Wolverine, the long-anticipated and much-hyped spin-off project of the successful X-Men franchise, is scheduled to begin principal filming at the end of November. Though the script was finished nearly a year ago, filming was held off because Hugh Jackman, reprising his role as Logan/Wolverine and attached to the picture as a producer, has been busy filming Baz Luhrmann’s Australia.
Brett Wiseman, Bryan Singer and Les Wiseman were all named as possible directors in the past, but the film is being directed by
Gavin Hood (Tsotsi) from a screenplay by
David Benioff (Troy). Hood, who confessed that he is not a comic book fan, said that Wolverine—or Logan—appeals to him as a character because of the great amount of angst and internal conflict that Logan possesses. Benioff, an admitted fan of comic books, supposedly re-read Barry Windor-Smith’s
Weapon X storyline and the
Wolverine limited series by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller as inspiration. Recently, it was reported that
Skip Woods (Swordfish) may have been brought in to do some re-tooling of the script.
According to The Daily Telegraph,
Hugh Jackman, reprising his role as Logan/Wolverine, has hired his long-time friend Michael Ryan to help him get into proper fighting shape to play the loveable berserker. The two were recently seen working out together at Fitness First Kings Cross, Sydney.
Filming is expected to last three to four months and will include locations in New Zealand.
Vinnie Jones, who played Juggernaut, and
Tyler Mane, who played Sabretooh, may be revising their roles.
Brian Cox, who portrayed William Stryker, has said that his character
will appear in the film and that
Wolverine takes place seventeen years before the events in
X-Men.
Wolverine is scheduled for a 2009 release.