Fox has not had a good year -- and as with most drama-filled issues, they really have only themselves to blame. Variety points out that they were the only studio this summer that didn't have a $100 million domestic earner. What they did have was a lot of widely-derided flops like The Happening, Space Chimps, and Meet Dave. They also had films that might have done well, had they chosen to actually sell them, like The X-Files: I Want to Believe. They were also dealt a bit of bad luck when it came to X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which was supposed to come out this summer, making it the greatest superhero year ever, but was delayed due to Hugh Jackman's commitment to Australia. (A film which the studio is really hoping bails them out come fall, along with Marley and Me.)

Faced with so much failure and drama, what is a studio to do? Well, turn to superheroes, of course! As you read this, they're holding strategy meetings to dust off or create some new franchises off their comic book properties. They're looking at more X-Men spinoffs, including a young X-Men project that might just be X-Men First Class. They're also looking at giving Deadpool his own movie -- which seems a no-brainer when you have Ryan Reynolds playing him in Wolverine. Why, they're even looking at reviving Daredevil. (Frank Miller and Jason Statham, call on line two.) It's enough to wind up any Marvel fan.

Continued after the jump...

It seems my favorite superhero is about to enter the land of ugly rumors. According to Hollywood Elsewhere, there's trouble on the set of X-Men Origins: Wolverine. It seems that director Gavin Hood and Fox co-chairman and CEO Tom Rothman are butting heads over the look and feel of the film.

Hood, being a smart man who knows his character, wants the film to be dark and gritty. Rothman wants a happier, friendlier, Iron Man sort of film. Apparently, things came to a head at least once on set when Hood came to work to find one of his dingy and somber sets completely repainted into something brighter and more cheerful. (I bet they even put one of those "Hang in there!" kitten posters on the wall.) The set revamp had been done on Rothman's orders, who has a reputation for being stubborn and micromanaging. It's not clear from the second-hand story who won out on this particular battle, but if we see a chirpier set design on opening day, we'll know.

Word around town had production troubled for awhile (it's all anyone talked about prior to the footage screening at ComicCon, though it's all been very hush hush) -- and I'm also under the impression from ComicCon that the film has finally wrapped, so all this set redecoration may be very old and irrelevant news. Perhaps Hood has already won out, as the teaser footage certainly suggested that it was a bit grittier than Iron Man or the previous X-Men films. Please, let that be the case. If I'm disappointed by Wolverine (and I inevitably will be), I don't want it to be because my beloved Logan has a penchant for kitten posters.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine opens May 1st, 2009.

Armed with only a 16 mm and video camera, Asger Leth entered Cite Soliel in Haiti, which the UN has called "the most dangerous place on Earth," to film the story of two chimeres -- gang leaders who run areas of Cite Soliel. The result of this effort is The Ghosts of Cite Soliel -- a gorgeous and gripping documentary that seems more like a carefully crafted narrative feature than a revealing documentary. And now the Danish director is going mainstream.

Variety reports that he has signed on to direct Columbia Pictures' upcoming film, Olympia. Penned by Saving Private Ryan scribe Robert Rodat, with a rewrite by director Gavin Hood (Wolverine), Olympia focuses on a love story "set against the backdrop of the ancient Olympic Games in Greece as war waged between Athens and Sparta."

Perhaps the similarities between Ghosts and Olympia is what brought the director to the project, but whatever the case -- I can't wait to see what Leth does with the story. The man has a great eye, and it'll be interesting to see what he does under normal circumstances, rather than exacerbated danger.

This is also the second feature Leth has signed on for. As Jessica shared last September, he's also attached to La Scorta, an Italian crime thriller.

While doing the publicity rounds for Deception, Hugh Jackman talked a bit about X-Men Origins: Wolverine to The Herald Sun, specifically praising his young costar, Kodi Smit-McPhee, and his director, Gavin Hood. (The subject of his muttonchops comes up too -- apparently, they aren't popular in his private life. And here I was hoping Jackman could bring them into fashion.)

That talk of McPhee being replaced with Troye Sivan must have been false, or we're seeing two young Logans which is entirely probable. Jackman is full of praise for the young actor he handpicked to play his younger self. "He's one of those kids who's fearless. I hope he doesn't read this article because yes, there is pressure on him because of who he's playing and the expectations of fans. I was lucky to be completely ignorant of fans' expectations and the whole world before X-Men came out. I just hope he doesn't read too much or go on the internet because he naturally has the goods I know the fans will love."

The simple fact that former Buffy star Bailey Chase chose the Sunday Star Times in New Zealand to drop this particular bomb has me inclined to think it's a long way from becoming fact. In a recent profile about his work on TNT's Saving Grace with Holly Hunter when he told the reporter that he was in negotiations for a part in X-Men Origins: Wolverine with Hugh Jackman. According to Chase, "It's very confidential and top-secret. I think they're casting under alias names but for now, he's called Mr Yellow."

Chase had few details, but he was willing to say that the part is described as "about 30 years old, a charming southern guy on the surface but he's got some ulterior motives going on underneath. By the end of the film, he's probably not going to be such a nice guy". Back in October, Variety had reported that the film was securing locations in Louisiana, which sparked tons of speculation that the film would be including Gambit. Throw in Chase's comments about a "southern gentleman with ulterior motives" and the Gambit connection seems even more likely. Even with the little amount of knowledge that I have about the character of Gambit in the original X-Men series, I think it sounds like the infamous Remy LeBeau.

According to previous reports, the film is going to center on "the claw-wielding character Wolverine's violent and romantic past, and his complex relationship with Victor Creed and the ominous Weapon X program, as well as his encounters with other mutants." I guess we can chalk that up to be another piece of evidence that the Louisiana 'card shark' might be making an appearance. Stay tuned to Cinematical for the official word when and if it ever comes. X-Men Origins: Wolverine is set for release on May 9th, 2009.

[via Comics2Film.com]

Poor Tyler Mane. Sure, he was pretty lame as Sabretooth in the first X-Men, but that doesn't mean he should be passed over in the casting of X-Men Origins: Wolverine. After all, while he may not be a big name actor, he did just star in a successful movie (he was Michael Myers in the Halloween remake). But it appears Fox is trying to go with someone new as Victor Creed (aka Sabretooth) -- and by someone new, I don't mean an unknown; I mean someone who isn't Mane. According to CHUD.com, that someone was nearly Karl Urban, an actor familiar to fanboys as Eomer in the Lord of the Rings movies. But Urban's talks to play Creed apparently fell through, and now the studio is going for an even bigger geek-movie star: Gerard Butler. This is from another one of those tips from a "closely placed and highly trusted source," so take of it what you will. It could be true or it could not be, and even if it's true, the story is merely that Butler is being offered the role. He could very well not be interested.

But who cares what he thinks? The more important question is whether or not we are interested. Maybe if Gavin Hood were doing a 300 type of style for Wolverine -- specifically one that looked like Mark Texeira's art -- Butler would fit. Otherwise, the actor needs to be blonder, and naturally so. Maybe Butler could pass for the character with a bleach job all over, but I'd rather not be thinking about it being Butler with a bleach job all over. Remember this isn't necessarily Sabretooth we're talking about. He's likely not going to be in costume much. I wish I could find a picture of my ideal Creed look (it's from a comic about 15 years ago and he's in plain clothes, on a talk show), but I can't. I think all of the actors I always imagined were '60s western guys for some reason, anyway.

Additionally, CHUD.com has heard that Hood is trying to get Natalie Portman to play a character named Kayla. I think we should all just kind of ignore that information and hope that it is as untrue as possible.

Talk of a Wolverine movie have been ongoing since (I think) right after X2 came out, and the project has been moving forward (slowly but surely) since that time. Now comes word from Variety that the Hugh Jackman spinoff project has claimed a release date, changed its title (slightly), and promises some new mutants that we haven't seen yet ... as well as some old young friends.

May 1, 2009, is when the Gavin Hood-directed Fox action movie will make its debut, and when it arrives it'll most likely be called X-Men Origins: Wolverine -- which means we can probably expect to hear some fresh news about X-Men Origins: Magneto some time soon. It also looks like Liev Schreiber is close to signing on as William Stryker. Yes, he'll be playing the younger version of the Brian Cox character from X2.

According to Variety, the story "explores the claw-wielding character Wolverine's violent and romantic past, and his complex relationship with Victor Creed and the ominous Weapon X program, as well as his encounters with other mutants." (The Wolverine screenplay comes from Troy writer David Benioff.) And since Mr. Hood is presently scheduled to shoot some of Wolverine in New Orleans, that's led to some speculation that Gambit may be among the new mutants.

For (lots) of previous reports on Wolverine, just toss the word "wolverine" into our search bar and get comfortable.

We don't have to wait two years! We only have to wait one! In case you can't tell, I'm excited to hear the solo Wolverine spin-off will be hitting theaters in 2008, rather than 2009, as we've always thought. But is it true? According to IESB, it is. The site spoke with Wolverine director Gavin Hood -- twice -- and claims the guy said Fox is pushing the thing out next summer. However, Hood is also quoted as saying production doesn't even begin until either December or January and that it would take four months to shoot. So what is it, guys, is he starting filming in just under a month, or is he starting in a few months?

Either way, I'm still excited to know it's going into production soon. Wolverine, which star Hugh Jackman and Wizard magazine discussed in-depth recently, will lens in Australia and New Zealand and will apparently feature "other mutants such as Gambit" (but probably not Gambit; Hood merely acknowledged that "other mutants" would appear, and that could simply refer to Sabretooth, who we already know about). Other than that, IESB was only able to confirm that Wolverine would be rated PG-13 and that Hood seems to see the X-Man's story as something out of opera or Greek mythology, which he is more familiar with than comic books.

Despite my excitement as a fan of the comics and the character of Wolverine in particular, I have some reservations. I was probably one of the biggest critics of Hood's Oscar-winning film Tsotsi, and now that his follow-up, Rendition, is getting mixed-to-bad reviews, I hate to think that he'll also ruin Wolverine. The opera/mythology stuff intrigues me, but I hope he'll at least do some research into the comic books, and I hope he's more kidding than half-kidding in his telling IESB that he's only doing the movie to pay for his twins' college tuition. Let's pray Hood wasn't right in initially telling Fox that he's the wrong guy for this.

Now that the Wolverine spin-off has a director -- Oscar winner Gavin Hood (Tsotsi) -- it's time to sharpen up the claws and get the thing into production. Filming could begin as early as this Fall, and Wizard has an in-depth guide to what will be happening in front of the lens -- though much of it is unconfirmed. As far as the plot goes, there's still not much that's official, but as we've heard before, the thing is a prequel and may be set in the 1980s, or 17 years before the X-Men movies begin. There's also word that we'll see Logan in Vietnam with Team X. Personally, I'd rather they stress the character's longevity by placing him in WWII, but I think Vietnam works fine. Then again, I'd also prefer they skipped the origin story altogether and just have a quality Wolverine solo story. Actually my friends and I were talking this past weekend about how we most want to see a Wolverine and Jubilee adventure.

While Jubilee isn't expected or rumored to be anywhere near this movie, Wizard addresses those characters that may show up. As long as they're wasting time with the Weapon X origin storyline, we'll definitely be seeing Brian Cox return as William Stryker. Of course they could want to recast the guy so he's younger -- this would make more sense -- but supposedly Cox has been contacted about reprising the part. Tyler Mane has also admitted to being in talks to come back as Sabretooth, or at least Victor Creed, who becomes Sabretooth. Vinnie Jones, who played Juggernaut in the third X-Men movie has also been in talks. No other actors from the previous movies are expected to make cameos. Rumored characters we haven't yet seen include John Wraith (aka Kestrel) and Fred Dukes (aka The Blob). I'm guessing that at least of the Team X members, Silver Fox will also have to show up as a love interest for Wolvie. I'd read in the past that we'd be seeing the storyline involving her death at the hands of Creed, and now it sounds like a good possibility.