Can you imagine Deadpool breaking into song in a bar, belting out his own unique take on Beauty and The Beast’s “Gaston”? Of course you can, and so did the creative minds behind the YouTube channel Deadpool Said, who, a few years ago, offered up a video of exactly that.
Now, millions of views later, CBM is sitting down with the creative minds behind that short, providing exclusive behind-the-scenes comments, images and a “making of” video.
Michael Parker (Actor, “Deadpool”/Executive Producer): “Being a Deadpool fan, I was getting a film-accurate Deadpool suit. So I began thinking, ‘Hey, I have this great suit. Now what do I do?’ And like Deadpool, Voice whispered ‘Gaston’ into my head.”
Julian Higgins (Director/Producer):“I had the great pleasure of being a director for an incredibly high quality 1960s Star Trek fan created series called Star Trek Continues of which Michael Parker was an associate producer. After a screening of a couple of our episodes in the Bay area, Michael gave me a quick sidewalk pitch after some sushi dinner: ‘I have this kickass, cinema-quality Deadpool costume. How about a video where Deadpool sings his own version of “Gaston” while kicking ass in a bar?’”
Michael Parker: “I had loved the song since I first heard it in the original Disney animated feature. ‘No one ... like Deadpool’ sang out to me. And, no, I had not heard about the Disney live action movie at the time. So I told Julian the idea and he said, ‘Brilliant, let’s do it! I know this guy who can write the script.’”
Paul Bianchi (Writer/Production Designer/Producer): “Fortunately, I happened to be a really good fit for this project as a writer who’s an avid comic book nerd, and with a background in comedy, musicals and parody. Michael and Julian definitely conceptualized the idea, then passed me the baton to turn it into a script.”
Michael Parker: “And what a beautiful, brilliant script it was! ‘No one’s slick like Deadpool! No one’s quick like Deadpool! No one punches you right in the dick like Deadpool!’ From the opening scene to the Marvel-esque after credit scene, it was R-rated poetry.”
Paul Bianchi: “The script felt like it wrote itself; the rhymes and the jokes all felt very organic and right. Sometimes they snuck up on me, like my favorite couplet of rhyming ‘Get off’ with ‘Romanoff.’”
Julian Higgins: “It was just one of those ideas that you could immediately see the fun and appeal of. Deadpool as a musical feels so obvious once you consider it! He breaks the fourth wall, he’s a complete lunatic and it’s totally reasonable to see Wade Wilson hopping around a bar singing the soundtrack to Beauty and The Beast while eviscerating bad guys. So we talked details, numbers on how to make it happen, and next thing I knew, I’m building the crew list, we’re location scouting, costume fitting, recording the song, rehearsing with the stunt team and deciding on which unicorn Deadpool would most likely hump.”
Michael Parker: “The film, which was a musical, was in fact a long fight scene. So it needed to have a fully choreographed sequence of fights and stunts throughout the piece. No stunts? No Deadpool Musical.”
Brian Danner (Stunt Coordinator/Producer): “Julian arranged a meeting with Michael and I, and I was immediately sold on the idea. Michael loved Deadpool the way I love the character of Wolverine — which we agreed must make an appearance after the credits. As you know, Deadpool fans are some of the most vocal, unique and awesome ones around, so we knew we had to get it precise. Michael’s voice, the movements, the right lighting, animation, special effects, stunts, etc. As a stunt coordinator, my goal creatively was to make the fights funny, but still ground it in a way that might jar the audience a bit without detracting from the actual song itself.”
Julian Higgins: “While Michael provided the great speaking voice and singing of Deadpool, an incredibly talented performer named Adam Critchlow was the kickass fight portion of our Deadpool short. We had two suits, one specifically built for stunt performances and fitted to Adam’s measurements. Before we filmed, I personally tried that stunt Deadpool mask on, which had ‘better visibility’ than Michael’s hero costume. But it was still like looking through a wet kleenex. You could barely see a damn thing out of it. That’s a true testament to Adam’s ability as a performer, being able to kick so much ass with low visibility, take after take, flip after flip in a faux leather skin tight oven.”
Paul Bianchi: “We tried to make a really attractive high class bar look as seedy as possible. We sprinkled peanut shells everywhere and put up sleazy posters on the wall. We cut pools of blood out of red lighting gels to not damage the floors. I drew the kill-count poster and art director Jo Crandall made the wanted poster at the beginning and drew a dick on it. Julian just happened to have a severed head in his closet from another project, so that was handy.”
Julian Higgins: “We were working with wire rigging for flips, full stunt performances, breakaway bottles and chairs — all synched to music. All of that, for safety reasons, slows down your day to make sure everyone is being safe. It definitely got hairy towards the end of day two, but we made the most of the day thanks to the entire team being able to think on their feet and move quickly. Ultimately we did decide to do a half day of filming for some pickup shots, which you can see in the 360 degree behind the scenes video.”
Pierce Cook (Cinematographer): “Artists are often confronted with technical limitations that dictate how to approach a project creatively. For a project like this, scope runs up against budget, and what that meant for my departments is figuring out how to light and shoot it so that it reads like a studio effort, but with a small budget. In tandem with the experience of our small crew, I had peace of mind about our plan.”
Brian Danner: “As a producer of the film, I wanted to get the fans to feel like this could seamlessly fit into the Marvel Cinematic Universe that Fox has created for the X-Men franchise, and I really get the sense, based on the flood of positive YouTube comments, that we delivered.”
Julian Higgins: “Once Michael had that suit on and I heard his Ryan-Reynolds-as-Deadpool voice, it was mind-blowingly obvious that he had what it takes to make it work. The biggest compliment on the YouTube comments was people believing that it was actually Ryan Reynods, and actually a clever piece of Marvel Studios marketing to capitalize off of the success of Beauty and The Beast. That’sjust awesome.”
And when you're finished with the video below, check out an entirely different animated Deadpool musical over at Toonado.