X-Men Origins Wolverine Tagged Articles at Cinematical

The announcement of a Deadpool spinoff was pretty much a non-event. It was a guarantee the moment they cast Ryan Reynolds way back in February 2008. It may even have been predestined from the moment Reynolds was born. It's probably written on a scroll somewhere ... a scroll illustrated by Rob Liefeld, because that's how mysticism works.

The real issue is whether or not fans care after they trotted out a guy with arm-katanas and called him Deadpool. (Let's pretend it matters that we do or don't.) There was a lot of happy talk that Reynolds was "actively developing" the spin-off, but Hugh Jackman "actively developed" X-Men Origins: Wolverine, too.

So, take HitFix's interview with Reynolds for what it's worth. Drew McWeeny caught up with the man who assured fans he would really give us the Merc with a Mouth: "Well, I'm intimately involved with it. We're just trying to break a story right now and figure out who the villain is going to be and all that stuff. But, it's going to be just like the comic books. I'm gonna have a messed up face and you may see some flashbacks of Wade earlier in his life, but primarily what you see is what you get in the comics and that's the goal. And there is no better place to draw material from then the comics which are incredible." There's a fragment of hope there. Grab onto it, and dream of a movie where Wilson cracks jokes about spin-offs and franchises like he mocks the pages of his comic book.

It's a real non-surprise that mere days after the premiere of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, confirmed sequels and spin-offs have begun hitting the trades. (Of course, they had been basically a go-ahead since filming on Wolverine began, but that goes without saying.) Yesterday, Fox and Hugh Jackman confirmed they were actively developing a Wolverine sequel set in Japan, today the MTV Splash Page got the official word that they were going ahead with a Deadpool spin-off. (Variety and The Hollywood Reporter subsequently confirmed the story, but it did arise on MTV first.)

Of course, if you saw Wolverine -- spoiler warning ahead -- you are undoubtedly wondering how this could be since Deadpool was cleanly beheaded by our feral hero. But those of you who stuck around for the credits and got the Deadpool secret ending saw that he picked up his head, broke the fourth wall to shush you, and went on his merry way. I'm going to assume that a Deadpool spin-off would actually proceed from this point, and not delve into Wilson's background pre-Wolverine. That would also go along with comments Ryan Reynolds made claiming he wasn't playing Deadpool in Wolverine, but Wade Wilson and the creature who becomes Deadpool. Considering what they did to that "creature," fans may be really glad there's some wiggle room in that statement.

Personally, I think they could retcon that, have Wilson stuck rotting in some cell, and pass that Deadpool wannabe off as some kind of clone. Stupider things were done in that film, I could excuse that rewrite ... and as Reynolds has said he wants a film that sticks to the character continuity, there might be some hope for the Merc with a Mouth.

In the early 1980s I was an "X-Men" fanatic, eagerly devouring every comic book I could get my hands on. But my favorite, and it remains my favorite to this day, was a 1982 four-issue mini-series written by Chris Claremont, drawn by Frank Miller and devoted exclusively to Wolverine. In it, Wolvie goes to Japan to find out what happened to his true love Mariko. He's a magnificent warrior and he understands Japan's ancient codes and rules but also understands his own raging animal instincts and his need to abandon the rules. He constantly battles these two sides, and in one sublime image, after a fight, he smoothes the disturbed pebbles in a Zen garden, making the connection between chaos and order.

Sadly, there's nothing in the new X-Men Origins: Wolverine even remotely as good or as interesting as that one image. This Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) no longer struggles between his two sides. He's smack dab on the side of good, and beholden to the unwritten Hollywood rule, which says that no hero can kill anyone in cold blood (only in self-defense, or in response to senseless acts of cruelty and violence). Sure, he can rage and howl from time to time, but he must pull back at the last second -- to set a good example for the kiddies, I guess. To spur him to action, the film brutally dispatches everyone who's nice to him, from his kind-hearted father/guardian in the opening flashback to the sweet farmer couple that gives him refuge, to his own sweetheart Kayla Silverfox (Lynn Collins). So there's some bad foreshadowing for you: if you help an old lady across the street or tell a romantic story about the moon, you're toast.

Fox's plans for X-Men: First Class became official back in November, assigning Josh Schwartz the enjoyable task of scripting an adventure for up-and-coming X-Men. At the time, it wasn't clear if the film would be based on the comic book series that follows a young Cyclops & Co, or if it would be a sequel to X3 that followed Kitty Pryde, Iceman, and Colossus.

Lauren Shuler-Donner gave the answer during big interview on Fox's Life After Film School show and to the surprise of no one, X-Men: First Class will be a prequel. "It is the first class of Xavier's school, way back when, so it's young Scott, young Jean, young Beast and that'll be really fun. I think [the plan] is to follow some of the characters into their own stories, and weave them back into the X-Men world. And hopefully First Class will become its own franchise and we can follow them as they grow up." Given that a young Cyclops appears in X-Men Origin: Wolverine, the plans are obviously already in motion.

Personally, I was hoping for a series that did follow the "new class," because then we could have a Wolverine and Kitty Pryde match-up. It seems a bit dull to have a series following characters you know survive to become X-Men -- but considering I happily read Wolverine: First Class my argument isn't exactly watertight. At least the transformation from Beast from a man to a furry blue cat would be interesting ... but really, shouldn't Fox be looking forward with their characters, not back?

[via Comics Continuum]

In lieu of last night's hush-hush premiere of J.J. Abrams' Star Trek reboot in Austin, to a crowd fully expecting to see mere clips and then The Wrath of Khan instead, we checked our Inbox of the Future (patent pending) to see what other shenanigans the Alamo Drafthouse might have in store for these coming months...

April 15th -- An admitted sneak screening of X-Men Origins: Wolverine was preceded by the director's cut of Australia, with Hugh Jackman himself collecting money at the door as "a favor to Baz." However, many stayed to take advantage of the opportunity to literally stone Roger Friedman in the parking lot. Several Austinites returned their bongs to their cars when they realized that this didn't mean whatever they thought it meant, while others were commissioned to restrain Hitfix's Drew McWeeny when he took to chucking nearby scooters towards the tied-up Friedman -- a sight which left AICN's Massawyrm in equal awe and fear for his property.

May 5th -- What was alleged to be a screening of Piranha II: The Spawning turned out to be the informal premiere of McG's Terminator: Salvation, to the disappointment of many fanboys who had their fingers crossed for Avatar, but would settle for this instead. Compounding the frustrations was the appearance of Linda Hamilton, who proceeded to narrate the film live in person to an annoyed crowd. Tangents included all those weeds she pulled in the garden last week and that couch Jim took in the divorce.

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).