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www.postmagazine.com 19 POST SEPT/OCT 2024 D eadpool & Wolverine follows wise- cracking mercenary Wade Wilson, a.k.a. Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds), as he discov- ers that a megalomaniac Time Variance Authority agent known as Paradox (Matthew Macfadyen) is conspiring to speed up the death of his timeline in the multiverse. Determined to save his beloved Earth-10005, the "Merc with a Mouth" recruits a very reluctant Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) from an alternate universe. Amidst their heroic pursuits, the unlikely duo encounter the telepathic wrath of Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin) and meet a massive corps of Deadpool variants — including the alluring Lady Deadpool and the adorable Dogpool. Marking the official Marvel Cinematic Universe debut of its titular characters, the action-packed comedy follows 20 th Century Fox's previous pair of Deadpool installments. After surpassing $1.3 billion at the box office, it dethroned 2019's Joker as the highest grossing R-rated film of all time. Directed by Shawn Levy, the film achieved its signature blend of stylized violence, fourth wall-busting humor and multiversal mayhem thanks to visual effects wizardry by Framestore. The award-winning studio's teams in Vancouver, Montreal, London, Mumbai and Melbourne deliv- ered over 420 final VFX shots and 900-plus previs, techvis and postvis shots for the project. Framestore VFX supervisor Matthew Twyford, who previously leant his talents to Thor: Love and Thunder and the Loki series, shared an inside look at bringing Deadpool & Wolverine's most memora- ble moments to life. What interested you most about this project when you first signed on? "It was actually the people involved. I'd worked pre- viously with Lisa Marra, the visual effects producer on Thor 4, and really enjoyed that process. It was a similar sort of show — something that had a bit of a sense of humor, but with the fantastic sort of mythology and science and craziness that you get from Marvel. Most visual effects artists want to do Marvel shows because they're always pushing the limits of what can be achieved visually. They always seem to come up with new ideas — new things that have never been done before." With teams spread out across the globe, how did you set up such a large-scale, collaborative workflow? "Communication is so important. We've been working multi-site now for over ten years, so we've got a strong infrastructure in place. I personally traveled out to Vancouver. They had the majority of the show, so that's where we decided to set up our hub. Every site had a defined project to look after. We ended up having four distinct visual effects supervisors (Matthew Twyford, Robert Allman, Arek Komorowski and João Sita) because we could break it up quite nicely into discrete areas. "The team that (visualization supervisor) Kaya Jabar and FPS (Framestore Pre-Production Services) put together really gelled well with the director and (overall VFX supervisor) Swen Gillberg. They were so open to collaboration, which allowed the artists to really bloom and bring personal contributions — more so than I've seen on any other show. "Because Swen has such a history with the direc- tor and the production team, there was a lot of trust there. Also, being the third movie in a franchise, ev- eryone knows what the feeling is — the scene's been set. The majority of the artists are just massive fans, and to be honest, Marvel nerds. They are masters of the genre. They know what it's about, and they can bring so much to the game if you let them." The opening credits set the stage for the film's over-the-top visuals and wild sense of humor. Tell us about crafting this memorable sequence. "It was a sequence that started off very strongly out of previs and postvis. It was the first sequence to be shot, and was actually shot before the strike. We knew what we were doing creatively, but the preparation, the body tracking, the environmental work, all had to be very meticulous — and meticu- lous means time. "Our models for Deadpool and the Minutemen were all looking fantastic at that stage, which allowed us to spend time on the simulations. Swen had already given us the brief, 'You can go a little bit crazy on this…We think the movie's going to handle it.' So we went massively over the top. The cinematic style, the tight shots, the re-times… It made it very graphic and really echoed those comic frames. "The blood was beautifully art directed to do certain shapes. The artists were looking at Jackson Pollock paintings, and we were trying to make everything very cinematic. That beautiful snowy backdrop with the bright red blood…it really makes it pop. It is horribly violent, but we gave it that slightly — I would say 'comic' in terms of the genre of comics rather than the comedic — touches, to take the edge off the grossness, the violence, the goriness of it. That allowed us to have that volume of blood because it made it a little less…icky. It al- lowed us to push that further without it becoming a little disturbing, which it could easily have been. "Shawn wanted to make it feel almost blasphe- mous, the way Deadpool was abusing Wolverine's skeleton. He wanted people to react. The way he's using blunt bones as stabbing weapons — you not only had stabs, but blunt-force trauma. It was all very tongue-in-cheek. Even though these guys are wearing armor, we were shattering huge shards of it everywhere. Putting the credits on the bones was another lovely touch. It allowed you to step back for a moment and reset…and then it's back to the violence. It allowed us to have some real fun while also definitely being in the R-rated category. "The dancing actually came along later. The orig- inal sequence was just more of the blood and vio- lence. I think the dancing was just to take you away from the violence a little, to lighten the atmosphere. The performance was outstanding, and it linked to a few little bits in the backstory of Deadpool. Marvel is The Deadpool Corps sequence consisited of more than 200 shots. Framestore delivered more than 420 VFX shots for the film.