With
Iron Man 3,
Man of Steel and
Thor: The Dark World all set to hit the big screen next year, it would be easy to forget
The Wolverine. However, the more we see of the film, the clearer it becomes that it would be very foolish to make such a mistake! Talking to Empire Magazine, director James Mangold (
3:10 To Yuma) has shared his thoughts on the tone of the sequel and reveals that we should expect to find Wolverine in a dark place next Summer.
"It's rooted in drama. Effectively almost every superhero film, in a sense, revolves around some large group of humanity that's either killed or held hostage while superheroes battle it out with supervilains. The essential driving forces of this movie are interpersonal and dramatic, about love, bitterness, loss, vengeance, redemption, depression, suicide, conquering inner demons - it's going to make it a very different film than people have seen."
Yesterday, we learned that
The Wolverine won't be a prequel - instead, it will be set after the original
X-Men trilogy. So, why was Japan the right setting for Logan after the traumatic events of Brett Ratner's
X-Men: The Last Stand? (some fans would of course argue that the film was a traumatic experience for them as well!)
"The cultural qualities that Japan and its people bring - honour, a sense of duty, of conflict - really fit beautifully around Logan. Our film find Logan at a point where he's very much a ronin - a samurai without a master. Anyone he ever had a connection to is either dead or gone."
Logan's last solo outing,
X-Men Origins: Wolverine, did not go down well with fans OR critics, and Hugh Jackman has repeatedly made it clear that this film will make right the wrongs of the past. James Mangold also has a clear desire to make a great Wolverine film, but he goes on to reveal that his vision doesn't include anything on the scale of something like Marvel's $1.5 billion hit,
The Avengers. Instead, he's looking to ground this particular adaptation in a far more realistic setting.
"When I say realistic, what I mean is that it's not built on 70-foot lizards from outer space. Our goal is to try to be a little less super-CG and wires, and a little more hardcore. I want the film to feel analogue. You always have large-scale action and adventure - it wouldn't be a movie about gods if you didn't have epic physicality. But we all feel we're making a Japanese noir picture with tentpole action in it."
STARRING:
Hugh Jackman as Logan/Wolverine
Hiroyuki Sanada as Shingen Yashida
Hal Yamanouchi as Yashida
Tao Okamoto as Mariko Yashida
Rila Fukushima as Yukio
Will Yun Lee as Kenuichio Harada
Brian Tee as Noburo Mori
Svetlana Khodchenkova as Viper
RELEASE DATE: July 26th, 2013.
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