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Thursday, October 15
Fans of the X-Men are familiar with the evolution of the trilogy: X-Men was good, X2: X-Men United was terrific, and X-Men: The Last Stand just plain sucked. Last Stand's director, Brett Ratner, has heard all the criticism and is sick of it.
You can't make these people happy. I'm kind of the anti-Christ to these comic book geeks. Every single person that wrote s**t went to see that movie multiple times because a movie doesn't gross $200 something million unless people go to see it more than once. Every single person who said, "I'm never seeing that movie," they were the first ones there.
Calling the fan base of your movie "geeks" isn't the most courteous of expressions, but his frustration is somewhat understandable since Last Stand did make $234 million in the U.S. alone and, ultimately, $460 million worldwide. It also cost $210 million to make, so it's not as impressive a profit margin as Ratner would have readers believe. If box office is the sole measure of a movie's success or failure, X2 was more profitable, with Last Stand barely surpassing The X-Men. Not that it matters to Ratner, who still considers his effort a triumph.
If I buried the franchise how the f**k did they make a Wolverine? I mean, that's ridiculous. And they're making three other f**king X-Men movies. Mine kept the franchise alive!
X-Men "geeks" will likely disagree with that statement, and could point out that the success of X-Men Origins: Wolverine is keeping the franchise alive. Also, it might be mentioned that Fox has to continue to developing X-Men movies or else the rights revert back to Marvel Entertainment.
Posted 10/15/2009 by Ryan
Related: Brett Ratner | X-Men: The Last Stand | X-Men | X2: X-Men United | X-Men Origins: Wolverine
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Thursday, October 8
With the sheer number of X-Men movies currently in some state of production — X-Men: First Class, Deadpool, X-Men Origins: Magneto, Wolverine 2, and possibly even X-Men 4 — it's no wonder that Rebecca Romijn wants her own spin-off. Romijn told Showbizspy that she'd be ready to get back into the blue makeup of her X-Men character Mystique in, say, a year or so.
If they talk to me in a year when I have worked off more of the baby weight, we'll see, but I've still got a couple of pounds to go. It's a great idea but no one's talked to me about it yet.
Romijn recently had twins with husband Jerry O'Connell and admits she isn't "back to the shape I was in beforehand," but with all the X-Men movies potentially being made, Romijn may have plenty of time before Mystique is asked to return.
What do you think? Would you like a Mystique spin-off? Let us know in the comments section.
Posted 10/8/2009 by Ryan
Related: Rebecca Romijn-Stamos | X-Men: The Last Stand | X-Men | X2: X-Men United
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Thursday, August 20
X-Men Origins: Wolverine didn't exactly close the door on another appearance of Sabretooth, which makes sense considering the character appears again in X-Men, which takes place after Wolverine. But could Sabretooth appear in the Japan-set Wolverine sequel? MTV asked Sabretooth himself, Liev Schreiber, about the possibility of an appearance in Wolverine 2:
There's been some smatterings of conversation about it, but nothing concrete yet. I had a ball doing it, so I'd do it again. Hugh [Jackman] mentioned that he had some conversations about it, but no one's told me about it yet.
Schreiber has a preference as to what story he'd like to have explored should Victor Creed, a.k.a. Sabretooth, appear again:
I'd love to find out what happened to Victor. I'd like to find out how my Victor became Tyler Mane's Victor [in 2000's X-Men].
Posted 8/20/2009 by Ryan
Related: Liev Schreiber | X-Men | X-Men Origins: Wolverine | Wolverine 2
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Thursday, August 13
THR reports that Christopher McQuarrie will write the script for the upcoming sequel to X-Men Origins: Wolverine. McQuarrie will be responsible for adapting the storyline from the 1982 Wolverine comic book mini-series by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller that was hinted at briefly in a post-credits sequence in Wolverine. McQuarrie is no stranger to the X-Men universe, having done an uncredited re-write on 2000's X-Men.
Hugh Jackman has been staunchly in favor of the Japan storyline since the subject of a Wolverine sequel was raised, and promises that Wolverine 2 will be "fairly faithful" to the Miller-Clarmont book, though Jackmand says they will have to "pick and choose" portions of the story to cover.
[Wolverine 2] will be very different from the last Wolverine movie, and that's what I like about it. I didn't want it to feel like the same thing.... It's a whole new environment and the storyline is unbelievable. Like all the Wolverine and X-Men stories, they're long. If you put together all the Japan saga stories, it's so long.
One way Wolverine 2 will be like its predeccessor is in its supporting cast. "There will be a lot of new mutants," said Jackman. However, if Wolverine 2 stays faithful to the comics, Jackman claims that it will also be a much steamier Wolverine than before.
Parts of that story were pretty dark. I don't know if it's the darkest, but I'm going to go out on a limb right now and say I think it will be the sexiest. There's some female companionship — and not just one — for Wolverine.... My wife might have an issue with it, but I think the fans will like it.
Jackman says that Wolverine 2 can be expected to reach theaters in 2012. "If you look at the history [of the X-Men movies], it's been every three years — three years exactly."
Posted 8/13/2009 by Ryan
Related: Hugh Jackman | X-Men | Frank Miller | Christopher McQuarrie | X-Men Origins: Wolverine | Wolverine 2
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Tuesday, June 2
X-Men trilogy actor Shawn Ashmore has already stated that he thinks a X-Men 4 is impossible, however with the success of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, a renewed interest in the X-Men franchise has surfaced, particularly from X-Men / X2: X-Men United director Bryan Singer, who left X-Men: The Last Stand to direct Superman Returns but told Britain's Total Film Magazine that he regrets the decision:
It's weird for me to watch [X-Men: The Last Stand], because I'm so close to the universe. I'm eternally intertwined with X-Men now. What takes an audience four hours to watch -- the first two movies -- took six years of my life. So, to not be part of it ... It's a shame.
Singer went on to say that he may be interested in another prequel, namely X-Men Origins: Magneto:
Possibly. The only thing that concerns me about Magneto is that if the prequel were to follow the track I used in X-Men, which is Magneto's history in the concentration camp, then I've lived in that world. Apt Pupil, X-Men and now Valkyrie ... I've lived in that Nazi universe for quite a while. I just might need to take a little breakbefore I do something like that.
If Magneto is a little too much, there's always X-Men 4. Ashmore wouldn't complain. Neither would Wolverine producer Lauren Shuler Donner who has mentioned that she would love for Singer to return and direct almost any X-Men movie.
Posted 6/2/2009 by Ryan
Related: Bryan Singer | Lauren Shuler Donner | Shawn Ashmore | Apt Pupil | X-Men: The Last Stand | X-Men | X2: X-Men United | X-Men Origins: Wolverine | Valkyrie | X-Men Origins: Magneto
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Wednesday, May 13
Fox has got to be pleased. With X-Men Origins: Wolverine's success, the studio is now working on a Deadpool movie, a Wolverine sequel, X-Men trilogy prequel (X-Men: First Class), and X-Men Origins: Magneto. While Magneto has been at times "on hold," it seems that the movie is moving ahead and looking for a director. IMDb lists James McTeigue (V for Vendetta) as "in talks" to direct the movie from a script by David Goyer (Batman Begins), who was unable to direct due to his commitment to his The Invisible Man.
X-Men Origins: Magneto will expand on Magneto's concentration camp beginnings, shown briefly in X-Men, and his fractious relationship with Charles Xavier. Producer Lauren Shuler Donner has called the script "fantastic."
Posted 5/13/2009 by Ryan
Related: James McTeigue | Lauren Shuler Donner | V for Vendetta | Batman Begins | X-Men | X-Men Origins: Wolverine | X-Men Origins: Magneto | Deadpool | X-Men: First Class | The Invisible Man | David Goyer
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Monday, May 4
After X-Men Origins: Wolverine's huge opening weekend, it's no surprise that Hugh Jackman's co-stars from the original X-Men trilogy would like to follow in Jackman's footsteps. Halle Berry told WENN would like her character Storm to have her own X-Men Origins movie:
I think that would be great. Storm deserves her own movie -- if I can still fit into the suit.
Shawn Ashmore, Iceman in the X-Men movies, told SciFiWire that he is "contracted" for another X-Men and would "absolutely love to play that character again." However, Ashmore hopes to break into one of the X-Men Origins movies since he doesn't believe X-Men 4 will ever happen:
As far as an X4, that's been debated and talked about forever. I don't think an X-Men 4 will happen, and that's my opinion. That's not anything I've heard from anybody official. I just know how tough it was to get everybody together scheduling-wise for [X-Men: The Last Stand]. There's just so many major actors involved. I think that's just such a challenge.
Ashmore feels there's little chance for Iceman in X-Men: First Class as well:
I heard rumors about a young-X-Men movie, and then I heard it was going to be something taking place in the past. So even though Iceman and Bobby Drake are a big part storyline-wise, the way that they set up that character in the series, he's much younger than the other characters. I'm just not sure how realistic that would be. Clearly I'm getting older, so if they were to do that, I'm sure that they would cast a younger actor.
If Wolverine keeps up its tremendous success, Fox will likely make any and all X-Men related movies.
Posted 5/4/2009 by Ryan
Related: Halle Berry | Hugh Jackman | Shawn Ashmore | X-Men: The Last Stand | X-Men | X2: X-Men United | X-Men Origins: Wolverine
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Monday, April 27
Only the most jaded moviegoer wouldn't be impressed by the physical transformation Hugh Jackman underwent to portray Logan/Wolverine in the upcoming X-Men Origins: Wolverine film. Rising at four in the morning day-in-and-day-out for months on end to harden his 40-year-old body to portray our favorite feral Canadian is the kind of dedication that only the most talented method actors have accomplished, putting him in a class with actors like Daniel Day Lewis (My Left Foot), Christian Bale (The Machinist), and Robert De Niro (Raging Bull).
In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Jackman credited De Niro's performance in another body-altering film as inspiration for his work on Origins. Jackman said:
I wanted to look like De Niro did when he took off his shirt in Cape Fear and everyone went, "Whoa." You realized the guy was a freak.
Of course, bulging biceps and angry screams aren't quite enough to sell a movie (any of the last dozen Van Damme movies are proof of that), or to keep the interest of an actor as talented and in-demand as Jackman:
Wolverine's fun and cool, but I wouldn't be down for my fourth time doing it if there wasn't something more interesting to it than just slicing and dicing and smoking a cigar and saying a few cool lines.
Despite the recent leak of an unfinished copy of the film on the Internet, X-Men Origins: Wolverine is expected to be a major hit, helping to kick off the summer blockbuster season.
Posted 4/27/2009 by BrentJS
Related: Hugh Jackman | X-Men: The Last Stand | X-Men | X2: X-Men United
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Friday, April 17
When it comes to movies based on comic books, fans of the original source material are typically the most critical audience and have been very vocal about errors or perceived "continuity flaws" in the adapted works in the past. Gavin Hood, director of the upcoming X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie from 20th Century Fox, was all-too-aware of this going into the project. To the delight of fans, the comic books that provided inspiration for the film are two of the most acclaimed stories in Marvel Comics' Wolverine mythos. In a recent interview with Wizard magazine, Hood director said:
The two [comics] that most inform our movie are the Origin story and the Weapon X [story]. But I think we [could have spent] and entire movie just on that first Origin series, so I think that it would be fair to say that our movie's inspired by those two series rather than absolutely true to them.
When dealing with a character that has lived an exceedingly long life, the healthy use of flashback sequences is essential. When asked what criteria was used to select the important moments in Wolverine's development, Hood said:
We needed to move [Wolverine] through from about 1860 when he's born as James Howlett through the late '70s, early '80s, when our story principally takes place. So it's certainly not an endless "Logan Through Time" story by no means. We had a story set in the not too distant past...so the bulk of our story...happens between him and his brother and Striker. But we do meet him in the original moment of getting his claws, which I thought was exciting.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine stars Hugh Jackman as Logan/Wolverine, Liev Schreiber as Victor Creed/Sabretooth, Ryan Reynolds as Wade Wilson/Deadpool and Taylor Kitsch as Remy LeBeau/Gambit.
Next Showing: X-Men Origins: Wolverine opens May 1
Posted 4/17/2009 by BrentJS
Related: Hugh Jackman | X-Men: The Last Stand | X-Men | X2: X-Men United | Gavin Hood
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Wednesday, April 8
Insider sources on the Iron Man 2 set recently reported a visit by Garry Shandling, the hilarious actor and comedian of It's Garry Shandling's Show and the satirical late night talk show spoof, The Larry Sanders Show. It has been rumored that Shandling will appear as Senator Stern, the character in the X-Men mythos who uses his political power to champion the Mutant Registration Act.
Now, according to IESB, Gary Oldman, the chameleonic actor who became famous playing gruesome villains in True Romance, The Professional and The Fifth Element, and who recently portrayed Commissioner Gordon in The Dark Knight, has been spotted on the set. There was no speculation about what character (if any) Oldman will portray or how long he will be on set, especially considering the fact that he is currently filming The Book of Eli.
This wouldn't be the first time that an actor appearing in a major motion picture based upon a character from one of the "big two" comic book companies made the leap to a film based on a character from the competition. James Marsden portrayed Marvel Comics' Cyclops in all three X-Men films and then appeared in DC Comics' Superman Returns as Lois Lane's love interest.
Next Showing: Iron Man 2 is scheduled for a May 7, 2010 release
Posted 4/8/2009 by BrentJS
Related: Garry Shandling | Gary Oldman | James Marsden | X-Men: The Last Stand | X-Men | Robert Downey Jr. | X2: X-Men United | Iron Man | Iron Man 2 | The Book of Eli