Posts Tagged ‘Wolverine’

via CinemaBlend

Hugh Jackman's Wolverine Sequel Picks Up A Screenwriter image
Hugh Jackman’s just trying to set some world record for playing the same character the most amount of times, at this point, right? May’s release of X-Men: Days of Future Pastmarks the seventh time Jackman has played Wolverine on screen. And while rumors floated that he might not return for James Mangold’s planned sequel to The Wolverine, this morning, we hear the opposite.

Twentieth Century Fox recently went ahead and locked up a release date for Mangold’s untitled Wolverine film, eyeing March 3, 2017 as a window for new mutant action.Deadline follows up that news with confirmation that David James Kelly has been hired to write the screenplay, and that Jackman is “reprising his signature role” for Mangold to direct.

Of course, Mangold kind of hinted at that on his Twitter page:

But we really did wonder if Jackman would want to try on the claws – again – for the eighth time since he first created this version of the character in 2000. It goes without saying that Jackman doesn’t HAVE to keep playing Wolverine. He has earned more money that a human could spend playing Logan, the angry, razor-clawed mutant. He has pushed hard to make a dark, standalone Wolverine movie (in Mangold’s The Wolverine), finally tackling a storyline – set in Japan – that fans of the character have been clamoring for. Simply put, Jackman has climbed this mountain. There are no worlds left to conquer.

But even back when The Wolverine came out, Mangold and Jackman spoke openly about how much they enjoyed the creative collaboration, and left the door open for future Wolverine movies, if the studio would allow.

What we don’t know yet – and won’t know for a while – is the state of Wolverine on theX-Men timeline. Fox has announced that Bryan Singer will be moving from Days of Future Past to X-Men: Apocalypse, but that sequel is expected to lean on the characters from X-Men: First Class — actors like Michael Fassbender and Jennifer Lawrence. Wolverine could be in a post-apocalyptic world, as he will be in Days. He could successfully reset the timeline, giving him new areas to explore. That will fall to Kelly, whose credits also Mind Mgmt for Scott Free, and Sentinel, for Appian Way and Fox.

What do you think? Are you happy that Jackman’s staying in the Wolverine role for another standalone film? Would you like to see him paired with another hero for the story? Or is it time to recast? Let us know below.

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As much as I really did enjoy Hugh Jackman’s take on Wolverine, I’m glad he’s ‘retiring’ because I want to see other characters get a more substantial role in the X-Men movies. Hugh’s performance was so definitive as the character, I don’t think they will try to replace him any time soon, which means they won’t be able to use him as the fall-back character anymore.

from Spinoff Online

The Wolverine will outlive us all — including Hugh Jackman, based on the actor’s recent comments about retiring from the role.

Jackman spoke with Vulture at the Toronto International Film Festival about his many appearances in the X-Men movies, including this summer’s The Wolverine and next summer’sX-Men: Days of Future Past. According to the actor, his next appearance as Wolverine could well be his last.

“It’s nearing the end,” he said. “I do feel that. If there are any more movies, there would have to be a really good reason for it.”

Indeed, Jackman admitted he thought his days as Wolverine would have ended a long time ago.

“I can tell you this, and I can say this now: I wasn’t sure that I would do another Wolverine movie after the first one,” he said. “I just felt that I hadn’t done the character justice, and that was a bit of a hole inside of me.”

With the (mostly) critically acclaimed The Wolverine under his belt and a star-studded X-Menmovie in his near future, it sounds as if that hole has been filled — until the next interesting Wolverine project comes along, that is.

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The Wolverine Teaser One-SheetIt’s been a little over a month since The Wolverine hit theaters, how is it stacking up to X-Men: Origins: Wolverine? A movie which left a bad taste in a lot of people’s mouths and seriously endangered The Wolverine’s chances to do anything but flop.

(all prices in US dollars and courtesy of Box Office Mojo)

X-Men: Origins: Wolverine 

  • Production Budget: $150m
  • Domestic Total Gross: $180m
  • Foreign Total Gross: $193m
  • Total Gross: $373m
  • Opening Weekend: $85m
  • Opening Theater Count: 4,099 theaters
  • Drop off after opening weekend: 67.2%
  • Total Run: 22 weeks

The Wolverine (so far)

  • Production Budget: $120m
  • Domestic Total Gross: $125m
  • Foreign Total Gross: $226m
  • Total Gross: $351m
  • Opening Weekend: $53m
  • Opening Theater Count: 3,924 theaters
  • Drop off after opening weekend: 59.9%
  • Run So Far: 5 weeks

So, while The Wolverine is not a runaway success as some recent superhero movies, it’s not doing too bad. It opened softer than Origins, likely because of buyer wariness. But it retained a higher percent of ticket sales in the second weekend. For comparison, Avengers had a 50.3% drop off in its second week, Iron Man 3 was 58.4%.

Internationally, Wolverine has already surpassed Origins which means that in only 5 weeks the film is only $22m short of making more money than Origins, and on a budget that was 30m less. I can’t be positive, but I think they can call this a win. Maybe not a Gold Medal win, but hey, Bronze Medal is still a medal.

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So it’s ‘confirmed’ that there will be no Wanda in DOFP, but it’s not clear if this means she’s simply somewhere else (maybe Australia) or if Pietro is an only child in this universe. I will accept if she’s just not around (or they leave it open, i.e., they don’t say either way) but if they make him an only child then I will be very disappointed.

From BleedingCool

Crowds at Montreal’s Fantasia Fest last night were treated to some footage from X-Men: Days of Future Past and a Q&A from director Bryan Singer. I’m guessing it would have been the same reel of clips that I saw at Comic-Con, but I’d certainly have liked another chance to see it. Just one more reason I wish I was at Fantasia Fest.

JoBlo‘s man in the field gathered up a list of notes from the Q&A, and while there was a lot of previously-heard stories and other bits of business, some of it was fresh or worth another go-around. Here are the points that stand out to me. There are spoilers for old X-Men movies implicit throughout the rest of this story.

  • Tom Cruise is deferential to his directors.
  • Singer doesn’t see Jack the Giant Slayer as creatively compromised but does think it was mis-marketed.
  • Russell Crowe wanted to play Wolverine bald and that’s why he didn’t get the role
  • Singer thinks that X3: The Last Stand made a mistake with Cyclops.
  • While editing the first X-Men, he got into such a row with the editor he smashed a bottle on the wall and was locked out of the editing room for three days.

And then there were a couple of bigger, chewier points.

First up, Singer said that The Scarlet Witch won’t be appearing in Days of Future Past. Which means Quicksilver will be operating separate from his sister. And I wonder if the movie version – or rather, this movie version – of Quicksilver will even have a sister.

There’s already a bit of a puzzle in his family tree, with the character apparently old enough that he would have been born before the events of First Class but that film’s Magneto, who in the comics is his dad, was seemingly unaware of him. I’m curious to see what they’re doing with this decision.

And then there’s Singer’s comments on how the “old” Professor X has returned. JoBlo’s note says, verbatim:

Could justify bringing Xavier back because he transferred his consciousness and could possibly construct a body around that consciousness.

Most were assuming that time travel was involved in the resurrection of Charles. At least I was, before I saw The Wolverine.

But what’s this with the word “possibly”? Does that come from JoBlo or Singer? It’s not clear. Because if Singer doesn’t know, for sure, how the character was brought back to life, then he must be leaving it ambiguous in the film.

He could be misleading us. He could be misquoted. Either way, this notion of constructing a body… that’s a new one to me. Has he ever shown abilities of that kind in the comics, because I’m certainly not aware of them if he has.

X-Men: Days of Future Past continues production now. It’s looking good to me. Expect to see it in US cinemas on May 23rd next year.

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Here is a sneak peak at the pilot episode of my X-Men: The (Fan Fic) Series which starts September 20th.

“Rogue,” Quicksilver called her name over the line when Avalanche didn’t answer.

“On it,” she said instantly, slipping the files she had taken into her brown leather jacket.

Running for the stairwell, she pulled off her gloves and tucked them into her pockets. The Boy Scout, though he liked to call himself Cyclops, had probably gotten to Avalanche and while Dom could take a hit from Cyclops optic blast, maybe even two or three, that was no reason to assume he was okay if he wasn’t answering.

Taking the steps two at a time, she made her way up to the ground floor but she was at the East end of building from the lobby, she’d have to take the long connecting hallway to get to him.

Snikt.

Upon exiting the stairs and hearing the distinctive sound, Rogue managed to duck just in time as a pair of Adamantium claws swiped over her head.

Rolling, she was back on her feet within seconds, facing down the man known as Wolverine. He was about her height and made up for his lack of stature with a very gruff and intimidating presence. The mutant’s gift was a healing factor that left most others in the dust, practically coming back from the dead on more than one occasion.

She would know, she had seen it in his head.

“Well, at least you’re learning,” Rogue frowned as she took in the high collar leather biker jacket he wore, with matching full gloves, leaving only the skin of his head vulnerable to her touch. “What we at now, 12-8?”

“I don’t keep track,” he said with a growl, releasing the Adamantium claws in his other fist.

“Sure ya do,” she grinned, then made her move.

Diving low, she kept under his first swing, then bought up both arms in a boxer’s defense to block his second attack. His entire skeleton had been replaced with the toughest metal on Earth and that meant he had a lot more weight behind his punches than his build would suggest.

She tried to reach up and grab his face but he was quicker than he looked, another swipe coming at her head. Ducking again, she managed to slip around him, trying to reach back behind her and grab his neck on her way. Sensing what she was doing, he lunged forward out of her grasp.

Frustrated, Rogue bounced on her toes as she turned to face him, the man laughing. “Same ol’ moves there, skunk,” he brought his claws up.

Practically growling as the voice of Wolverine taunted her both in person and in her head, she got ready to attack again, “Bring it, short stack.”

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The Wolverine Teaser One-SheetThe Wolverine was one of those films that you go into hoping it will be good, but have a low standard of what “good” is. Because you do this, you actually enjoy the film.

If you go in expecting this to stick to canon, you’re going to be disappointed from the start. But that’s something we’ve come to expect, even from the Marvel movies, canon gets changed around to better suit the medium and more modern settings. Was there anything in The Wolverine that was unforgivable? On the whole, no, but the fact that it was so predictable is highly disappointing. Much like in Iron Man 3, they changed around who The Silver Samurai is/was. But the Mandarin’s change came completely out of left field and was as amazingly creative as it was controversial. The twist in Wolverine you see coming from about twenty minutes into the movie.

And at one point I thought this film might actually do something different for once. Make Wolvie a real anti-hero and leave him without hooking up with the love interest and truly left like a Ronin by the end, albeit one who finds his own purpose which would be very deep and existential. That would have been awesome, and very much in line with the old Westerns and Samurai films this film was a homage to, but instead the love story is as typical as we’ve seen a thousand times.

That was really this films biggest problem, it was too safe. Yes, that meant that you’re so glad it wasn’t the horrible mess that was X3 and X:O:W, but that’s basically saying after trying all those wax and saw dust flavored jelly beans you’re pleased when you get a red liquorish.

Does that necessarily make it a bad movie? No. The train fight scene was pretty spectacular, plus they played around a bit with the things Wolvie could do with his claws. It was a darker film and definitely more on par with what Wolverine should be. If it actually tried to push the limits more in the story it was trying to tell (and more straight on ninja/Wolvie fighting), then it could have been beyond Epic, it was that close.

Instead, the ending kinda falls flat and really leaves you to wonder ‘why is he doing this’ except, you know, he has to be freed up for Days of Future Past.

Overall though, it’s a decent film which makes up for X:O:W and leaves us with a wonderful little after-credits scene to hook into DOFP. Yukio and Mariko were decently kick ass and Jean’s cameo wasn’t what I thought it was going to be, so that was nice to be surprised (I choose to believe that last scene was a homage to the White Hot Room).

So yeah, go see The Wolverine, just make sure that when you walk in, don’t expect a Rembrandt, and be glad it’s not a finger-paint.

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Just getting back from an early showing of The Wolverine, my initial reaction is thus: Oh the wonders of low expectations and low bars of standards.

Purest will hate the film, but that’s nothing new.

Those who only know Wolvie by the movies will love it.

Everyone in between will pretty much be ‘at least it didn’t totally suck’.

Longer, more insightful, review to come once I’ve had a little time to digest the film, and, you know, sleep.

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Spoilers ahead though only if you’re one of those who never watch teaser trailers. Oh, and Evan Peters literally quoted his character directly from the comics… good sign.

From io9

We saw the first teaser of X-Men: Days of Future Past just now at San Diego Comic-Con, and it was the most exciting X-Men moment in a decade. Here’s our rough impressions of what we saw. UPDATE: More details added!

Spoilers ahead…

Seriously, I hope this footage shows up online soon, because my description is not going to do it justice. There was a lot going on here. We saw it twice, so I’m adding more details from the second watching.

We see a closeup of Patrick Stewart’s eye, and someone (Stewart) asks, “What’s the last thing you remember?” Professor X (Stewart) responds, “I had a glimpse into the past.”Then Professor X tells Wolverine, “You’re going to have to do for me what I once did for you.” We slowly zoom out from Professor X’s aged face, and then we see him with a Cerebro helmet on, and later coming out of the Cerebro chamber.

And this is a dark dystopian future, where the dark, fetishy costumes are looking more dirty and distress and messed up, and Professor X and Ian McKellen’s Magneto seem weary and filled with dread. They’re in a war chamber in front of a table that shows how badly things are going. Wolverine even has a bit of gray in his facial hair.

We see flashes of all our favorite mutants, including Storm against a stormy sky, Ellen Page as Kitty Pryde, and some others. And there are futuristic-looking mutants, including  Omar Sy as Bishop, and some others I couldn’t identify wearing dramatic Mad Max-y makeup.

We learn that Professor X and Magneto have come together “side by side, to end this war before it ever begins.”

Wolverine asks, “So I wake up in my younger body, and then what?” Professor X responds, “Find me, convince me of all this.” And Magneto chimes in that Wolverine will find younger Magneto a different person, “a darker person.” We catch glimpses of 1970s versions of Magneto and Professor X — with a lot more hair and a lot more fire to them. Young Professor X has a crazy beard and a 1970s groovy outfit with an X-shaped light on his face, while Young Magneto (Michael Fassbender) is waving a gun.

We see Young Professor X blowing dust off a white globe.

Back then, Professor X says, “I was a very different man. Lead me, guide me, be patient with me.” We see Young Professor X putting his hands on someone’s face as he tries to understand. Maybe Wolverine’s face?

Older Wolverine responds, “Patience isn’t my strong suit.”

And then blue glowing hands are gripping Wolverine’s head, sending him back in time into the body of his younger self.

We catch glimpses of other stuff — Young Magneto using his powers to pull a distressed Mystique along the floor. Young Magneto descending from the air looking scary. There is a mysterious opening under the Oval Office, revealed by the oval opening up like a trapdoor. And protests in the street, and Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage) addressing a government hearing. And Richard Nixon looking weird and terrifying — and then Mystique walking down the street changing into a man in a pimp suit.

There is a LOT of stuff blowing up, and Young Professor X using Magneto, and the Beast attacking, a woman walking away from an airplane, and a military setting. We glimpse Professor X shielding his face from an intense white light, and the Cerebro machine exploding.

Young Professor X says, “I don’t want your suffering. I don’t want your future.”

And then Old Professor X is face to face with his younger self. He says: “Please. We need you to hope again.” It’s an actual spine-tingling moment. Actual goosebumps here.

In the panel, we met Omar Sy, who told us that Bishop is visiting from the future and just trying to survive, like everyone. Also on the panel: Peter Dinklage confirmed he really is playing Bolivar Trask.

And Evan Peters was here, as the new Quicksilver. Asked to describe his character, Peters said: “He’s very fast. He’s quick. He’s a spaz. He talks quick, he moves quick, everybody is very slow compared to him. He’s always at an ATM waiting for the bastard in front of him to finish.”

“He’s got excellent genes,” added Michael Fassbender, who plays his father, Magneto.

Someone asks what sort of costume Quicksilver will have, and Singer responds: “It’ll be a seventies costume. I had grown up as a kid in the 1970s and I had forgotten how hideous some of the clothing was back then.”

Someone asked if we might get a Deadpool movie, and Bryan Singer wouldn’t confirm that one will happen — but he did say the X-Men universe is as big as the rest of the Marvel universe, and there’s enough room for a ton of X-Men films developing all the different characters and corners of the universe, building it out.

Someone asked Jackman about musicals, and he said he would never sing as Wolverine. The crowd was disappointed, so he gave us a taste of what a Wolverine musical would be like: “I’m gonna slice ’em, I’m gonna dice ’em,” he sang operatically.

Someone asked the assembled cast which X-Men character, other than their own, they would want to play. Patrick Stewart responded: “I would like to play any female character in any X-Men movie, because then I would have a chance of winning an Academy Award.” (Because three of the women in the X-Men have won Oscars.)

Iain McKellen said: “If I can’t play the younger Magneto, then I would like to grow wings and play Angel.”

Oh, and in the panel for The Wolverine before we saw this footage, Hugh Jackman gave a shoutout to Wolverine co-creator Len Wein, who was in the audience, and it was really gracious and awesome.

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According to BleedingCool, “the official X-Men: Days Of Future Past tumblr prematurely published and swiftly deleted a series of character headshots showing a whole host of mutants”

Here they are below:

DOFP: Future Wolverine DOFP: Past Wolverine DOFP: Xavier DOFP: Magneto DOFP: Colossus DOFP: Bishop DOFP: Beast

What do we learn?

Wolverine: Well, as has been pointed out on Tumblr and other places, future Wolverine is sporting the iconic gray stripes in his hair and possible iconic yellow jumpsuit. It does look like stretchy yellow spandex… I doubt though that he’s wearing a full yellow jumpsuit, I would wager it’s just a top which hints greatly at his iconic uniform, like the brown leather jacket with yellow stripes. Unfortunately the image is cropped too much to know for sure what he’s wearing, or what’s going on in the background, lots of glow.

Xavier/Magneto/Colossus: They seem to be wearing the same uniform, just a bit different to mark the personalities of the different characters. It definitely looks like armor, similar to what Storm was wearing in her tweeted sneak peak. But Kitty and Bobby don’t seem to be wearing the armor/uniform in their sneaky peak (for that matter neither does Wolvie here either). I’m not sure what this means, why they aren’t  all matched up, if they were all mis-matched, okay, but only a few are? Could they have been in a different resistance squad or maybe they were separated then found by the group in order to use Kitty’s powers? The difference in outfits could mean something, could mean nothing…

Bishop: Looks like Bishop, dreadlocks, scar, red sash thingy… no complaints here. But I’m not sure about the ridges on his shoulder, or if his armor is supposed to match the other’s uniform. Could this has something to do with Bobby and Kitty’s non-matching outfits? Different squads? Or maybe the X-Men have broken up?

Beast: They’ve cleaned it up a bit, but he’s still in the yellow striped jumpsuit from the first movie. Will we see the others in their jumpsuits too?

Rogue: We’re getting a lot of peaks at the future cast, and if I miss my guess, we’ve seen everyone (except Rogue) from the original cast (that we know is going to be in the film). We’ve even had looks at the new ‘big names’ like Bishop here… so… why haven’t we had a sneak of Rogue? It’s possible Anna hasn’t done her filming yet, there is still two months-ish left to go… but with everyone else from the future timeline getting their scenes out of the way… how’s this going to work? Simple movie magic? Is her role just not that big and it’ll be filmed later? Or is there a greater plot afoot…

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Warning: Spoilers for Days of Future Past

wolverine-rogue-xmenThe Vulture got some exclusive information regarding Days of Future Past. You can read it all here but this is part that interests me the most:

In Singer’s take, Ellen Page returns as Kitty from the Brett Ratner–directed X-Men: The Last Stand, but this time she uses her powers to send Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine back into the past, where he encounters the younger mutants played by James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, and Michael Fassbender. However, something bad happens to Kitty during the time-travel trance, and while Wolverine is still under her spell, the other X-Men must race to find a mutant who can siphon Kitty’s powers and bring their friend back to the future. Could that be the plot development that brings Anna Paquin’s power-copying Rogue into the fold once again?

First off: Totally called it that Wolverine was going to be the time traveler. I was thrown a bit with Bishop being included, and I suppose there could be a surprise twist there and Bishop be another time traveler… but we’ll see. Should be interesting to see how Logan reacts to the younger version of the characters, how much will he reveal of the future?

Secondly: Rogue! Rogue? The siphon power thing does sound like a job for a powered Rogue, but the question is, if she isn’t already hanging around with them when they attempt it the first time… then where the hell is she? Did her powers come back or not (Singer hinted that maybe she didn’t)? Did she leave the X-Men over the Bobby/Kitty thing? Have they devolved her character even further to someone who is out nursing a broken heart? Or is she simply out with a different team kicking loads of butt like she should have been in the first place?  So many questions! So may possibilities! So many chances for this go to horribly wrong…

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