X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is an upcoming superhero film based on the fictional Marvel Comics character Wolverine, due for release on May 1, 2009. The film is directed by Gavin Hood and stars Hugh Jackman as the title character. It is a prequel to the X-Men film trilogy, focusing on the mutant Wolverine and his time with Team X, before Wolverine’s skeleton was bonded with the indestructible metal adamantium. The film was mostly shot in Australia and New Zealand.

Premise

Set roughly twenty years before X-Men, the film will focus on Wolverine’s violent past, and his early encounters with William Stryker (Danny Huston). The Weapon X program and his interactions with other mutants will be explored, including his complex relationship with Sabretooth (Liev Schreiber).

Production

Development

David Benioff, a comic book fan, pursued the project for almost three years before he was hired to write the script in October 2004. In preparing to write the script, he reread Barry Windsor-Smith’s “Weapon X” story (1991), as well as Chris Claremont and Frank Miller’s 1982 limited series on the character (his favorite storyline). Jackman collaborated on the script, which he wanted to be more of a character piece compared with the previous X-Men films. Benioff aimed for a “darker and a bit more brutal” story, writing it with an R rating in mind, although he acknowledged the film’s final tone would rest with the producers and director. Jackman did not see the need to make the film R.

Deadpool had been developed for his own film by Reynolds and David S. Goyer at New Line Cinema in 2003, but the project fell apart as they focused on Blade Trinity and an aborted spin-off. Benioff wrote the character into the script in a manner Jackman described as fun, but would also deviate from some of his traits. Similarly, Gambit was a character who the filmmakers had tried to put in the previous X-Men films. Jackman liked Gambit because he is a “loose cannon” like Wolverine, stating their relationship echoes that of Wolverine and Pyro in the original trilogy. David Ayer contributed to the script. Benioff finished his draft in October 2006, and Jackman stated there would be a year before shooting, as he was scheduled to start filming Australia (2008) during 2007. Before the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike began, James Vanderbilt and Scott Silver were hired for a last-minute rewrite.

Gavin Hood was announced as director of the project in July 2007 for a 2008 release. Previously, X-Men and X2 director Bryan Singer and X-Men: The Last Stand director Brett Ratner were interested in returning to the franchise, while Alexandre Aja and Len Wiseman also wanted the job. Zack Snyder, who was approached for The Last Stand, turned down this film because he was directing Watchmen. Jackman saw parallels between Logan and the main character in Tsotsi. Hood explained that while he was not a comic book fan, he “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”. The director described the film’s themes as focusing on Wolverine’s inner struggle between his animalistic savagery and noble human qualities. Hood enjoyed the previous films, but set out to give the spin-off a different feel. In October, Fox announced a May 1, 2009 release date and the X-Men Origins prefix.

Sequel

Hood speculated that there could be a sequel, which may be set in Japan. Such a location was the subject of Claremont and Miller’s series, which was not in the first film as Jackman felt “what we need to do is establish who (Logan) is and find out how he became Wolverine”. Jackman stated the Claremont-Miller series is his favorite Wolverine story. He added another Wolverine film would be a follow-up rather than continuing on from X-Men: The Last Stand. The inclusion of Deadpool and Gambit also leads to the possibilities of their own spin-offs.

Other Information

• Also Known As : Wolverine
• Genre : Action, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Thriller
• Release date : Australia & New Zealand: April 30, 2009, North America & United Kingdom: May 1, 2009
• Country : United States, New Zealand, Australia
• Filming Locations : Arcadia Station, Glenorchy, Otago, New Zealand
• Company : Donners’ Company
• Language : English
• Preceded by : X-Men: The Last Stand
• Followed by : X-Men Origins: Magneto

Cast and Credits

• Directed by : Gavin Hood
• Produced by : Hugh Jackman, Lauren Shuler Donner, Ralph Winter, Avi Arad
• Written by : David Benioff
• Starring : Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Danny Huston
• Music by : Harry Gregson-Williams
• Cinematography : Donald McAlpine
• Editing by : Nicolas De Toth
• Distributed by : 20th Century Fox

Trivia

• Zack Snyder and Bryan Singer turned down the chance to direct the film. Snyder was too busy developing Watchmen (2009), while Singer was too busy with other projects. Snyder also was interested in making the film R-rated, while Hugh Jackman and Lauren Shuler Donner wanted to settle on a PG-13 rating.

Links

• Official website
• X-Men Origins: Wolverine at MySpace, with official trailer
• X-Men Origins: Wolverine at the Internet Movie Database
• X-Men Origins: Wolverine at Allmovie
• X-Men Origins: Wolverine at Yahoo! Movies
• X-men Origins: Wolverine at Wikipedia.org

Tags: Danny Huston, Hugh Jackman, len wiseman, Liev Schreiber, Trailer, Watchmen, Zack Snyder