Ryan Reynolds launches diversity initiative for next movie

Ryan Reynolds has launched an initiative that will help boost the diversity of the crew for his next movie.

The Deadpool star recently posted a video on social media in which he announced the Group Effort Initiative, a program to hire Black, Indigenous, people of colour (BIPOC) trainees for his next movie so they will gain experience to help launch their careers in the film industry. The trainees will be paid and have some of their living costs covered by Reynolds' salary.

"So here's what we're gonna do. Covid willing, which is a weird thing to say, I'm going to be starting a movie this fall," he told viewers. "And I'm committed to bringing between 10 and 20 trainees from the BIPOC community and all other marginalised communities of all ages.

"Anyway, these new recruits - they're gonna be paid, housed and travelled out of my salary. They're gonna spend their days on set learning from professionals, getting real-life experience that they can parlay into another job and then hopefully, if they're not too disillusioned, a career in the film industry.

"Now, this is an overdue action, but I got to thank Netflix and I have to thank Skydance for letting us do this, and since it's called Group Effort, we're hoping that people with the privilege that I'm lucky enough to experience will join in that effort."

He concluded the video by instructing those interested in the initiative to visit the website and sign up for updates as specifics about the production are still being finalised and application details will be announced later this month.

The first project for the Group Effect Initiative, run through Reynolds' Maximum Effort production banner, will be his untitled time-travel adventure, according to The Hollywood Reporter. It is being directed by Shawn Levy and is preparing to shoot in Vancouver, Canada.