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."

Well, we've been waiting for months to hear who finally landed the gig as a younger version of William Stryker in the upcoming X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and it appears JoBlo finally coughed up the answer: Danny Huston. Brian Cox first portrayed the character of Stryker in X2, and served as that film's main villain. A few different actors were reportedly circling the role of a young Stryker; more recently, Michael C. Hall (Dexter) and Christian Clark were two names that cropped up. Originally, Liev Schreiber was thought to be playing the role, however it later came out that, instead, Schreiber would be playing Sabretooth.

JoBlo claims to have heard of Huston's casting through a "source close to the production" and say that the actor is already on location in New Zealand prepping for the role. As some of you may recall, Huston recently played the head vampire in 30 Days of Night, and he's also shown up in films like The Kingdom and The Number 23. We're not exactly sure how big the Stryker role will be, but nevertheless this casting sounds pretty good to me. Gavin Hood is directing X-Men Origins: Wolverine off a script by David Benioff, and the recently-released pic of Hugh Jackman in his Wolverine get-up can be viewed here. Those claws will attack theaters on May 1, 2009.

UPDATE: IESB also claims that Lynn Collins has nabbed the part of Silver Fox in the film, after both Maggie Q. and Michelle Monaghan were considered.

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.

When we commit acts of terror in the name of fighting terrorism, have we in fact become as bad as the bad guys we're supposed to be fighting? That's the question director Gavin Hood addresses in Rendition, which tackles the controversial practice of "extraordinary rendition," whereby suspected terrorists can be whisked off to other countries where "enhanced interrogation techniques" (electrocution, beating, and the ever-popular simulated drowning) are considered acceptable, so as to glean information from the suspected terrorist that might end up thwarting plots and saving countless lives.

The basic premise of Rendition: Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Omar Metwally) is an Egyptian citizen with a green card who's been living and working in the United States since he was 14 years old. He has a lovely American wife, Isabella (Reese Witherspoon), a cute little six-year-old kid, and a baby on the way. He coaches his son's soccer team. He's a chemical engineer with a $200K salary and a nice house in the suburbs of Chicago. He could be you or me or someone we know. And one day, on his way home from a business trip to South Africa, Anwar is taken aside by security at the airport and secreted away for questioning about his alleged involvement with a terrorist whose cell phone number has been traced making phone calls to Anwar's cell phone. How does Anwar explain this? Unfortunately for him, he can't.

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.

"Did we polygraph the Egyptian?"
"He came up clean."
"Polygraph doesn't mean diddly."
'We always say that when they pass."
"Put him on the plane. ..."

That exchange comes early in Gavin Hood's new film Rendition, between senior intelligence officer Corrine Whitman (Meryl Streep) and her underling (J.K. Simmons). 'The Egyptian' is Anwar El-Abrahimi (Omar Metwally), a chemical engineer of Egyptian descent who's been living in Chicago for years, with a wife (Reese Witherspoon) and son and another baby on the way. But Whitman doesn't care about that; Anwar's phone has been receiving calls from a number linked to a known terrorist, so after a conference which sees him flying back to Chicago he's plucked from his flight, hooded and bound and taken to an unnamed North African country, where the head of the local intelligence branch, Abasi (Igal Naor), will try to crack him. CIA field paper-pusher Doug Freeman (Jake Gyllenhaal) is there to observe, not to apply the electric shocks or pour the water until Anwar can't breathe or hurl him naked and shivering into a too-small cell -- because, hey, America doesn't do that stuff. But, through the Clinton-created, Bush-approved invention of 'Extraordinary Rendition," we can ask other people to do it, and pay them to do it, and make all the arrangements to have it happen. ... Anwar's suffering will stop when he tells what he knows. But what if he doesn't know anything?