Ryan Reynolds Morphing Into a Control Freak Like Tom Cruise: ‘It’s Ryan’s Way or the Highway’

Ryan Reynolds is one of Hollywood’s biggest heavyweights these days, as sources exclusively tell In Touch his increasingly controlling nature is comparable to that of notorious show business tyrant Tom Cruise, especially when it comes to the zany marketing and release of his magnum opus blockbuster Deadpool & Wolverine.

“Now that Ryan owns a full-fledged multi-media marketing company that he’s very proud of and that does good work, he can ask for a ton of power on his movie campaigns and can bring his own company’s full strength to the table when it comes to actually getting the word out about a movie,” the insider says.

The Deadpool star, 47, founded Maximum Effort Productions alongside business partner George Dewey in 2018. Since then, the company, which is named after his character’s catchphrase, has collaborated on the marketing and production for the first two Deadpool films using uniquely-creative, low-budget ad ideas to promote the movies. Now, The Proposal actor is kicking his efforts into overdrive to promote the most recent installment of the Marvel franchise.

“That’s a double edge sword,” the source continues, “because he’s often sidelining studio marketing executives who do this for a living and studio publicists with decades of experience.”

“Ryan doesn’t care and once he secures control over a campaign, as he has with Deadpool & Wolverine, this summer, it’s Ryan’s way or the highway.”

After a series of successes with his company, Ryan has been feeling himself lately and wants to make a statement about his arrival as a bigwig in Hollywood, especially to emphasize the fact that he’s no longer just a handsome actor, but a shot caller behind the scenes, as well.

“What’s interesting is that in his other summer release this year, John Krasinski’s movie, IF, that came out in May, Ryan didn’t ask for these controls and let John and Paramount’s marketing department run the campaign,” the source says.

“The movie did fine, but nowhere near on the order of Deadpool & Wolverine, where Ryan has wielded almost total control from day one.”

“I believe he did it that way to prove a point to all of Hollywood, and that point is that a movie is much better off under Ryan’s total marketing control than not.”

Ryan has company next to him at his newfound place at the top of the Hollywood heap, the source says. The Canadian star is looking to steal a play from the book of one of the U.S.’ most notorious control freaks to ever grace the industry.

“Tom Cruise is the only other star who takes this much control of selling a movie,” spills the insider. “You can see how Ryan is patterning his strategy after Tom’s.”

“There’s no mistaking when Tom is 100% behind a movie and the same is true with Ryan.”

“What you almost never see either of them do is get behind a movie they’re not starring in, and that’s too bad. At the end of the day, they always make it all about them!”