Jackman’s Wolverine gets director for a 2008 release

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Source: Variety

I remember the first time I saw Hugh Jackman on screen in the first X-Men.

“Yeah,” I thought. “That’s definitely Wolverine.”

Jackman was so awesome in all three X-Men films that Twentieth Century Fox wanted to put him in his own spin-off movie (because it’s definitely cheaper than making another X-Men movie), and now the spin-off has a helmer.

South African writer/director Gavin Hood will be the man in charge of Wolverine’s plan. His 2005 film Tsotsi won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film and there’s already a lot of buzz surrounding his October 12 political thriller, Rendition, starring Reese Witherspoon, Jake Gyllenhaal, Meryl Streep, Alan Arkin and Peter Sarsgaard.

Jackman rocks, and I’ve no doubt that Hood will bring something different and innovative to the table.

My only complaint here is that it’s an origin movie, and I felt like we got just enough of Wolverine’s background in X-Men 2 to have an idea of where he came from while still keeping things mysterious.

Let’s take Hannibal Lecter as an example. I didn’t care for Hannibal Rising (despite Gaspard Ulliel’s fine performance as the young Lecter) because it lined out all these deep emotional and psychological reasons for why Hannibal does what he does. To me, Hannibal Lecter is infinitely scarier when he’s a charming, cultured, finely educated gentleman who wakes up one morning and decides he might like to eat people. Sometimes evil just happens, and that’s what made Hannibal so scary in The Silence of the Lambs.

Not that Wolverine is evil, of course. But you know what I mean. Rather than going back and trying to explicitly explain where Wolverine came from, I’d rather see a new adventure that’s something we’d otherwise never get to see in the context of the X-Men movies. There are lots of incredible comics about Wolverine fighting ninjas in Japan, for example, and I’d love to see the character placed in a fresh environment like that.

Oh, well.

Wolverine begins filming this November for a 2008 release, joining The Dark Knight, Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk in what’s shaping up to be the best year for comic book movies ever.

Bring it!

  • http://dgblog.wordpress.com Danny

    I am a Spider-Man kid, and always will be, but I did like my share of X-men. I only saw the third movie so far, and it was a great movie. He is by far the best person to play Wolverine.

  • http://leaveitatthebeep.com Kerstin

    You know, I never thought I’d find another person who thought Hannibal Lector was scary. That movie, and especially that character creeped me out for weeks. We’re talking sleeping with a night light and, to be honest, I still check under the bed and in the closets and garage before I go to be each night for any Hannibal Lector/Buffalo Bill type boogie men. I know, I’m a nerd.

    Anyway, I’m not sure about this. I feel like we’ve gotten a lot of the Wolverine back story and a movie would just be overkill. But who knows? Jackman kicks ass as Wolverine so maybe it will rock.

    Have you heard anything about the Magneto/Xavier movie? I thought they were planning something about the two of them pre Xavier School.

  • http://johnbierly.wordpress.com John

    Danny: You’ve got to check out the other X-Men movies. They are awesome. The first two movies, to me, are like the first two Spider-Man movies. The first one is really good and better than you’d ever expect, and then the second one somehow finds ways to top the first one. I think you’ll like them a lot. The third X-Men movie was good, but compared to the second one you can really tell that it was rushed through production. That second X-Men movie is a towering achievement in the genre, which makes Bryan Singer’s subsequent ruining of Superman so puzzling.

    Kerstin: You are so, so, so correct about the scariness of Hannibal. The Silence of the Lambs is one of the scariest movies ever made. And I like said, I don’t want an origin for Hannibal, because who’s the scarier Hannibal? The emotionally/psychologically devastated young man from Hannibal Rising, or the brilliant, charming gentleman who sincerely likes to eat people? That’s why I’m in total agreement with your Wolverine assessment. I’ve seen enough of the origin. I don’t want to see too much. But Jackman is awesome, so I’m sure it’ll be a good movie regardless. I just wish they’d use the opportunity to do something fresh and new — in new surroundings, too — with the character. As for the Magneto/Xavier movie, it’s still being planned and there might be some announcements at the big comic book convention in San Diego this week. We shall see! I loved the scene at the beginning of X-Men 3 where they digitally de-aged Magneto and Xavier. Brilliantly done.