When ‘Black Swan’ director Darren Aronofsky signed on to make The Wolverine, fans were looking forward to a reinvention of the classic character, and possibly a throwback to the dark comics penned by Frank Miller. A large portion of the story was set against the backdrop of Japan, but when the catastrophic earthquake struck in March 2011, the production was thrown into chaos. Aronofsky promptly withdrew from the project citing family reasons, and the hunt for a new director began.
There were plenty of director’s who were up for the job, and in June word spread that Hugh Jackman was keen on 3:10 to Yuma director James Mangold helming the pic, and soon enough a deal was made. While the script originally penned by Christopher McQuarrie was ready, it was more to Aronofsky’s vision, and with Mangold taking over the reigns – screenwriter Mark Bomback was brought in to tackle the re-write.
Variety reports that the new story sees Wolverine heading to Japan where he falls in love and takes on the country’s criminal underworld. The cast will consist of Japanese and Japanese-American actors, however a new character named ‘Viper’ will also feature who’s the white secretary for Japan’s Minister of Justice. As for when production will start – Jackman has other projects in the mean time; he’s performing on Broadway later this year and will then star in Tom Hooper‘s remake of Les Miserables. Production looks as if it will move to Vancouver where ‘Man of Steel’ is currently shooting, with a start date slated for mid 2012.
At the recent press junkets for the upcoming release of his new movie ‘Real Steel’, the Aussie actor spoke about the character and gave the lowdown on his top secret cameo in X-Men First Class.
Jackman was asked whether he’ll get to explore other aspects of the Wolverine character:
Absolutely. Every time, I feel. This time, more than anything, I think we’ve really nailed down that character. I think the audience and myself and the writers were like, “Enough of the [missing] memory with ‘Who am I? What happened in my past?’” That’s enough. I think we’ve explored that a lot. Now, it’s this great backdrop of Japan, which is going to be fantastic for this character. It’s a very rich source material with the comic book. And, there’s more ladies in this movie, which is a nice change from the last one. It was very testosterone heavy.
As for X-Men: First Class, the movie experienced plenty of production difficulties though the result was a top notch period thriller. Jackman talked about the secrecy surrounding his cameo.
…There was more secrecy to shooting that than I have ever known. I actually checked into the hotel and they had no reservation under Jackman. I was under some comic book name I had never even heard of.
Jackman revealed that at one stage it looked as if Wolverine wouldn’t make an appearance:
I think it was a big debate for them. They brought me out and I know all of those guys from all of the X-Men movies. They said, ‘This is what we are thinking.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, well tell me the idea’ And I was like, “Okay. Is anyone else in the movie?” and they said, ‘No.’ So I said, ‘I’m in.’ So that was that. It was a year between now and when I actually did it. I don’t know if you know the history of it – I was sort of outside of it – but [the production] went on longer [than they planned], they were here, they were going to—all the X-Men movies are the same, I’m used to it. There’s something chaotic about it all. We were going to shoot it in Savannah, and I was doing something else so I was like, ‘Well, if you need me, I’m available. Just give me a call.’ So then Savannah came and went and I never heard anything. I was like, ‘Well obviously they didn’t want that.’ But then I didn’t hear anything for 3 or 4 months. I finally said, ‘Do they want me to do this thing? Was I meant to call them? Was I meant to turn up some day? I don’t understand.’ They finished shooting and I was like, ‘Oh obviously they didn’t want it.’ Then they rang me up and said, ‘Look, we’re doing reshoots, we’re not sure if we want it or not. Are you around?’ So I said, ‘Yeah, I can do it.’ They said, ‘Okay.’ And I never heard anything. Even when I went down there I was generally not sure if that was going to be in the movie. I don’t think they knew. I think they just thought it could be a good moment and we should just try and work it out. So we went down there and did about 8 takes.
Jackman added that when it came to shooting the scene, there were a few variations though he eventually knew how to play it:
The line was ‘Fuck off’ and then I said, ‘Matthew, give me one more. I have a feeling.’ So the last one I said, ‘Go fuck yourself’ and Matthew said, ‘I think that’s gonna be the one.’
First Class has effectively changed the franchise, and while there’s been hope that an X-Men 4 or 5 was on the way, the actor thinks otherwise.
I don’t see it. I can only see one movie ahead… I’m pretty sure I’m well into the second half of this match. I don’t know exactly when the end is, but I only go one at a time. If this is the last one, fingers crossed, man, I just hope we finally get that hole in one.
Expect to see The Wolverine in theaters sometime in 2013. Jackman’s new flick Real Steel opens October 7th, 2011.
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