EXCLUSIVE: Ryan Reynolds is solidifying his Disney ties with a first-look deal at 20th Television for his Maximum Effort Productions. Under the pact, Reynolds and his team will develop and executive produce comedy, drama, limited and unscripted series for all linear networks and streamers, with an emphasis on platforms across Disney Entertainment Television.
Twenty seven years ago this month, the 20th TV-produced sitcom Two Guys and a Girl (originally Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place) premiered on ABC, marking Reynolds’ first lead role and catapulting him into stardom. Just a couple of weeks later, Reynolds appeared in ABC’s Wonderful World of Disney telefilm Tourist Trap.
At the time, 20th TV and ABC were part of different media companies as were 20th Century and Walt Disney Studios when Reynolds originated his Deadpool character in the former’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine, landing his own movie seven years later. They are now all part of Disney where Reynolds recently starred in, produced and co-wrote blockbuster Deadpool & Wolverine. His major Disney credits also include the hit 2009 hit romcom The Proposal.
Reynolds brought up Two Guys and a Girl when he appeared on stage at the Disney upfront presentation last May where he touted two Maximum Effort docu series for the conglom’s TV networks, his Emmy-winning Rob McElhenny collaboration for FX Welcome to Wrexham and NatGeo’s Underdogs.
“Welcoming Ryan back in the television fold 25 years after Two Guys and a Girl stormed into living rooms on ABC, feels like a home coming in the best possible way,” 20th Television President Karey Burke said. “Ryan’s creative instincts and entertainment acumen are legendary, and his ability to tap into pop-culture and fandom are unrivaled. We are incredibly excited to welcome the entire Maximum Effort team to the studio, and can’t wait to dive back into the television space together,.”
This marks the first major TV deal for Maximum Effort which has been under first-look feature pacts at Paramount Pictures. It is unclear whether Reynolds could act in any projects developed under the 20th TV agreement but that is typically a possibility in first-look producing deals. It would mark his first major TV role since Two Guys and a Girl.
“Disney and 20th Century Studios have helped co-author my career in a not insignificant way. From Two Guys to Deadpool and Welcome to Wrexham, every pivot point in my career has found its start at the Magic Kingdom,” Reynolds said. “So in looking for a home for our TV business, 20th was our first and, blessedly, last call. We want to thank Dana [Walden], Eric [Schrier], Karey and Carolyn [Cassidy] for their reckless faith in us and Maximum Effort looks forward to many happy years under the Disney umbrella. Which I am assuming was Mary Poppins’?”
Reynolds, whose most recent movie, Disney/Marvel’s Deadpool & Wolverine, became the highest-grossing R-rated film in history, is currently embroiled, alongside his wife, actress Blake Lively, in a high-profile legal dispute with Lively’s It Ends With Us co-star and director Justin Baldoni.
Canadian-born Reynolds and Maximum Effort, which he co-founded, are repped by WME and Sloane Offer Weber and Dern.
