"Find your balls!" bellowed Rob Liefeld last year from the top of Mount Twitter. The comics creator behind such enduring hits as X-Force and Cable was painfully bothered by 20th Century Fox, the studio that controls the movie rights to Marvel's X-Men characters, for not moving forward with a new film based on Deadpool, another character he created (with Fabian Nicieza) for the House of Ideas. Specifically, Liefeld demanded that Fox film the reportedly excellent script by Rhet Reese and Paul Wernick, who are said to have written a Deadpool more in line with that of the wildly anarchic and ultra-violent comic books than the unrecognizable version seen in 2009's X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Liefeld had cause to celebrate on Friday, when Deadline reported that acclaimed visual effects man Tim Miller had been hired by Fox to direct Reese and Wernick's Deadpool script. Ryan Reynolds is expected to reprise the role.

Producing Deadpool is Lauren Shuler Donner, who has overseen the entire X-Men franchise for 20th Century Fox. She has revealed in various media interviews since 2009 her intentions to divorce Deadpool completely from the very unhappily received X-Men Origins: Wolverine and make it resemble the comic books as much as possible, including the character's breaking of the fourth wall. To those ends, Donner reportedly met with Rob Liefeld to discuss the film.

Tim Miller is a visual effects professional whose resume includes the first two X-Men films as well as Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Deadline reports that his Blur Studio is presently working on Ron Howard's adaptation of Stephen King's The Dark Tower.

Despite the allegedly great and faithful script, Ryan Reynolds' status as a hunky superstar would seem to make it unlikely that producers will permit him to portray the gruesomely scarred Wade Wilson for any significant portion of a Deadpool movie. However, there is surely no one more committed to the spirit of the character than Rob Liefeld, and he took to Twitter to lend his support to Miller.



Luckily for Miller, he has the Deadpool creator's support. We've seen what happens when you make Liefeld angry.