Ryan Reynolds admits leaking Deadpool test footage

Actor Ryan Reynolds has acknowledged that he was the source of the leaked test footage that helped launch the Deadpool film franchise, saying at the Toronto International Film Festival that he "cheated a little" when the clip was released online in 2014. The footage, a computer generated test sequence produced by director Tim Miller around 2012 as a pitch for a standalone Deadpool movie, had been rejected and shelved by 20th Century Fox before it surfaced on the internet and prompted an immediate fan reaction that pressured the studio to greenlight the R rated film.

Reynolds spoke about the decision during a TIFF appearance promoting a documentary he is producing, saying he shot the test footage with Miller as a "case study" to show how the character could work on screen. He said the studio was reluctant because Deadpool was an obscure, borderline character at the time and the idea of an R rated comic book movie made executives uneasy. "Yes, I cheated a little, but I think I was onto something that people would be interested in," Reynolds said. He added that he felt grateful for having followed his instinct, even while acknowledging it may have been the wrong move legally....