Lego Movie, and Fortnite. The film received a nomination for Best Visual Effects at the 94th Academy Awards.
They say over a billion NPCs are killed every year. Now, I'm not gonna lie, that's at least 50% my fault. I used to shoot all the secondary characters when I was bored, you know? And then, I'd teabag 'em a little bit. Who the hell even knows who this Blue Shirt Guy is? But I'll tell you this, he's got me thinkin' about NPCs and how I play the game. The game wasn't even made for someone like this, for a player to be a good guy. He's also a really cute guy. And not just the face, you know, like, the whole thing. And, honestly, it's got me realising, maybe we've been thinking about NPCs wrong this whole time. I think Blue Shirt Guy's like a symbol, you know? Like, maybe people can be whatever they want. He's like an icon. Is that the right word? Like, he reminds us of what's possible. Also, he's, like, crazy hot. Oh, my God, totally. I'd hit those pixels hard. We should all be more like Blue Shirt Guy. Maybe we just stop the killing. He's dead! You hear me? The guy, put him up here. Put him up here on the screen. Put him on the screen. Make me see him. There he is. Yes. There he is, the little do-gooder. I thought you liked Blue Shirt. Don't say words to me! People are so busy watching this loser on Twitch and YouTube. You know what they're not doing, guys? Buying Free City 2. - Pre-sales are down 16%. - 60. 60. That's bad. Oh, we are 48 hours from launch.
Free Guy