Wolverine

[Missy]

DANIEL ROBERT EPSTEIN: I read that you pitched 20th Century Fox for you to write the Wolverine movie, then you got it and you also pitched Warner Bros on Troy. You must be pretty good at it.

DAVID BENIOFF: Well with Wolverine it was easier because Troy was already being done. For Troy it was a leap of faith because I had only done a $12 million Spike Lee movie. With Wolverine the story is already there so the people at Fox and Marvel know everything about Wolverine. That meeting was just showing them how passionate I was about this character. I’ve been reading Wolverine comics for 23 years.

DRE: What was the first Wolverine comic you ever read?

BENIOFF: I think it was the issue of X-Men that a friend lent to me when I was 12. I believe it was a really early issue of X-Men that Chris Claremont wrote.

DRE: Can you talk about what the story of the Wolverine movie will be?

BENIOFF: I’m not allowed to talk about it. Fox is pretty careful about that. It’s not even totally finalized what story we are doing. What I can say is that in the X-Men movies we’ve seen a lot of the sweet Wolverine so I think it’s time to mess him up a little bit because all the fans know that he’s the best there is at what he does but what he does isn’t very nice. Also getting to write “Snikt” in a comic book is the coolest thing.

DRE: Did Bryan Singer leaving change your timetable at all?

BENIOFF: He had already left before I came on. But I did get to meet Hugh Jackman the other day which was pretty cool.

DRE: Any Japanese stuff going into the Wolverine movie?

BENIOFF: [laughs] I can’t talk about it. Nice try though.

For what it’s worth that’s definitely the best Wolverine saga, the whole Lady Mariko and The Hand storyline. I went back and reread the Chris Claremont and Frank Miller miniseries and the Barry Windsor Smith Weapon X.

DRE: Have you been catching up on recent Wolverine comics to prepare?

BENIOFF: Yeah I hadn’t read any of the recent stuff so I’ve been catching up with the Grant Morrison X-Men comics and some of the new Greg Rucka stuff. One of the coolest things about this job is that I can call up Marvel and say send me whatever X-Men and Wolverine I want. It makes my 12 year old self so happy.

DRE: A lot of Hollywood people are writing comics right now. Would you be interested in doing that?

BENIOFF: Sure it would be a fun challenge. I think it would be a lot of fun to work with an artist.

[Missy]

Hugh Jackman recently confirmed that the slated Wolverine movie will be a prequel. Hopefully this means more Brian Cox.

[JackFetch]

Wolverine Spinoff Coming Next Year

By: César A. Berardini - "Cesar"

Jun. 28th, 2006 8:28 am

Reuters and The Hollywood Reporter informed today that Hugh Jackman's Wolverine will headline a spinoff of 20th Century Fox's X-Men franchise.

At the Cine Expo in Amsterdam, the studio promised the attendees a "Wolverine" film for next year starring Hugh Jackman. To back-up the news, Jackman himself made an appearance via a video tape to confirm the much-anticipated movie.

I knew it was coming, but next year?

[Missy]

That might be a little too early.

[slothian]

That might be a little too early.

As long as it isn't a summer blockbuster release.....which it almost certainly will be

[MaxPower]

They could go for the X-Mas crowd, seemed to work well for Lord of the Rings.

[JackFetch]

A lot of news this week.

A script review of the Wolverine movie on LatinoReview.com. I don't know how they keep getting all these scripts.

http://latinoreview.com/scriptreview.php?id=26

Read the above link at your own risk of being mad about them completely changing his origin. I'll give you a run down of the characters in it.

Victor Creed

Silverfox

Beak

Stryker

Blob

a few others that I'm not sure if they are made up for the movie.

[Chops]

The Fuck Up with that Shit.

[JackFetch]

20th Century Fox has set Gavin Hood to direct Hugh Jackman in Wolverine, the "X-Men" spinoff that was written by David Benioff.

The film, which begins production in November for a 2008 release, will be produced by Lauren Shuler-Donner, Jackman and his Seed Productions partner John Palermo.

Hood is the South African director whose 2005 film Tsotsi won the foreign film Oscar. His next film, the thriller Rendition with Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal, opens on October 12.

Using several resources that include the Marvel Comics lore, along with the more recent Weapon X graphic novels by Frank Miller, Wolverine mixes action with an origin story about how Logan emerged from a barbaric experiment as an indestructible mutant with retractable razor-sharp claws.

After three "X-Men" films grossed over $1 billion worldwide, the studio has made Wolverine a top priority.

"I have long been a fan of Gavin's work and know he will make a masterful film with the character intensity and action beats the fans expect," said Jackman.

Never heard of him.

[JackFetch]

Progress on the as-yet-untitled Wolverine film is moving forward at full steam ahead following the recent confirmation of Gavin Hood as the project's director - just recently, an inside source let drop to us the fact that production has reached the prepping stage, readying themselves to get Hugh Jackman back before cameras as the claw-wielding mutant in November! And although previous X-Men movies have been filmed in Vancouver, Wolverine will be shot almost across the world (well, an ocean) in Sydney, Australia.

http://www.thexverse.com/news/0471.shtml

That means a summer release.

[JackFetch]

"What appeals to me about the Wolverine character of all the other characters is that my feeling that he's the one that suffers from the most existential angst," he began. "Since I'm a guy who loves emotional complexity, it seemed to me that… when I was first approached to do it, my first thought was, 'What? Me? Do this? What is that? I don't know enough about comic book characters.' And of course, I then did some further research and I realized that the character of Wolverine, I think his great appeal lies in the fact that he's someone who in some ways, is filled with a great deal of self-loathing by his own nature and he's constantly at war with his own nature. It seemed to me that really what it is, is that it's a little like great Greek mythology, which is something I've always been in love with where the Greek Gods threw thunderbolts and Poseidon conjured up storms, but those mythological stories were designed to examine emotional truths. It seems to me that the character of Wolverine epitomizes in a modern context, a kind of great mythical tradition of using larger-than-life characters in order to play with and examine human emotion at a sort of operatic level."

And before his New Line handler grabbed the phone out of his hand and hung up on us, we got to squeeze out one more question about whether he might shoot in Japan, as one might expect from a Wolverine prequel, especially considering the director's globetrotting resume:

"No, sadly no. We're not going to Japan," he responded then mischievously added, "I think that will be in 'Wolverine 2' but I won't say any more than that."

So no Japan for this one. I'm actually glad about that. I was never a fan of the whole samurai Wolverine thing.

[JackFetch]

20th Century Fox has set a May 1, 2009 release date for Hugh Jackman starrer X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which director Gavin Hood (Rendition, Tsotsi) begins shooting later this year. David Benioff wrote the script.

"Wolverine" is expected to feature many other mutants -- some new to the film franchise and some from one or more of the three "X-Men" films. Liev Schreiber is reportedly in final talks to take on the role of a younger version of nemesis William Stryker, played by Brian Cox in X2.

As of now, the only other film staking out the May 1, 2009, date is Disney's animated film G-Force.

The film explores the claw-wielding character Wolverine's violent and romantic past, and his complex relationship with Victor Creed and the ominous Weapon X program, as well as his encounters with other mutants.

Hood will start shooting in Australia before moving to New Zealand and, later, to New Orleans.

Producing are Lauren Shuler Donner and Ralph Winter, producers of the "X-Men" movies, along with Jackman and producing partner John Palermo through their Seed Productions. Marvel's Kevin Feige will executive produce.

http://www.superherohype.com/news/topnews.php?id=6416

[Stavros]

I swear I'm not making this up-

Wolverine Movie Gets Official Title and Release Date

X-Men Origins: Wolverine hits theaters May 1, 2009

Posted: 2007-10-19 Updated: 2007-10-19 12:24:06

By Ryan Penagos

May is officially awesome month for Marvel movies. From "X2" in '03 and "Spider-Man 3" in '07 to 2008's "Iron Man," there's no doubt that Marvel and May make a solid team. And now we can chalk another surefire success to the list when "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" slashes its way into theaters May 1, 2009!

Reprising his role as Wolverine from the "X-Men" movies, Hugh Jackman stars in the blockbuster which, according to VARIETY, could feature a young William Stryker, Sabretooth, Weapon X and a bevy of other mutants—both returning and new characters.

Additional cast members haven't been announced yet, but joining Jackman are director Gavin Hood ("Tsotsi") and writer David Benioff ("The Kite Runner"). With filming tentatively scheduled to begin by the end of 2007, look for more "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" news and announcements here on Marvel.com.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine. I'm not quite sure how the task of naming the Wolverine movie was made difficult. Its like they had a group of people in the room pitching names.

"James Howett: The Etrue Hollywood story"

"The Incredible Edible Wolverine"

"McClaw & his friendly freaks"

I mean what were they thinking? Duh, maybe they should call the fucking Wolverine Movie WOLVERINE. Its fine if you want to add something based in the comics like "The Dark Knight" or "The Incredible Hulk". I would have preferred if the Spider-man sequels had been "amazing" and "sensasional" rather than 2 or 3. The X-men films could have been "Uncanny", "Astonishing" and erm, "New". Uncomplicated monikers like that differentiate and add something. Wolverine hasn't been known for such extra titles and so he should just be WOLVERINE. Ant-Man should be The Irredeemable Ant-Man because it ID's the character for hardcore fans and it adds personality for the uninitiated. Its just not required first time out to add stuff for a lot of the other guys who arn't known for it.

[JackFetch]

11-year-old Romulus, My Father star Kodi Smit-McPhee will play young Logan in 20th Century Fox's "X-Men" spin-off X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Smit-McPhee, pictured below, will start filming his scenes at Fox Studios this December.

http://www.superherohype.com/news/topnews.php?id=6445

Does this mean they will incorporate the Origin storyline? I hope so, but I doubt it.

[JackFetch]

A couple of spoilers about a scene being filmed and when the movie takes place.

The movie is set in the 1970s and shows Wolverine, played by Australian actor Hugh Jackman, developing into the character made popular by the X-Men film series.

The consent application, seen by The Press yesterday, shows a barn and farmhouse will be built at Arcadia Station at a site called Hudson Farm in the movie's story, with the final scene involving the destruction of the barn using explosives.

"The premise is that a military sniper shoots a rocket launcher at the barn, narrowly missing Wolverine but exploding the building," an assessment of environmental effects by McGillan Consulting Ltd says.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4259685a1860.html

Does this mean Alpha Flight will be in it?

[Missy]

Maybe they can use this to start an Alpha Flight series of films.

[JackFetch]

Talking about how the strike will affect big budget movies.

Fox is moving full speed ahead with its "X-Men" spinoff "Wolverine," even though many roles are still uncast. Unlike "X-Men," "Wolverine" rests solidly on Hugh Jackman's shoulders.

On "X-Men" pics, Parker admits, writers Simon Kinberg and Zak Penn were making adjustments throughout production. "Wolverine" will have no such luxury. Most action sequences will be handled in f/x animation.

http://www.superherohype.com/news/topnews.php?id=6514

[JackFetch]

From CHUD

Two pieces of Wolverine news in one day! As you may know, the script for X-Men Origins: Wolverine* got a last minute pre-strike workover. I don't know of anyone who has been able to get their hands on the latest draft, which means that we don't know what changes have been made from David Benioff's work. We do know that the film is a prequel, and that it involves

Wolverine's early career with Weapon X, when he got his admantium skeleton. And we know that some familiar Weapon X names will show up, including Sabretooth, who may be played by Gerard Butler if director Gavin Hood gets his way.

Now a trusted informant has told me that another familiar character will be showing up in the movie - none other than the merc with a mouth, Deadpool. In the comics Deadpool got his start in Weapon X, so it makes sense that he'd show up here. And we've been hearing rumors that Marvel is going for more movie continuity, with a scene being shot to link Incredible Hulk and Iron Man, so why not start Deadpool off here before spinning him into his own film, which David Goyer has been talking up for ages? And how exciting is it to see a second generation spin-off in the movies? The Deadpool movie could be the Good Times to Wolverine's Maude, which spun off from X-Men's All in the Family.

Fan (and Goyer) casting has had Ryan Reynolds playing Deadpool forever.

Now that it looks less and less likely that Reynolds will be playing The Flash in anything anytime soon, could this be his superhero franchise?

[James D.]

If they finally make a Deadpool movie and cast Ryan Reynolds as the titular character, I will do my happy dance in the street.

[Chops]

Reynolds would make a great Deadpool.

[Dread]

CHUD is not the most reliable source. Don't hang your hat on it.

Would be sweet though

[MaxPower]

Ryan Reynolds is the focus of 2 rumours.

The first is apparently during/after filming of Blade Trinity, Avi Arad came up to him and said something like "Ryan, you have to be Deadpool in a movie. I have no idea how we'll make it work, but you have to do it".

The second is apparently, through whatever source, he has told WB if they ever make a Flash movie, to look him up. I assume this was before the JLA movie was announced.

So it probably looks more likely to be Deadpool, BUT, and this is a big BUT, how will a movie studio handle a movie about a character is disfigured beyond recognition when the lead actor is really quite handsome.

Just some food for thought. Maybe it will be flashbacks only or something...

[JackFetch]

They'll handle it just like Spawn did. He wears a mask most of the time so it won't matter. I'm pretty sure if he is in the Wolverine movie, it'll be before he gets disfigured.

[MaxPower]

Good point about being normal looking in Wolverine, but the 'scary face' isn't what I'm worried about, I'm worried about how a studio will handle not capitalising on a name actor who has a pretty face in a movie about an ugly person who 100% of the time wears a mask (I'm talking about a possible Deadpool movie).

So the Spawn comparision doesn't suit, as no-one knew Michael whatever his name was. But then V for Vendetta and Darkman both had name actors that were either never or hardly ever shown, so I guess it could work. I would be more worried about how hammy they would do the "breaking the 4th wall" stuff. Because it shouldn't be treated like a narration, which is where I'm worried it could go.

[JackFetch]

20th Century Fox released the official synopsis:

Leading up to the events of X-Men, X-Men Origins: Wolverine – written by David Benioff (The Kite Runner, Troy) – tells the story of Wolverine's especially violent and romantic past, his complex relationship with Victor Creed, and the ominous Weapon X program. Along the way, Wolverine encounters many mutants, both familiar and new, including surprise appearances by several legends of the X-Men universe.