Free Guy Will Have References To Red Dead Redemption And Shadow Of The Colossus

The Ryan Reynolds video game movie Free Guy releases later this month, and now the writer, director, and other people attached to the movie has shared some new insight on their inspirations and more about what you can expect.

Production designer Ethan Tobman told The Hollywood Reporter that viewers can look forward to references to Red Dead Redemption and Shadow of the Colossus. A poster for Free Guy showed a vehicle that looked like Halo's Mantis, while streamer Ninja has a cameo in the film. So it seems that, fittingly, the movie will have plenty of video game Easter eggs, not unlike Ready Player One.

The movie takes part both inside a video game and in the real world, and Tobman said each will have "really distinctly different visual styles, different camera lenses, different framing devices, different color palettes, different focal length symmetry."

He also mentioned that Reynolds' character, Guy, lives in a half-finished apartment because his character isn't finished either. "So his front door has five deadbolts and no nob. His calendar is missing a full day of the week. His fridge has cereal in it, and his pantry has only spoons--no forks or knives because he only eats cereal in the morning," Tobman said.

Writer Matt Lieberman said part of the inspiration for the script came from how he personally felt bad playing Grand Theft Auto and beating up NPCs. This was a "karmic weirdness that just never felt right," Lieberman said, but it helped crystalize where the writer wanted to go with the movie. The overarching premise is that "you can change the world," no matter who you are.

Free Guy director Shawn Levy (who was attached to direct the Minecraft movie at one point) said he considers himself a casual gamer, and what he likes so much about games is how they let you live out anything you want. "You get to choose the avatar that you wish you were and you get to do things physically that we can't do in real life," Levy said. "It's always had that wish-fulfillment aspect and that sense of connection with other players in the gaming community."

Co-writer Zak Penn, who also wrote Ready Player One's movie script, said Free Guy is "about people collectively coming together" to improve their lives. Levy said Free Guy is "less violent, way more optimistic and less nihilistic" in regards to its outlook on humanity.

Free Guy releases on August 13. It also stars Jodie Comer (Killing Eve), Joe Keery (Stranger Things), Lil Rel Howery (Get Out), and Utkarsh Ambudkar (Brittany Runs a Marathon).