HughJackman Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Good news, Twilight fans. You have the first official news for the third Twilight installment, courtesy of our own Jen Yamato, FearNet and the New Moon junket.* The magically-coiffed Robert Pattinson has confirmed that Breaking Dawn will begin filming in Fall 2010, and that it's penciled into his schedule for next year.

Of course, Dawn remains unconfirmed by Summit. The most controversial installment of the Twilight series, rumors swirl that the studio is hesitant to take it to the big screen. If it is made, it seems likely that it could be split into two films a'la Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Personally, I don't see Summit risking the money they'd make on #4, and they'll find a way to steer around the gorier aspects of the book. But now you know when to look for it, though you still have the madness of Eclipse pre-production to get through.

Pattinson also dished on the movie I want to mark on my calender (Sorry, I dig boots and spurs more than vampires), a Western called Unbound Captives. The directorial debut of Madeleine Stowe, it stars Hugh Jackman, Rachel Weisz, and Pattinson. The young heartthrob revealed that it's tenatively scheduled to begin shooting in early 2010, and he sounds enthusiastic for a role that'll be miles away from Edward Cullen. "I'm playing a kid who is kidnapped by Comanches when he was four years old, and he is brought up by them. His mother spends her entire life trying to find me and my sister. When she finds us, we can't remember who she is and can't remember anything about the Western culture she grew up in. I speak Comanche the whole movie. You can't really speak more differently from Edward."

[Special thanks also goes to Collider who apparently pried the Breaking Dawn date out of Mr. Pattinson]

As award show devotees know, the Academy is always trying to make the Oscars more fun for the viewers at home. This year it seems as though the pre-show hype is starting earlier than usual, particularly with the noise surrounding Bill Mechanic and Adam Shankman stepping on board as producers. But they may be one step behind, as the Oscars have already become a little less handsome, a little less musical, and a little less Emmy-winning than last year. Because Hugh Jackman won't be returning as host.

No, it's not an epic snub, or retaliation for being so darn good at everything. Variety reports that Jackman "quietly turned down the job" a few weeks ago. The reason is simply that he wants some time off in between A Steady Rain and production on Shawn Levy's Real Steel. Reportedly, he really does want to host the show again, but he didn't want to do it two years in a row. That's a showman for you. Give them just enough to have them wanting more, and avoid wearing out your welcome.

In my humble opinion, Jackman left some very dashing shoes to fill. Personally, I think Shankman should see this as the start of a new tradition, avoid a comedian, and pick the Tony-hosting Neil Patrick Harris (who's already rumored to be eying the gig). The Oscars are supposed to be all about Hollywood glamour, and what better way to celebrate that then to go old-school and musical? I'll take a jolly musical number over painful attempts to be political and relevant. What about you? What host can make the Oscars worth your while?

Last summer, it was reported that Columbia was setting up a remake of My Fair Lady and that Keira Knightley was pursuing the iconic, Cockney role of Eliza Doolittle. While Knightley has been "attached" ever since, The Telegraph reports that Scarlett Johansson was also vying for the role. But Knightley won out, and the Telegraph not only confirms that she's got the role, but that Joe Wright will be directing. Emma Thompson is writing the script.

Knightley has been taking singing lessons ever since the possibility came up (and I actually think she proved she had a good voice in The Edge of Love), and I think she'll be absolutely charming as Doolittle. But then I'm biased towards her. Even if you aren't (and I expect many "too skinny!" comments), I think the combination of Wright and Thompson pushes this into very, very promising territory. Thompson can do no wrong by me.

What will really tip the balance is who they cast as the grumpy, misogynist Professor Henry Higgins. The Telegraph reports that Daniel Craig is being considered, and he'd certainly be ideal as the grim Higgins, probably moreso than the dapper Hugh Jackman. I wouldn't mind seeing Patrick Wilson become a contender, and I half wonder if Gerard Butler's vocal chords were trotted out on Saturday Night Live as an audition. Just you wait, and practice your R's, and we'll see whose face Knightley must become accustomed to.

UPDATE: Screenrush caught up with Joe Wright, who says he never signed on, and is uninterested. Given the shakiness of the initial report, it's unclear whether Knightley's casting is official either.

I would love to see Hugh Jackman in a boxing movie. It seems like he's long past due for one given his physical prowess, and he'd be a good fit for a Cinderella Man sort of tale. Unfortunately, he's decided to pursue the sport through robots and Shawn Levy, as Variety reports that he's in line for Real Steel.

Based on a story by Richard Matheson, Real Steel is probably best described as Rocky meets Wall-E and The Iron Giant. Jackman plays a professional boxer who has to hang up the gloves, and rearranges his life when human boxers are replaced by 2000 pound robots. Our obsolete fighter tries to go with the flow, and becomes a Robot Boxing promoter, but success constantly eludes him because all he can afford are crappy robot parts. Then one day, he discovers a discarded robot who has a distinct gift for winning. Wouldn't you know it, the ex-fighter also discovers he's the father of a 13 year old son, and they bond as their scrappy robot fights his way to the championship.

There's not going to be a lot of surprises with Real Steel (they'll be misfits who find each other, and build a family), and Levy's track record isn't particularly promising. Nor is Hollywood particularly good at adapting Matheson's work to the big screen. But with Steven Spielberg as executive producer (a job which reunites him distantly with Matheson), there might be some hope. Not much, but some. I really wish Jackman would take some time and pick another film like The Prestige or The Fountain, and steer clear of the goofy popcorn concepts.

We've been pretty hard around here on a certain movie with adamantium claws. Yes, whenever I'm reminded of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which comes out on DVD and Blu-ray today, I wish I had been shot with amnesia bullets. Still, I appreciated Hugh Jackman's determined efforts to stay out of the damn costume. Whenever Wolverine has donned a uniform in the previous X-Men flicks, he looks like he can't wait to rip it off. In his natural state, as the wandering, memory-challenged Logan, he repels latex like Congress repels taxpayers.

Most actors quickly declare that the biggest challenge in superhero movies is the costume: how to avoid looking sheepish or silly while wearing a form-fitting, custom-made suit that may reveal more than most of us are willing to bare at the beach? With advanced, super-realistic, computerized special effects and ripped body / stunt doubles available as needed, though, I think the bigger challenge lies in bringing the secret identities of superheroes to life: all those moments when supposedly normal people are leading supposedly "normal" lives.

Who, then are the most convincing superheroes without costumes? What actors and actresses have made you believe that their very human characters on screen could transform into larger-than-life heroes and/or heroines with a quick dash into a phone booth? Mind you, I'm not just talking Dr. Manhattan in Watchmen ...

1. Famke Janssen as Jean Gray in X-Men
She cuts a fine figure, doesn't she? Famke Janssen is undoubtedly sexier than Wolverine when they both suit up, yet she really shines whenever she's using her brain -- which is all the time. She doesn't need the costume to be one of the smartest, most empathetic, and most lethal people, in the universe.

If you love ceramic elephants and famous people, and you'd like to help fight Africa's AIDS epidemic, then get out your checkbook. A number of high-profile celebrities, including George Clooney, Glenn Close, Hugh Jackman and Denzel Washington, have agreed to scribble their names on ceramic elephants to raise funds for Project Zambi, a charity dedicated to raising awareness and funding programs that care for African children orphaned by AIDS.

The organization was started by Hasbro employees, who were inspired by the Chikumbuso Women and Orphans Project in Zambia. They created "Zambi the Elephant," sending a textile artist to Zambia to teach art workshops and get input from the children there on the design of the Zambi stuffed toy, which wiggles its ears, raises its trunk and makes happy sounds when you tickle its chest. The toy retails for $49.99 and Hasbro has committed 50 percent of the toy's net profits, with a minimum of $500,000, to Project Zambi.

Hugh Jackman has been itching to take Logan to the land of the Rising Sun since before X-Men Origins: Wolverine hit theaters, and as a sequel was announced mere hours after Origins hit theaters, it was no surprise when he announced this week that he was actively developing it. But "active development" has resulted in a big announcement as according to The Hollywood Reporter, Christopher McQuarrie has been hired to pen the sequel. The Christopher McQuarrie. That weird noise you hear is the sound of my hopes going up despite my best efforts.

As you might remember McQuarrie is no stranger to the X-Men universe, having originally penned the first X-Men script before David Hayter came in. A very brief Google search doesn't reveal what McQuarrie's script would have been like, so maybe someone else can offer up what might have been. I think I can safely say that if he had written Origins, there wouldn't have been gaping continuity errors and laughable memory-removal MacGuffins.

Like most Wolverine fans, I love Frank Miller's Japan saga. It's the first time Wolverine was actually shown to have those things called "feelings," experienced something known as "failure," and it deepened his character beyond the berserker who did nothing more than hack, slash, and hit on Jean Grey. If done right, we could honestly pretend Origins never happened, and this is Wolverine's cinematic origin story.

Yesterday MTV reported a story from the Teen Choice Awards that Hugh Jackman was already working on a follow-up to this summer's X-Men spinoff, Wolverine. "Japan is where we're heading, [and] we're starting to work on it now," Jackman said in a taped interview. "We're in ... the first steps of developing that story."

Suffice it to say that the first film was not universally well-received, so a sequel might give the filmmakers more time to put together something better-suited and more faithful to the character's illustrious comic book legacy. While Jackman didn't officially confirm that the film would follow the storyline of the 1982 miniseries that catapulted the character from supporting player to superstar, he observed that could certainly be a jumping off point for the film: "I think the fans love that saga," he said. "It's my favorite saga of the Wolverine stories. That's a movie I've longed to make from the beginning, so that's where we're heading."

The question is, does that aspect of his back story really matter any more?

For a while now, Hugh Jackman has balanced competing, wildly different careers. On the one hand, he's the effervescent and flamboyant Boy From Oz on the stage -- a gig that has him swathed in gold pants and sashaying across the stage. On the other hand, he's the mutton-chopped Wolverine; hairy, tough, and full of grumbling machismo. It's one of the strangest cases of dueling personalities in one man that Hollywood's seen, but the lines are starting to blur. Jackman's been itching for big-screen musicals, and Variety reports that he will star as the iconic P.T. Barnum in The Greatest Show on Earth.

Sexying up the life of Mr. Barnum (just look -- the man was no Hugh Jackman), the actor will sing and dance his way through the man's infatuation with Jenny Lind (paying her unprecedented amounts for her talents), and Barnum's "penchant for hoaxing a gullible public as he creates the three-ring circus that made him famous." Sex and the City (the series) scribe Jenny Bicks is writing the screenplay, and Brit singer/songwriter Mika is being zeroed in on to write the contemporary music and lyrics. But that's not all -- Lind's character is being scripted with Anne Hathaway in mind, although she's not attached yet. (See them on-stage at the Oscars here.)

An original scripted musical? Of all things circus starring Hugh Jackman? I'm in, and I'm not even a huge fan of musicals.

Will it be the Greatest Show on Earth?