Free Guy

Free Guy
Free Guy
	Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Shawn Levy
Screenplay by	Matt Lieberman; Zak Penn;
Story by	Matt Lieberman
Produced by	Ryan Reynolds; Shawn Levy; Sarah Schechter; Greg Berlanti; Adam Kolbrenner;
Starring	Ryan Reynolds; Jodie Comer; Lil Rel Howery; Utkarsh Ambudkar; Joe Keery; Taika Waititi;
Cinematography	George Richmond
Edited by	Dean Zimmerman
Music by	Christophe Beck
Production; companies	Berlanti Productions; 21 Laps Entertainment; Maximum Effort; Lit Entertainment Group; TSG Entertainment;
Distributed by	20th Century Studios
Release dates	August 10, 2021 (Locarno); August 13, 2021 (United States);
Running time	115 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$100–125 million
Box office	$331.5 million

Free Guy is a 2021 American action comedy film directed and produced by Shawn Levy from a screenplay by Matt Lieberman and Zak Penn, and a story by Lieberman. The film stars Ryan Reynolds, Jodie Comer, Lil Rel Howery, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Joe Keery, and Taika Waititi. It tells the story of a bank teller who discovers that he is a non-player character in a massively multiplayer online game who then partners with a player to find evidence that a gaming company's CEO stole the source code of the player's game.

Lieberman began writing the script in 2016, which was acquired by 20th Century Fox shortly after. Levy passed on the script but reconsidered after Hugh Jackman introduced him to Reynolds, resulting in him leaving the film adaptation of the Uncharted video game he had been developing. The acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney made Free Guy one of the first films produced by the studio to continue production under Disney's ownership. Filming took place in Massachusetts and California between May and July 2019.

After the film was delayed two times by the COVID-19 pandemic, it premiered at the 74th Locarno Film Festival on August 10, 2021, and was released theatrically in the United States three days later, on August 13, in RealD 3D, IMAX, 4DX and Dolby Cinema formats. The film was a commercial success, grossing $331.5 million worldwide against a $100–125 million production budget, and received generally positive reviews from critics for its concept, comparing it to films and video games such as Ready Player One (2018), The Truman Show (1998), The Matrix (1999), Grand Theft Auto, and Fortnite.^[6]^[7] It received a nomination for Best Visual Effects at the 94th Academy Awards.

^ ^a ^b "Free Guy (2021)". The Numbers. Nash Information Services, LLC. Retrieved November 24, 2021.
^ Cite error: The named reference premiere was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ "Free Guy". Archived from the original on May 16, 2021. Retrieved May 27, 2021.
^ "The Low-Key Hustle of 'Free Guy' Filmmaker Shawn Levy: 'I'm Willing to Outwork Anybody'". The Hollywood Reporter. August 5, 2021. Archived from the original on March 11, 2022. Retrieved August 5, 2021.
^ "Free Guy (2021)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved December 3, 2021.
^ Cite error: The named reference opening was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Cite error: The named reference syfy-premise was invoked but never defined (see the help page).