Tom Rothman Tagged Articles at Cinematical

One of the ongoing sentiments surrounding the leak of X-Men Origins: Wolverine was "Serves Fox and Tom Rothman right! Payback's a bitch!" No matter how you feel about Fox and Rothman, the leak wasn't what you should wish on anyone. Wolverine represents a lot of effort by a lot of people who aren't responsible for the sins of the Fox father.

One person who's come out swinging in defense of Rothman is the man you might least expect: Wolverine's director, Gavin Hood. The Internet has been rife with rumors of riproaring fights, intervention by Richard Donner, and reshoots. In a video interview with THR's Risky Business, Hood shot back at the rumors:

"I am very fond of Tom [Rothman]. When we're in a room debating, he's a very forceful personality, I'm a fairly forceful personality ... we didn't always agree. We certainly never yelled at each other. Some of these fan sites have really been upsetting in that way. I have never had a stand-up argument with Tom Rothman. Never, ever, and nor has Tom with me, ever, and that is a fact. It's quite upsetting to see how these things sort of spiral. Did we discuss and debate, what stylistically I was going to bring to the movie, and his expectations, and my [expectations]? Of course, of course you do that, and I hope it makes the movie better. Nobody's trying to screw up the movie. I mean, there's this stupid notion out there that Tom Rothman wants to ruin the franchise. What? That's stupid ... This is a huge thing for the studio. Of course he doesn't want to ruin the franchise. Is he going to put a gun to his own head? He has a huge amount riding on this movie, as do I. There were disagreements, but I think they were handled with dignity and sincerity."

20th Century Fox has issued a press release stating that it plans to drastically "re-calibrate" the narrative of Gavin Hood's Tsotsi follow-up, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, while still maintaining its scheduled opening in theaters everywhere on May 1st.

"Look," said CEO Tom Rothman in a prepared statement, "[expletive] those weaselly little mother[expletive]ers that couldn't hold onto their [expletive]ing horses to see this film and pay to do so. This is our way of sticking it to the so-called 'fans' who managed to show up for three of these flicks and purported to be willing to show up for this one, even though the last one was a total piece of [expletive]."

Directing duties on the new footage have been split between three helmers: actor Liev Schreiber has reportedly filmed a nineteen-minute tracking shot that has each and every member of the project's cast and crew extending their middle fingers towards the camera (save for Ryan Reynolds, already occupied by preparations on Julie Taymor's The Proposal: The Musical).

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.

Not only is M. Night Shyamalan moving from (Disney to) Warner Bros. to Fox for his next project ... but it''ll be the guy's first R-rated movie, too! After shopping around a screenplay called The Green Effect, M. Night took some tips from colleagues, re-jiggered the script, re-named it The Happening, and landed himself a sweet deal at Fox. According to Variety, The Happening will be apocalyptic in nature, perhaps on scale with the studio's Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow. Expect the movie to hit theaters in June of 2008.

Mr. Shyamalan will head back to Philadelphia (yay!) in August to start shooting his new movie, and we're promised a "big name" for the lead role. The trade paper also states that the Happening budget will be $57 million, and also that the plot will be "a paranoid thriller about a family on the run from a natural crisis that presents a large-scale threat to humanity." One of the selling points on this particular project is that both Shyamalan and Fox chief Tom Rothman wanted to really "up" the scariness, thus resulting in a project that'll be M. Night's first R-rated effort. The controversial thriller-maker made reference to both Silence of the Lambs and Pan's Labyrinth while describing his vision of The Happening ... which makes me both skeptical and curious. Either way, I guess we'll have to wait a bit longer for Night's Avatar and He-Man projects, which is just fine by me.

Oh, it's on! For the past few months there's been a ton of speculation over whether Galactus would appear in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. On paper, one would assume it's practically impossible to include the Silver Surfer and not throw Galactus a bone; after all, in the original comics Surfer serves as a herald to Galactus in which he roams the universe searching for new planets for Galactus to consume -- hence his business on Earth where he runs into the Fantastic Four. (Yes, in case you weren't aware, Galactus is a God-like villain who must consume entire planets in order to stay alive.)

Though we've had confirmation from folks as high up as Fox Chairman Tom Rothman, rumors also circulated recently alluding to Galactus not being featured in the highly-anticipated sequel. Well, director Tim Story finally put an end to all the nonsense by officially announcing Galactus as a character on his MySpace page. Says Story, "There continues to be much speculation about Galactus. Major speculation. We haven't finished the design of him/it so be careful about what you read and believe. Trust me...no one knows. One things for sure, you can expect to see him/it. It will be pretty powerful."

But how much of a role will Galactus have in the sequel? If you want my opinion, I see him/it showing up toward the end -- I mean, they do have to set up a third installment, right? In the comics, the Silver Surfer eventually betrays Galactus who dooms him to exile on Earth. So, if there is a Fantastic Four 3, will it feature The Four teaming up with Surfer to battle Galactus? What do you think? Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer hits theaters on June 15.

With all the talk I've done lately about the Silver Surfer entering the Fantastic Four film universe, I've almost overlooked the man -- er, devourer of worlds -- who employs him. As all True Believers know, when the Surfer first encounters the Fantastic Four, it's as the Herald of Galactus. Galactus, of course, is an extremely important villain in the Marvel universe, particularly as he relates to the Four, and his entry onto the silver screen should be a very large event.

Fox Chairman Tom Rothman recently discussed the challenge of translating such an enormous being from comic book to cinema with IESB, and had this to say: "I think that Galactus, look, I don't want to give away too much, right, but I will say this, Galactus will appear and fans will not be disappointed." He also refused to confirm or deny any Puppet Master related rumors, and further promised a very "traditional" looking Surfer. He even hinted at the possibility of a Silver Surfer solo flick if the character goes over well in his Fantastic introduction. All of this sounds very, very exciting to this little geek. How about you?

Will X-Men end at three? While a trilogy certainly is a solid and popular way to package a movie franchise, the people over at Fox seem to think that their baby could have longer legs than most. While they admit that three is a good number, and that the "current" story of the Xverse will wrap up with this trilogy, it will likely not be the final screen appearance for Professor Xavier and his Gifted Youngsters. It should be noted that while Fox is eager to continue with the X-Men franchise, the existence of a fourth (or beyond) movie will probably be highly contingent upon the success of Part Three. Fox Studio head Tom Rothman was admittedly coy about whether or not continuing films would bear the X-title, or if he was just alluding to further spin-off films such as the Wolverine and Magneto titles.  You can read IESB's full interview with him here.

Also worth noting briefly is that Rothman indicated that news on The Silver Surfer would be forthcoming "soon. Stay closely posted."

Let's not kid ourselves, fans. Good or bad, this movie is going to be successful; certainly at least successful enough to warrant continuing efforts from the currently sequel-crazed movie industry. Will we see an X4 or X5 like Vinny suggested, or will it only continue in the way of spin-offs? If you read Rothman's full interview, he seems to be trying very hard to suggest that the third film will bring a complete and resolved ending to the current characters and situations. Anyone have a thought to throw out?