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Free Guy: Ryan Reynolds grapples with video game existentialism in first trailer
Fox has unveiled the first action- and joke-packed trailer for its video-game-based comedy Free Guy. Written by Matt Lieberman (The Christmas Chronicles) and Zak Penn (Ready Player One), the movie follows a bank teller named Guy (Ryan Reynolds) who discovers that he's actually a non-playable character in a violent and open-world video game.
Helmed by Shawn Levy (a producer of Stranger Things), the feature co-stars an incredible supporting cast comprised of Jodie Comer (Killing Eve), Lil Rel Howery (Get Out), Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbit), Joe Keery (Stranger Things), and Channing Tatum (Kingsman: The Golden Circle).
Check out the Disney-lampooning teaser, which debuted at CCXP in Brazil today, below. The use of Mariah Carey's "Fantasy" is a nice touch.
Originally greenlit by 20th Century Fox, the project will be released by the Mouse House, which now owns the latter studio; hence the crack about Disney's various live-action remakes at the start of the trailer.
As you can see, the adventure begins in earnest when Guy (his naïveté is very much like Emmett's in The Lego Movie) kills a regular player and takes their virtual glasses, allowing him to see the hidden power-ups in the game, which is titled Free City. With this new sight in hand, Guy begins to test his own abilities and level up.
“It’s a cross between Grand Theft Auto and The Truman Show, and I’m finding it to be one of the biggest musical challenges of my career," the project's composer, Christophe Beck, recently told SYFY WIRE. "There are several different universes to consider within the film. Universes within universes that all need to have a distinct musical treatment, and I’m just still kind of working it out of my head, exactly what each of those are gonna sound like."
Here's a new poster as well:
This trailer is basically identical to the one we caught at New York Comic Con in early October.
During that panel, Fox also screened a number of clips from the movie, including the one that precedes the "great guy" exchange between Guy and Comer's in-game avatar, Molotov Girl.
In the real world, Comer plays Milly, a game designer who—along with the character of Keys (Keery)—comes up with a line of code that allows Guy to gain sentience in the first place. Based on another clip they showed at NYCC, the code was stolen and inserted into Free City by Antwan (Waititi), a self-absorbed and pilfering video game publisher.
Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter and Adam Kolbrenner with Mary McLaglen, Josh McLaglen, George Dewey, Dan Levine, and Michael Riley McGrath are producing the film alongside Reynolds and Levy.
Free Guy enters the game (and theaters everywhere) July 3, 2020.
