Wolverine

[GeneChing]

Ninjas. Lots of ninjas. I'm in.

The Wolverine: International Trailer

[sanjuro_ronin]

Its a different story line than the comics one or the miniseries one of Logan in Japan, the hand and the clan Yoshida, BUT it looks interesting and Jackman looks in great shape.
I think my one complaint will probably be that Wolverine doesn't fight as well as he should.

[GeneChing]

‘Wolverine’ star Hugh Jackman on Logan’s explosiveness, restraint
July 16, 2013 | 4:47 p.m.

For Hugh Jackman, “The Wolverine” has been 13 years coming.

The Oscar-nominated Australian actor first discovered Chris Claremont and Frank Miller’s landmark comic book exploring Logan’s past when he was shooting Bryan Singer’s 2000 mutant movie “X-Men.” Immediately, he was struck by the moody, introspective qualities of the saga and the nuanced portrait it offered of its angry, violent antihero.

Now, two “X” sequels, a prequel and a spinoff movie later, the story of Logan struggling with his animal instincts while abroad in Japan is finally heading to theaters. “The Wolverine” will open July 26, with Jackman’s “Kate and Leopold” director James Mangold at the helm.

Mangold is perhaps best known for films such as “Cop Land,” “3:10 to Yuma” and “Walk the Line,” not standard comic book fare. But with “The Wolverine” functioning neither as an origin story nor a tale of a hero defeating a supervillain out to destroy the world, the director could break away from the creatively limiting dictates of standard superhero movie convention and root the story firmly in character.

With the film set for a turn in the spotlight Saturday in San Diego at Comic-Con International, Jackman spoke to Hero Complex about adopting that approach to the story, traveling to Japan to shoot the film, and whether the world might someday see an R-rated Wolverine movie.


HC: You were instrumental in bringing James Mangold on as director on the film after Darren Aronofsky left the project. Why was he the right person to direct “The Wolverine”?

HJ: I knew that I needed a director that had a very strong vision, a filmmaker who was really strong with story and character and also someone to push me. If you look at Jim’s résumé, he always gets the best out of actors. You’d forgive a director for thinking, “Oh, well, he’s going to do his Wolverine thing and I’m going to worry about everything else,” but Jim is not like that. It was just a really perfect kind of synergy. It was something he was up for, really wanted to do, and his skills really brought something fresh and different to the character and to the franchise.

HC: James has mentioned that “The Wolverine” afforded you the chance to more deeply explore the character of Logan than in previous “X-Men” movies. Would you agree with that sentiment?

HJ: Yeah, which is what we needed to do. I loved from the get-go that the studio was on board with the title, just calling it “The Wolverine,” i.e. this is the definitive look at that character. Jim, he’s done such an amazing job with this film. It has all the stuff you expect of a big summer movie, a comic book movie, but really he delves into the character. We have focused a lot on his lack of memory, which is a part of who he is. Now we’re focusing more on where he’s at, his almost immortality, what’s the meaning and purpose to his life, and who he is really. I think one of the great things about this character is how conflicted and tortured he is and we’ve really had an opportunity in this film, in this completely new setting and backdrop, to explore that.

HC: Playing a character this many times must be a blessing and a curse. You can really gain a deeper understanding of him, but it must be tricky to keep it creatively interesting.

HJ: I’ve never found it difficult on the interesting front. This character is very different from me. It’s always a challenge. It definitely takes a lot of discipline, not just physically, but even as an actor there has to be a restraint to him but at the same time an explosiveness. Finding that on a day-to-day basis is tricky, particularly when you’re sustaining for four or five months. To be honest, this particular saga was something that I had my eye on from the very first week that I was doing “X-Men” back in 1999. I saw this comic book and I was like, “Oh, this is the movie.”

HC: Did you approach playing the character of Logan any differently for this film? Obviously, there’s a crazy amount of physical preparation you must go through, but mentally, how do you locate the mind-set to play this character after you’ve been away from him?

HK: I have a few little triggers I use. One of them is taking very ice cold showers in the morning because it really ****es me off, and that’s pretty much where Logan lives, like he’s forced to take a cold shower all the time.

HC: Is it true that you and James Mangold approached the film as a kind of western? Giving Logan the least possible dialogue?

HJ: He told me about “The Outlaw Josey Wales,” which I had never seen, and I was very grateful for that little tip. I love that template that he was using because it very much suited Wolverine, the idea of this suppressed rage and this purpose. It’s more of a revenge film, that one; this is a little more complex on what motivates him, but that idea of the eternal outsider who really doesn’t say a lot, who really communicates in a very subtle, very internal way [is the same]. Jim was really tough on me on being disciplined with that. When you know a character well, you know his voice well, and of course with Wolverine there is a part of him that quips. He’s someone who has a line here and there and that’s always tempting, going for those in every scene. But Jim really forced me to be disciplined.

HC: And there was some thought given to releasing “The Wolverine” as an R-rated film at one point?

HJ: Yes, there was. If there’s ever going to be a comic book character that deserves and could have an R-rated movie, it’s Wolverine, and I, in a way, would love to see that version of it. In the end, it won’t be. The thing about playing this character, I can’t tell you how many people I’ve met who are teenagers, it means a lot to them, this character, what he represents. I said to Jim Mangold, I said, “Look, we have to have a very, very good reason to deliberately exclude them because that’s what we’re saying, ‘This one’s not for you.’” We have to have a really great reason to do that, not just, “Oh, that would be cool.” Tonally, this is a darker film than what has been before, but in the end we decided that’s not what we want. We don’t want to exclude them from this story, and I don’t think we need to compromise on that darker side of Wolverine’s character.


Tao Okamoto, left, plays mysterious martial-arts-trained heiress Mariko Yasida opposite Hugh Jackman’s Logan in “The Wolverine.” (20th Century Fox)

HC: How did you find the experience of shooting in Japan?

HJ: I loved it. I’m someone who loves Japan. I’ve been there many times, not only for work, but I’ve been for pleasure. I always find it fascinating and as beguiling, mysterious, exciting and inspiring actually every time I go as the last. To work there was another thing, and also to work in places like Tomonoura or Fukuyama, which are outside of Tokyo. I’d really only been to the major centers, and I feel in a way I discovered the real Japan working outside. Where we were shooting — and hey, this is Japan, of course we were looked after incredibly well — but when we arrived at the hotel, they said, “If you would like a Western breakfast, we need three days notice.” I was like, now we’re in Japan. Three days notice for a boiled egg? OK.

HC: Given that we’re in a period with so many superhero/comic book films, does it become more difficult to offer audiences something unique? Does filming in a place like Japan help accomplish that?

HJ: Our movie is not overcrowded with mutants and aliens and people who fly. It feels quite real. What Japan gives us is what you or I would feel going to Japan, which is, wow, this is another world. Not only visually does it give us a whole different palette but I think just story-wise as a backdrop it’s just fascinating. I always thought it was such a great juxtaposition, the character of Wolverine, the ultimate loner, in this world dominated by honor and tradition and family, all these things that are the antithesis of who Wolverine is is fantastic fodder for the movie.

Oh hold the phone...'feels quite real'? With ninjas and an adamantine skeleton? Just what kind of reality does Hugh live in?

[Vash]

Rich People Ville.

[GeneChing]

Needed more ninjas. It was all about the Bullet Train and Viper for me. Jackson looks better in the role than ever, but that's not saying too much given the precedents.

More to come tomorrow, but not from me personally this time.

AP/ July 25, 2013, 8:20 AM
Hugh Jackman calls "Wolverine" a career-defining role

Whether performing on a Broadway stage, singing in a movie musical, or hosting the Oscars, Hugh Jackman approaches them all with equal intensity. Yet, when he dons Adamantium bone claws in "Wolverine," the 44-year old actor admits that something magical happens.

"It may be the strongest of all the roles I've played," Jackman says of the "X-Men" antihero.

When the Australian actor sat down with the Associated Press before Friday's opening of "Wolverine," he honored the icon comic book character with appropriately trimmed facial hair showing off Logan's signature muttonchops. And why not? It's the role that launched his career in the first "X-Men" film. He's already played the character six times already, and is currently shooting a seventh installment due in 2014.

"There's four or five roles that end up being the foundation of your entire career. There's no doubt to me that this (Wolverine) is one of them."

As a fan of the comic book series, Jackman says this one was important for him.

"I wanted to make [this movie] for 13 years when I first read that samurai story," the actor said. "I just think seeing this character in that world, juxtaposed with Japan in every way, I thought it was perfect and to see him battle with his powers, which really gives him an almost immortality."

While there's immortality to Logan, the operative word for the man who plays him is versatility. Jackman seems every bit as comfortable in an action film as he does in a Broadway musical. It's an adaptability he attributes to a bygone era.

"I'm more of kind of a throwback kind of actor. This is how all actors had to make a living 40, 50 years ago," Jackman explained. "When Clint Eastwood was under (studio) contract...he would do musicals, he would do cowboy drama.

Jackman credits his training back home for preparing him for a wide range of roles. But he also acknowledges the core intent had more to do with survival.

"The nature of acting in Australia is you need to be up for everything. If you want to make a living, if you want to pay the rent, you've got to be able to do everything. There's only 10 movies made a year so that's natural to me," he said.

Part of Jackman's fascination with the Logan character lies in the duality between the human and the animal. The actor says the key is to balance the chaotic and controlled emotions within him.

"On one level you can say I'm playing a guy with weird hair and claws coming out of his hands, but actually he's incredibly human and a great sort of anti-hero and tragic figure," Jackman said. "That's why he's eternally fascinating to me and that's why I keep coming back."

Last year, Jackman starred in the film adaptation of "Les Miserables" as the iconic Jean Valjean, picking up a Golden Globe win and an Oscar nomination for his effort. In between, he's been working on the original Broadway musical, "Houdini," when he puts on the cape as the legendary illusionist. That show hits Broadway in the spring of 2014.

"I've never originated in a musical before, so I'm thrilled," the Tony-winning actor said with a smile.

The talk of his stage and screen work makes his face light up, because as he puts it: "I've been blessed with opportunities that I could never have imagined."

And he acknowledges that the necessary "grounding" for his career to thrive comes from a strong family bond. It's something he felt was missing early on.

"I didn't grow up with a particularly stable family life and trying to create that...is a priority for me and for my wife," Jackman said of Deborra-Lee Furness, his spouse of 17 years.

"Your family is there forever. At the end of the day when you're on your deathbed, your family is sticking by you. You're not going to be filled with DVDs of movies that you've done," he said. "So that's the most important thing."

[GeneChing]

This one was kind of funny.

The Wolverine: Claws and F/X

Hugh Jackman is all-mutant, with no music, in this peripheral extension of the X-Men franchise

By Richard Corliss July 24, 2013


BEN ROTHSTEIN / MARVEL & 20TH CENTURY FOX

Hugh Jackman doesn’t sing in The Wolverine. He growls and prowls. Instead of playing saintly Jean Valjean, Jackman is back for his sixth turn as Logan, the Marvel comics mutant with the pinking-shear fingernails. Not Les Misérables … Les Razorables.

In three X-Men movies and their 2011 prequel, and in his own 2009 showcase X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the genial Aussie stud has harnessed his inner lupine to embody a pretty cool character in a so-so film franchise. Having already moved forward and backward in time in the preceding pictures, Logan goes sideways here: a trip to Tokyo, where he uses his preternatural combat skills against a yakuza clan and flying martial artists. Imagine that Sean Connery’s James Bond, in his 1967 Japanese jaunt You Only Live Twice, had to confront mutants and ninjas (no turtles) and you have a hint of director James Mangold’s mostly sober travelogue with a few zippy action scenes. For Logan and Jackman, The Wolverine is a working vacation, only peripherally related to the central X-Men themes.

Recall that X-Men: First Class appropriated the 1962 Cuban missile crisis for its climax. The Wolverine begins on Aug. 9, 1945, on a Japanese island where the imperial army holds its lone prisoner at the bottom of a deep well. We know from his CV and mammoth, ripped torso that Logan could easily get out; he’s no mere mortal like Bruce Wayne, who in The Dark Knight Rises spent a full half-hour of screen time escaping from a similar stone dungeon. Is Logan taking another vacation? No, he is waiting his chance to do good in an explosive crisis: the atom bomb that falls on nearby Nagasaki. He saves the life of a soldier, Yashida (Ken Yamamura), by shielding him from deadly radiation at the bottom of the well. In gratitude, Yashida offers him a hallowed samurai sword, and …

Logan wakes from this dream-memory, at home, in bed, his beloved Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) purring soothing words at his side. We know that she died in X-Men: The Last Stand, so this too is a dream, with Jean offering postmortem wisdom from the afterlife, like Russell Crowe’s Jor-El in Man of Steel. In what passes for Logan’s real life, he has thrown off responsibility and embraced solitude in the snowy Alaskan wilds — Les Blizzardables? A lone wolf, he lives in the deep woods, his only neighbor a grizzly bear — Les Grizzlerables? When he goes into town for supplies, a hunter’s mistreatment of that majestic beast stirs Logan to flaunt his claws — Les Slasherables?

Also on hand is the pink-haired, death-divining Yukio (Rila Fukushima), who has been tracking Logan for a year and persuades him to journey to Japan and renew his acquaintance, 68 years later, with Yashida. Now a wealthy businessman (and played by Hal Yamanouchi), with a vast empire and a host of relatives scheming to commandeer his legacy, Yashida summons Logan to his deathbed for one last gift/request/command: that the X-Man surrender his burden of immortality and transfer it to a zillionaire eager to shoulder it. Logan assures the old man, “You don’t want what I’ve got.” Oh yes he does.

Cue the palace intrigue in the script by Christopher McQuarrie, Mark Bomback and Scott Frank. At Yashida’s funeral, hell ensues. Ninjas under the command of Harada (Will Yun Lee) battle yakuza, who kidnap the old man’s granddaughter Mariko (Tao Okamoto). Logan gives chase — a long, impressive one, involving Harada’s nifty parkour moves and Logan’s quick trip with Mariko through Ueno Station and onto a bullet train. After easily overwhelming most of the yakuza thugs, he encounters a more resolute one on top of the train, where he and his nimble adversary slash at each other while trying to avoid the many low-hanging obstructions that career a few feet above them. For about five minutes: action paradise.

Like a ronin warrior with no master, Mangold has wandered through many genres: indie drama (Heavy), romantic comedy (Kate & Leopold, with Jackman as the male lead), musical biopic (Walk the Line), western (3:10 to Yuma) and spy adventure (Knight and Day). The director lends an acute sense of place to each project, and here he contrasts Logan’s wolf-out-of-woodlands loner attitude with the Japanese traditions of understatement and at least ostensible family respect. In one scene, a couple dozen ninjas pinion Logan with arrows of steel strings, until he is as perforated as Toshiro Mifune at the end of Akira Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood.

Some of the film’s Japanese characters appeared 30 years ago in a Marvel comics series by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller. Since all but three major roles — Logan, Jean and a veteran female adversary, Viper — are taken by Japanese actors, often speaking in their native language, The Wolverine often seems like a Tokyo family drama that Logan has quixotically parachuted into. He is there, really, to test his love for Jean by having a brief fling with Mariko — can you cheat on your dead girlfriend? Okamoto, a Ralph Lauren model making her film-acting debut, holds the screen with her mournful beauty, stark collarbones and one of the movie world’s most gorgeous philtrums. Logan must also contend with Viper (the generically sexy Svetlana Khodchenkova), whose venomous smooch robs Logan of some of his strength — Les Kisserables? When he’s slashed or shot, his wounds don’t instantly heal; he may be approaching the mortality status of old Yashida.

But in any Marvel film, the ladies are secondary; The Wolverine is no Les Mssrables. Guy-centric at its core, the movie is bound to contain at least one example of sadomasochistic heroism — “You aren’t gonna wanna watch this,” Logan tells Yukio before he performs impromptu heart surgery on himself — and must reach a climax of men fighting men. Or, here, Logan confronts a giant robot-man in a tower laboratory borrowed from Dr. Frankenstein.

“What kind of monster are you?” a man asks Logan just before getting skewered. “The Wolverine,” he replies, embracing his destiny — not just on his Tokyo tour but in next summer’s X-Men: Days of Future Past, which gets a teasing preview at the end of this movie (and which will be directed by Bryan Singer, who helmed the first two X-Men movies). That’s fine; let all Marvel franchises have as long a life as Logan. But could Singer let Jackman sing a few numbers as the knife-fingered mutant? They could call it Les Scissorables.

[GeneChing]

THE WOLVERINE: SNIKT! by Patrick Lugo

[Hebrew Hammer]

Saw it and was a bit underwhelmed. Story was slow, and Gene is right, not enough ninjas or sword play for my liking. Jackmann was ripped, Wolverine is still a badass...thought Viper and the Silver Samurai went down a little too easy. The highlight was the little Japanese sword hottie and some of her fight scenes.

[GeneChing]

But it wasn't enough. If it had more ninjas, they surely would have made their $80 million goal.

Box office report: 'The Wolverine' earns $55 million for the weekend
Entertainment Weekly
By Lindsey Bahr, EW
updated 9:58 AM EDT, Mon July 29, 2013

Sometimes even earning the No. 1 spot can be seen as a modest disappointment, or at least that's what the new narrative around The Wolverine (CinemaScore: A-) would have you believe.

With no competition this weekend, The Wolverine pulled in about $55 million domestically in 3,924 locations — on target with studio estimates, but far below tracking projections, some of which went so far as to predict an $80 million weekend. With the majority of screens showing the Fox tentpole in 3-D, the movie averaged about $14,016 per screen on an estimated budget of $120 million, so this weekend's performance is really nothing to scoff at. Interestingly, at $55 million, the film is right in line with 2011′s X-Men: First Class which made $55.1 million in its first three days at the box office in early June. But so far The Wolverine is holding steady as the second lowest opening of all of Fox's six X-Men movies — that title goes to the first in the series which opened at $54.5 million. But X-Men was also released 13 years ago with no 3-D surcharges, so it's not an entirely fair comparison.

The Wolverine opened internationally this weekend as well to grosses of $86.1 million, playing on 15,152 screens in 101 territories, bringing its worldwide total to about $141.1 million. Fox estimates that audiences were about 58 percet male, and 42 percent under the age of 25.

...

I just added Rila to the Sword Hotties thread.

[@PLUGO]

Writing that review got me thinking of the days when I first read the Wolverine miniseries. As well as the Uncanny X-men, of course.

It got me doodling a Wolverine of my very own as well as a sketch I did many years ago.

Have a look: Sketching the Wolverine

[Hebrew Hammer]

Writing that review got me thinking of the days when I first read the Wolverine miniseries. As well as the Uncanny X-men, of course.

It got me doodling a Wolverine of my very own as well as a sketch I did many years ago.

Have a look: Sketching the Wolverine

Your sketch isn't bad, Wolverine should consider a name change to the Porcupine after that scene.

[@PLUGO]

I was thinking THE HEDGEHOG myself.

[GeneChing]

In the wake of Deadpool.

Wolverine 3 to Get an R Rating?
BY MAX EVRY ON FEBRUARY 16, 2016



Wolverine 3 to get an R rating?

With Deadpool decidedly in-the-black after one of the most stunning weekend box office performances of all-time, we can now expect many studios to start spicing up their superhero flicks with a healthy dose of blood, boobs and bad words to go for the R-rated gold. Whether or not that was the reason for Deadpool‘s success, it seems that 20th Century Fox is already doubling down on that idea by granting the upcoming Wolverine 3 R-rating privileges, at least according to Reddit user RayChaos who just got back from Fox’s Toy Fair presentation and posted the following image:


Wolverine 3

This will not be the franchise’s first flirtation with an R, as the last picture The Wolverine was released on Blu-ray with an alternate unrated cut that provided fans with the most explicit mutant film to-date… until Deadpool, that is.

Though Patrick Stewart recently confirmed that he will be “making more than an appearance” in the upcoming Wolverine 3, there is still very little known about the project.

To be directed by James Mangold (who, in addition to helming The Wolverine, worked with Hugh Jackman on Kate & Leopold), the new film is penned by David James Kelly. It will arrive in theaters on March 3, 2017.