10 Movies That Escaped Development Hell (And Were Worth The Wait)
9. Deadpool
Hollywood had been trying to get a Deadpool movie made since 2000, with Ryan Reynolds first coming aboard the project in 2004. Progress stalled for several years due to rights issues, until Reynolds was cast as Wade Wilson in 2009's X-Men spin-off Origins: Wolverine.
As we all know, despite Reynolds' game performance the film's unfaithful depiction of the character was widely criticised, at which point Fox began assembling a solo Deadpool film with Reynolds which ignored his role in the prior movie.
The failure of Green Lantern caused Fox to pump the brakes for a few years, though everything changed when already-hired director Tim Miller's VFX test footage was leaked online in mid-2014, the positive response to which caused Deadpool to finally get the greenlight.
With a $58 million budget - totally modest compared to most superhero movies - Deadpool finally went into production with a comic-faithful Reynolds and a much-needed R-rating.
In turn, Deadpool received warmly positive reviews and was one of 2016's most unexpected box office success stories, grossing $782.6 million worldwide.
In a sea of formulaic, family-friendly superhero flicks, Deadpool was just the irreverent tonic adult audiences were craving.