Ryan Reynolds Picked Up the Phone to Save a ‘Mayday’ Scene in Budapest

Ryan Reynolds didn’t just star in and produce Apple TV’s new action-comedy ‘Mayday’ he also played fixer when production hit a snag. Directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein recently revealed that the film faced a logistical problem in Budapest that threatened to scrap a crucial sequence. Reynolds stepped in with an unexpected solution: he called the mayor.

The intervention worked, allowing the filmmakers to preserve the scene and keep production moving forward.

‘Mayday’ follows U.S. Navy pilot Troy “Assassin” Kelly played by Reynolds after his plane goes down over Soviet territory in 1987. Stranded behind enemy lines, he strikes up an unlikely partnership with Nikolai Ustinov, a former KGB agent portrayed by Kenneth Branagh.

Daley and Goldstein, who previously directed ‘Game Night’ and ‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’, crafted the film as a playful homage to 1980s action cinema, blending Cold War espionage with comedy and self-aware references to classics like ‘Top Gun’.

Reynolds’ involvement went beyond his lead role. As a producer, he contributed to solving real-world production challenges something that rarely makes headlines but occasionally becomes the stuff of Hollywood lore.

Kenneth Branagh anchors the film opposite Reynolds, with supporting performances from Maria Bakalova, Marcin Dorociński, and David Morse.

‘Mayday’ began streaming on Apple TV on September 4, 2026. The film runs 112 minutes and carries a PG-13 rating.

The Budapest phone call exemplifies the countless behind-the-scenes battles filmmakers wage before audiences ever see the final product sometimes requiring star power to cross the finish line.