Ryan Reynolds On Struggle To Make Deadpool

Ryan Reynolds has told Sky News he tried to get Deadpool made for 11 years because it is one of those "rare properties that comes along that studios don't want to make".

The comic book super hero film is based on Marvel's most unconventional anti-hero - Wade Wilson who tries to cure his cancer by a undergoing a rogue experiment that leaves him indestructible.

The dark and twisted character exists within the X-Men universe which was something Reynolds knew would be problematic with 20th Century Fox, which owns the franchise.

"The X-Men universe is a very valuable asset that Fox owns so it's not easy to pitch," he said.

"The truth is I never got the movie made, I begged and pleaded, but we shot a bit of test footage years ago, it sat on a shelf at Fox and one day it accidentally leaked on the internet and here we are."

Fans of the comic book character appealed to the studio to make a big screen version but Reynolds told Sky News they didn't exactly back the movie to the hilt once they had green lit the project

"The best thing that ever happened to us was that they made us make this movie against all odds, they gave us the absolute bare minimum - we had to squeeze $10 out of every $1 they gave us," he said.

But a lack of a multimillion-dollar budget allowed Reynolds and director Tim Miller the freedom to embrace the character's anti-hero sensibilities.

"We got to rely on character. Deadpool is never going to be the guy that's saving the world," he said.

"Deadpool doesn't care about saving the world - he's a morally flexible anti-hero - so we had a lot of freedom and that felt really good."

The film has received strong reviews from critics, although Reynolds admits that it is a tricky character to fit into the X-Men franchise.

"For the longest time we weren't even on the studio's radar but now we're their prize possession, so we'll see what they want to do but I know that the way forward is to continue with Deadpool standalone films," he said.

"Deadpool will always interact with the X-Men universe but you just have to do it carefully."

:: Deadpool is in cinemas now.