Taika Waititi & Utkarsh Ambudkar Join Ryan Reynolds In 20th Century Fox’s ‘Free Guy’

EXCLUSIVE: Taika Waititi and Utkarsh Ambudkar have joined the cast of 20th Century Fox and 21 Laps Entertainment’s action comedy Free Guy from director Shawn Levy.

They join Ryan Reynolds, Jodie Comer, Joe Kerry and Lil Rel who already in the Matt Lieberman and Zak Penn-scripted pic about a bank teller who discovers that he’s actually a player inside a video game. Reynolds is producing through Maximum Effort and Levy through his 21 Laps Entertainment with Greg Berlanti and Sarah Schechter producing through Berlanti Productions. Adam Kolbrenner is also producing. George Dewy of Maximum Effort and Dan Levine of 21 Laps serve as EPs. Mike Ireland is overseeing the project for 20th Century Fox.

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After reinvigorating Disney/Marvel’s Thor franchise with Thor: Ragnarok ($853.9M WW), Waititi directed, co-adapted and stars in Fox Searchlight’s upcoming WWII drama-comedy Jojo Rabbit. He’s also an episode in Disney+ streaming Star Wars series The Mandalorian, and will co-write and direct the new Apple series Time Bandits, which is an adaptation of the cult Terry Gilliam film. He’s also a director and EP on FX’s What We Do in the Shadows, the TV series take on his 2104 comedy vampire pic.

Ambudkar’s credits include Disney’s upcoming Mulan, the Sundance premiere Brittany Runs a Marathon, and the TV series Brockmire and The Mindy Project.

Waititi is repped by CAA, Gail Cowan Management, Dan Halsted of Manage-ment and Morris Yorn Barnes Levine Krintzman Rubenstein Kohner & Gellman. Ambudkar is repped by Gersh, 3 Arts, and Jackoway Austen Tyerman Wertheimer Mandelbaum Morris Bernstein Trattner & Klein.

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