Screen Rant » wolverine

What X-Men 3 Could Have Been

Rob Keyes — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 03:54:25 +0000

Mike Dougherty, director of the long-delayed and mistreated Trick ‘r Treat and co-writer of X-Men 2 joined the /Filmcast over the weekend and in their special “After Dark” segment, where they talk about whatever’s on their mind, their conversation hit on the interesting subject of X-Men 3, for which Dougherty and Singer were not a part of, but would have been had Singer not swung over to DC to make Superman Returns (for which Dougherty helped write).

In the audio clip, Dave Chen, Adam Quigley and Devindra Hardawar bring up the subject the X3 and quiz Dougherty on his thoughts of the movie, for which he answered reservedly and professionally. The interesting parts however, came afterward, when Dougherty moved on to explain some of the ideas he pitched to Bryan Singer for what of been their version of the third installment of the X-Men film franchise.

To start, we’ll go through some parts of the conversation, transcribed by Alex Billington of First Showing.

When questioned about what his and Singer’s ideas were for X-Men 3, Dougherty revealed some parts (that he was allowed to – he doesn’t want any angry calls from Bryan and these ideas could still be used down the road…) that he could remember from what he pitched as story elements.

“The idea – you open up with Alkali Lake but it’s completely barren and dried up and there are these odd reports of strange phenomena going on around the world accompanied by bright lights in the sky.”

“The idea would be that both the X-Men and the Brotherhood realize that essentially a very god-like force had entered their reality and that it was causing disruptions around the world – mutant prisons being decimated. I had pitched an idea about a fleet of cargo ships getting torn apart in the Atlantic and you found out that they were shuttling mutants as slave labor.”

“So basically you found out was that Phoenix was going round the world taking things into her own hands and that she had basically returned as a god, which they did touch upon in X3. She had viewed herself as above the conflict, that she was here to end things on her terms, she was basically sick of the fighting and she was going to take things into her own hands and she didn’t give a shit what the X-Men or the Brotherhood had to say about it.”

These few simple sentences are already a step up from how the ever-important Phoenix Saga was treated on screen in Brett Ratner’s adaptation. In X3: The Last Stand, The Phoenix character was resigned to standing and staring blankly in a red dress… that’s it. Every scene, she stands, stares and sometimes destruction surrounds her when she’s angry (and staring). There was no character, no purpose, just the under-utilized idea that she was all-powerful which never showed through and really didn’t have a plot.

Was X3 about Phoenix or about a cure to the mutation? It didn’t do either well, and neither storyline served its purpose fully.

In Dougherty’s version, he goes on to explain that in the end of his version Phoneix/Jean doesn’t get stabbed and die again but instead, chooses to leave. It gets better though as he continues to share his idea of the Cyclops we all know and love, the leader that should have been.

Click to continue reading ‘What X-Men 3 Could Have Been’

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The Next X-Men Films Part Two: Deadpool, Magneto

Rob Keyes — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 23:57:38 +0000

A few days back, we put up part one of “The Next X-Men Films” series, our look into the future of Fox Studio’s growing and financially successful movie series based on Marvel’s mighty mutants. This was based on quotes from Empire’s recent feature on Lauren Shuler Donner, producer of all films X-Men related, and today we’ll look at the other two anticipated films she spoke about.

In Part One we discussed Wolverine 2, the most-likely-to-happen solo flick out of Fox’s development slate as well as X-Men: First Class, the prequel to Bryan Singer’s first X-Men which is currently in its writing stages with Josh Schwartz penning the script.

Now, it’s time to look at two other popular character solo movies that are in early stages of development: Deadpool and X-Men Origins: Magneto. One of these is likely to happen, one may not.

After the financial success of Wolverine’s solo prequel, we saw a quick greenlight for the Deadpool film and knew there’d be a Wolverine 2 down the road. Prior to this, X-Men: First Class, a team prequel to Bryan Singer’s first X-Men was already in the works. So, we all knew those were the three go-to projects for Fox Studios to come the soonest. What I never felt sure about was X-Men Origins: Magneto, since it would involve a recast of title character and wouldn’t tie-in too much with the franchise. That and the fact it would be based heavily during the holocaust made it less bankable as a superhero flick and more limited in playing with other popular mutants of the X-Men universe, especially compared to the other potential films they could create with those resources.

Deadpool

The first thing Donner said about the hopeful Ryan Reynolds starrer, Deadpool, is that it won’t be based on the messed up version of what we saw in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. By that, she means Fox and/or the folks responsible for Hugh Jackman’s solo title admittedly did a poor job of bring Deadpool to live-action.

“I want to ignore the version of Deadpool that we saw in Wolverine and just start over again. Reboot it. Because this guy talks, obviously, and to muzzle him would be insane.”

Yeap. Almost as insane as giving the character lasers that shoot from his eyes or swords longer than his forearm that come out of his arm…

Not the Deadpool we like

The one big issue that came not long after hype for the Deadpool project started to build was the unexpected announcement that Ryan Reynolds would be starring as Hal Jordan in the DC Comics movie, Green Lantern. Why would Warner Brothers choose the lead of an upcoming Marvel-based movie as the lead in their upcoming DC-based movie? More importantly for fans, does this mean he can only do one or the other?

“I don’t see it as a problem that Ryan [Reynolds] is also playing Green Lantern. I mean, look at Harrison Ford – he was in Stars Wars and Indiana Jones at the same time and everyone was fine with that. Green Lantern could not be more different to Wade Wilson. Green Lantern is a guy who finds a ring and is thrust into this world, much like Spider-Man. Wade Wilson is a guy who unfortunately gets cancer, and volunteers for a test that will give him healing powers. He is a bad ass, a wise-cracking mercenary, who will go out and kill anyone for money. But the thing about him is that, underneath it all, and he wouldn’t want you to know this, sometimes he’s not such a bad ass after all. Sometimes he does the right thing.”

As a fan of Reynolds and of his portrayal of Wade Wilson (pre-surgery) from X-Men Origins: Wolverine, I want to see them make a Deadpool flick, especially with Donner, Reynolds and Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld making statements that the project will stay true to the comics, bring his red & black costume, break the fourth wall and bring a ton of attention to why he’s called the “Merc with the mouth.”

With that said, what kind of style and story can we expect from a Deadpool film?

“It’s going to be a dark, snarky, very funny movie. It’s the hardest story to tell, I think. There’s no clear cut villain – though you do have great baddies from the comic-books like Black Tom, Slayback, Blind Al and the Weasel. Blind Al is this blind woman in his house, who he abuses and mocks… it’s terrible. But you find out that she was a convict who did something terrible and he saved her from execution. So he lets her live in his house and she looks after him, but they both torture each other. Anyway, there are good stories and we’re figuring out which ones to incorporate.”

Lastly, Donner touched on where they are in pre-production for the flick and re-iterates that they’re really trying to push new boundaries in the comic book movie genre with this project.

“We’re right in the thick of talking to writers right now, and hopefully by November we’ll have decided who’s going to do it. We need someone really imaginative because we want to do some really innovative, ambitious stuff. Ryan’s mentioned this in an interview already but there are parts where he’s going to break the fourth wall and talk directly to the audience in the cinema. We have to work out how to do that. I don’t know that Fox will agree with all our decisions, but we’ll see!”

Unfortunately, she ended with the statement about Fox’s approval. Uh oh. Maybe we won’t see any fourth wall breakage and maybe they won’t have Deadpool wearing his mask after all. For once, I think fans need to see the folks responsible for production of the film to have more creative control. I’d love to see what the Donner, Reynolds and the writing team come up with if given complete creative freedom.

We’ll have to wait and see.

Click to continue reading about X-Men Origins: Magneto and more!

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The Next X-Men Films Part One: Wolverine 2, First Class

Rob Keyes — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 22:56:42 +0000

The folks at Empire had a chance to speak with Lauren Shuler Donner, producer of all films X-Men related, at the press junket for the release of X-Men Origins: Wolverine on Blu-ray and they discussed the future of the franchise.

The feature that Empire put together on the interview was broken down into four sections for each of the movies: Wolverine 2, X-Men: First Class, Deadpool, and Magneto. We’ll go through and discuss each, passing to you the key things Donner says and giving our thoughts on it and how it relates to what we expected to see from these movies since their inception.

To start, here’s the latest on Wolverine 2 and X-Men: First Class…

Update: Click to see Part Two on Deadpool and Magneto.

To start, they touched on the most definite film we’ll see coming our way in the next fear year: Wolverine 2.

“It’s actually the story we wanted to use for the first Wolverine film, but [Fox head honcho] Tom Rothman preferred to set the character up with an origin story first. This movie will really focus on the relationship between Wolverine and Mariko, the daughter of a Japanese crime lord, and what happens to him in Japan.”

The Chris Claremont-Frank Miller run on Wolverine which saw him on his adventures to Japan is one of the most classic Wolverine tales there is and so it’s no wonder they want to turn that story into a feature film. That being said, I can’t say I disagree with Rothman’s reasoning to want to tell Wolverine’s origin first. We saw hints of his origin scattered throughout all of the X-trilogy so it was a story that had to be told. Although I’d argue that X-Men Origins: Wolverine didn’t do a great job of that, it made sense to do that before seeing Wolverine head to Japan, something not touched on at all in the X-Trilogy. The alternative would have been to do the Japan story first as a prequel to X-Men, followed by another prequel based before it? Nah, that doesn’t work as well.

I wasn’t impressed by either of the last two X-Men movies but I still hold hope that the franchise can turn it around and it looks like they’re going in the right direction with Wolverine’s next adventure. With the hiring of Oscar-winner Chris McQuarrie to write the script, with Donner’s and Jackman’s desire to have this film closely follow the source material, and with the studio seemingly holding back until (hopefully) selecting the right director, I can’t deny that I’m excited to see Wolverine in Japan, especially with what Donner says next:

“We want to make it authentic so I think it’s very likely we’ll be shooting in Japan. Also, by the way, we are looking to have the Japanese Fox executives involved in helping and counselling us, because it’s a different culture and we don’t want to portray the way they speak, dress and act in an inaccurate way. I think it’s likely the characters will speak English rather than Japanese with subtitles.”

Remember when this was a big issue for that other film McQuarrie wrote, Valkyrie? Once we all saw the movie and how they transitioned from Tom Cruise speaking German with subtitles into speaking English along with the rest of the cast, it didn’t really affect the film’s story or characters in the end. Although I admit it was weird hearing a group of German characters on screen with a half-dozen uniquely different non-German accents. I never expected to see the Wolverine sequel mostly spoken in Japanese with subtitles so this is of no surprise and shouldn’t alarm any fans.

Another thing we can expect from Wolverine 2 is Hugh Jackman fighting a lot less with his claws (after the horrible CGI of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, this is a bonus):

“What’s cool about this part of the saga is that Wolverine will be fighting in a different style to what we’ve seen before… There’ll be samurai, ninja, katana blades, different forms of martial arts – mano-a-mano, extreme fighting. We’re going to come up with a new style of fighting. It’s going to be awesome.”

As you can tell, Donner is sure excited about the potential for Wolverine’s next story so let’s hope we get a high quality movie with Wolverine 2.

Click to continue reading about Wolverine 2 and X-Men: First Class…

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Gavin Hood Talks Wolverine 2 & District 9

Rob Keyes — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 11:30:14 +0000

Last week we reported on an interview with Hugh Jackman where he joked about how he always says he’s not doing another X-Men film until he reads the script. He continued to jokingly say that he’d do eleven more movies as Wolverine and that was it.

The next appearance of Hugh’s buffed up mutant will likely come with a sequel to X-Men Origins: Wolverine which will see the Marvel poster boy head to Japan to explore the stories of one of the most classic Wolverine tales from the comics. One question surrounding this movie is whether or not director Gavin Hood would be asked to return by Fox Studios to helm the follow-up.

In an interview with Rotten Tomatoes, Hood touches on this subject and that of District 9, the sleeper hit of the year directed by a fellow South Africa, Neill Blomkamp.

Jokes aside, Jackman’s done 4 already and there’s at least six X-Men franchise films in early development with hints of plenty more. If X-Men 4 comes to life and he does some Wolverine sequels… throw in some cameos in other X-Men spinoffs and he could actually get pretty close to that number, believe it or not.

As for Gavin Hood, we know that Wolverine 2 will happen no matter what. Moviegoers love Hugh as Wolverine and despite his horrendous CGI claws in his last outing, the sequel will again be easy money in the bank. Hood’s return isn’t so clear-cut. At many of the press events for the X-Men Origins: Wolverine Blu-ray release, questions were thrown at him and producer Lauren Shuler Donner about his return and every time they dodged it by saying they’re just focusing on the script at this point.

Rotten Tomatoes had a chance to interview Hood and asked him about his involvement with the Wolverine sequel.

“I have no idea. All that’s happened at the moment is that the studio has just commissioned the script for Wolverine 2 to be written. Whether that film will ever get made will depend on so many factors — whether the studio likes the script, whether they find a director who responds to the script. Might that be me? Sure, I’d be extremely interested and thrilled if they were to send it to me.”

They also discussed one of the big decisions Hood had to make within the story of the film, altering Sabretooth’s history for dramatic hollywood effect.

“In the original script they were not half brothers. There was some resistance to that, because in the world of the comics there’s only a small suggestion in one particular comic that Victor Creed and Wolverine may well be half brothers. I just gravitated to that. Just having one good guy versus bad guy, with no emotional connection just felt like “Whoa — you’ll have nothing but punching and kicking”. That was a way to build up the emotional power of the film. I thought Liev Schreiber did a phenomenal job. I’m very pleased that on the Blu-ray disc there’s a particular scene that I was attached to that didn’t make it into the movie. I say that without saying “It should have!” I think it probably should have been in the movie, but I understood the argument against it, and at the time there was much to-ing and fro-ing about it. It’s a great thing to be able to put that sort of scene on the Blu-ray and let people think of other themes and idea that were in my mind when we made that scene.”

I have no issues with that in the movie, Liev Schreiber’s Sabretooth was one of the best parts of Wolverine’s live-screen origin story, that I felt had so many issues.

Click to continue reading about Wolverine 2 and Hood’s thoughts on District 9…

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Hugh Jackman Talks Wolverine 2 & Sequels

Rob Keyes — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 10:58:41 +0000

Hugh Jackman, the man made famous for bringing one of the most popular superheroes to life in the X-Men movies, sat down to talk with Katie Couric at CBS News where they spoke about the character of Wolverine and the movies.

Funny enough, the interview started with Couric kindly dropping the bomb that she’s not exactly a fan which set off a bunch of laughs before they continued to touch on the future of the character and movies.

Hugh reveals that he’s not in it for the money, he doesn’t need that. He’s there because he loves Wolverine, he loves playing the character, and its a ton of fun for him. Check out the interview after the jump.

As the video plays beside Jackman and Couric in the background, Hugh laughingly questions how she couldn’t like it (the scenes shown were of him busting out of the Weapon X facility naked.)

“Why would you miss out on it?” he argued. “A little bit of nudity, I get all of my rage issues out… any rage issues I have are gone! Yeah, you do have fun. I wouldn’t make them otherwise.”

Here’s the video interview courtesy of CBS:

“The whole time from when I began, the one story line that I went and said, ‘That’s a movie!’ while I was reading the comic books, was this whole saga in Japan… It’s really beautiful, different and fantastic. I thought, ‘That’s a movie.’ Now, we’ve done four movies and we haven’t done it yet, so I’m working on that script now. If that comes up to being what I thought it might be, I’ll do that.”

“I always say, ‘oh, I’m never doing another one,’ until I see the script. It has to be something. But in the superhero world, those kind of movies, ‘Wolverine’ is by far the most interesting… So I’ll do eleven more and that’s it!”

Eleven more? That would be a burden on his body but with possible cameos in the growing number of X-Men spin-off movies and a potential X-Men 4, not to mention the likelihood of more than one Wolverine sequel, we will see a lot more of Wolverine in the future.

I’m a fan of Hugh Jackman and I love his passion. It’s unfortunate that they’ve not done better with his character in his solo spin-off but that’s not stopping me from wanting to see Wolverine’s adventures in Japan, a movie they’re currently promising “will stay very close to the source material.”

Are you excited for more Wolverine down the road and what would you like to see from the character and future X-Men movies?

Wolverine 2 is currently in development and we’ll let you know more as we hear it.

Source: CBS

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X-Men Origins: Wolverine Blu-ray Features Review

Mike Wilkerson — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:04:30 +0000

It’s no secret that X-Men Origins: Wolverine was supposed to be the first “Blockbuster film of summer” – and wasn’t. While it offered some visually striking scenes, and frankly, more Wolverine, there was a lot left that didn’t stoke the fires of love in the house of Wolvy fans everywhere.

While our coverage of the movie conveyed all you’ll need to know about the feature film in general, what follows is a special Screen Rant review of X-Men Origins: Wolverine‘s Blu-ray Special Features – an invasive, probing, look at the details NOT included on the regular DVD offerings, that promises to be at least as sharp as the steel tendrils that pumped adamantium into Wolverine himself. So like Wolverine, strap in, get prepped and ready as we crack the Blu-ray special features realm wide open here at Screen Rant.

The Cost: For those of you looking to spend $30-50 on a Blu-ray of X-men Origins: Wolverine, you’re in for a pleasant surprise. Walmart, of all places, offered up the “Ultimate 3-Disc Edition” of this Blu-ray, complete with the Blu-ray disc, the DVD version and the always amorphous, DRM-ridden Digital Copy of the film (for portable/computer-based media players) for just $24. It’s the same price that I secured “The Dark Knight” for and even that offering didn’t include the DVD version of the film. It’s great to see little inserts like that and makes it a lot easier to plunk down $24, rather than the obligatory $14.99 for just the DVD version.

What You Get: Again, we’re all familiar with the movie that you can see both in the DVD and Blu-ray formats. The carryover in regard to resolution is outstanding on my plasma screen, making even the most heinous “bad effects shots” bearable. The contrast between dark and light is extraordinary. What you also get are some great special features that we’ll focus on here in this review.

Set-Up Menu:

DTS: It’s becoming more commonplace nowadays to offer up a DTS track in films. I can remember when there were a handful of movies that pushed this. Included in this track are some great environmental showcases using the array of speakers in your home theater. The opening montage of scruffy brothers Wolverine and Victor Creed battling across the ages has some extraordinary sound. The gargantuan end scene has some outstanding placement cues that make me realize I’m truly grinning and bearing the expense of my sound system a little easier. Tracks also included in this vein are a Spanish and Portugeuse version for those interested.

English Descriptive Audio: The English Descriptive Audio track is intended for Blind people to get a better conveyance of what’s being showcased on screen. I encourage everyone to give it a try, just to glean some perspective on what the blind use as a matter of course when it’s made available. Kudos to the powers that be for offering up a great track for those who are fans of X-Men and Wolverine.

Commentaries: The people that make the movie “go”: The commentary tracks featured inside this Blu-ray are worth the cost of the disc alone for me. I’ve always known that the people “Under the Hood” of a movie like this are infinitely more interesting when they’re telling people about the creation of something they’ve poured a lot of time and effort and often money into. While director Gavin Hood’s commentary provides some quiet introspection about his experience, and how he actually lobbied for some very different things and lines of thought inside the movie, the real golden stuff is in the subsequent track with producers Lauren Shuler Conner and Ralph Winter, who take you literally “Under the Hood” of each of the shots and details that I really do love to listen to while working on other things. I’d like to make a plea to other feature films of this caliber to add tracks like these into their films. I love the perspective, knowledge, how-tos, and details conveyed.

Captioning Subtitles: I’m not sure who was the master planner for this disc, but – how is it that the only subtitles or captions for this film – are in SPANISH, PORTUGUESE, CANTONESE and MANDARIN CHINESE? No closed captioning (because HDMI cables don’t carry the caption signal to fruition) and the only captioning is that for those living tens of thousands of miles away. If there was an “epic fail” in the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community, the X-Men Origins: Wolverine Blu-ray would be the item with the platinum record next to it.

For what it’s worth, none of the ads or special features on the Blu-ray feature subtitles or closed captioning either. A saving grace in the captioned section however is that the commentaries of both director Gavin Hood and another featuring producers Lauren Shuler Conner and Ralph Winter – which are both extraordinary. That they’re captioned is a great but smaller feature in the captioned cap. How on Earth did they miss subtitles in English?

(Pg. 2 for Special Features)

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What We Need From X-Men 4

Rob Keyes — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:24:17 +0000

The news the other day about producer Lauren Schuler Donner hinting at the beginnings of plans for an X-Men 4 movie (and a movie based on The New Mutants) got me thinking of some of the infinite possibilities for the next X-Men installment.

I could go on and on about stories and characters I’d like to see, but keeping to the basics, I’ll discuss some of the issues from the existing X-trilogy that need to be rectified going forward with the next movie, should it come to fruition.

Join us as we discuss what we’d like to see from X-Men 4 and open the floor for your ideas!

We’ll go through some topics that need to be addressed, many of which stem from issues we were left with from X-Men 3: The Last Stand, starting with who the villain(s) should be.

A New Villain

Magneto’s reign is over, have him as a guest role to touch on his relationship with Xavier and perhaps have him redeem himself in some way, becoming the friend he used to be when he was the X-Men’s co-founder prior to the events of the X-trilogy.

This would be a nice concluding touch to the story of X-Men: First Class, which I think may feature Magneto working alongside Xavier to build the institute and the Cerebro device. With a possible role in that film and his own origins solo movie, Magneto’s story will be continued in the past, not the future: leave him out of X4.

So who must the X-Men dance with? Mr. Sinister and the Marauders? Apocalypse? Sentinels?! You could make multiple movies using any of these villains, let alone the time-traveling storylines featuring Bishop and Cable, which would allow for some very cool tie-ins to other X-films in development.

The Marauders would offer a good way to showcase a team of enemies and would tie Gambit into X-Men 4, while bringing Mr. Sinister into the mix. His interest in Jean Grey/Cyclops could be a key storyline and his involvement could help branch into existing or new spinoffs in development. Going that direction could also allow for the storyline of Cyclops fathering Cable as a result of Mr. Sinister’s experiments (I doubt it would follow the comics though) .

Give Rogue some Power!

Rogue was the leading lady of the first X-Men movie and then became a completely unused and wasted character in its sequels. Her power is to acquire other powers and she didn’t do that once over the span of three superhero movies. I don’t get it and judging by the interviews I saw for the movie, neither does Anna Paquin, the actress who played Rogue.

Paquin has matured as an actress and she has a strong following with her hit show, True Blood. Bring her back and bring her into the action. Let her fly and smash things.

A more significant (and useful) role for Rogue could also include or setup a possible storyline with her and Gambit; Wolverine star Taylor Kitsch is very interested in doing just that, and many fans would like to see it happen.

Speaking of powers, Iceman finally iced up in the final action sequence of X3: The Last Stand so now he should be a full-fledged mutant combatant and X-Men member. Let him and Rogue dominate in the large-scale action sequences. Ice slides, anyone?

Click to continue reading about Cyclops, Jean Grey and other possible characters of X-Men 4…

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X-Men 4 & New Mutants Movies On The Way?

Rob Keyes — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 01:08:48 +0000

The X-Men franchise has a bright future on the silver screen. With multiple projects in their early stages of development and several given the greenlight after the financial success of X-Men Origins: Wolverine to kick off this summer, there seems to be no end in sight for what the future may hold of Fox Studio’s hot property.

I’ll bet Disney wishes they could have picked up this film license in their acquisition of Marvel…

Aside from solo films for Magneto and Deadpool, and the prequel team-up film X-Men: First Class, we might be getting a movie based on the New Mutants comic line and… a possible X-Men 4?

Producer Lauren Shuler Donner, who has worked on all of the X-films thus far, was in attendance for the Fox press presentation of the X-Men Origins: Wolverine Blu-ray release and fielded some questions from the audience about the future of the franchise, including some from Brendon Connelly of /Film.

One of the first things addressed was the Tim Pocock (young Cyclops) tweet that got out which hinted at X-Men: First Class beginning filming early next year. Shortly after, Pocock re-tweeted a follow-up saying that it was a prank and to retract any news from it.

On that topic, Donner said it’s complete false and that no one is yet signed for the First Class film but did confirm that all of the young mutants appearing in X-Men Origins: Wolverine did have the standard options in their contracts for more flicks should they decide to go that path (which they will).

Here’s where the interesting part comes in: Donner then revealed that she’s been working on plans for even more films than the ones we already know about and she said two of them are X-Men 4, which would bring back the characters of old, and a film based on The New Mutants.

X-Men 4?! That’s major if it happens, but when would they film it? Jackman’s got Wolverine 2 in development which wont be out for a few years, how much can he push his body physically 4-5 years down the road for the part? Assuming of course, he plays a prominent role in the fourth installment…

When could it realistically be made and in what order would the films go into production? There’s Deadpool, X-Men Origins: Magneto, Wolverine 2, X-Men First: Class, a possible Gambit movie down the road, and now two more!

Click to continue reading about X-Men 4 and The New Mutants…

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Wolverine 2 “Will Stay Very Close To The Source Material”

Rob Keyes — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 17:42:43 +0000

Fox Studios held a presentation yesterday in LA to show-off the upcoming release of X-Men Origins: Wolverine on Blu-ray and DVD. Producer Lauren Schuler Donner and director Gavin Hood were in attendance to answer some questions about the franchise, adapting the source material and the sequel to Wolverine’s first solo adventure.

The Blu-ray edition for X-Men Origins: Wolverine is set to be something special with the plethora of bonus features it includes. There’s even a live feature that allows viewers the option to see information on the actors on screen while they watch through IMDB. It essentially will let you look at previous & upcoming projects for all of your favorite stars.

You can head over to Latino Review who were in attendance for more information on this and some of the deleted scenes they got to see. We’re instead going to focus on what was said in the Q&A session about X-Men Origins: Wolverine and its sequel, Wolverine 2.

Currently, Oscar-winning writer Christopher McQuarrie is working on a script to adapt the popular ‘80s Chris Claremont/Frank Miller Wolverine series set in Japan. This of course, is where we’ll see Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine go to for his next adventure, as hinted at in one of the bonus ending scenes in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Unfortunately there were issues with the first film and how it paid respect to the source material from the comics. Yes, the Wolverine history is overly convoluted and he’s beyond over-used currently, having parts in a dozen books monthly. However, the new movie didn’t hit on the simple fact that Wolverine needed a rough violent past which haunts him. That aspect of the movie was completely ignored and we merely got hints of it in the opening montage that passed through him and his half-brother’s experiences in the many wars over the last two centuries.

Even scenes such as when Logan went through the adamantium bonding process were completely wasted. It lasted a minute long and consisted of him getting needles, injecting the liquid metal into him… that’s it. It didn’t even match what we saw from the X-Rays in the first X-Men movie or his flashbacks. How does injecting liquid metal into him make it bond to only his bones in a nice smooth equal layer and give him perfectly formed blades on top of his rough-looking bone claws?

Had the movie been rated R, which it really would have benefited from, we might have seen them actually perform the extensive operation on him to cut him open and insert adamantium and replacing those claws with new ones. That is the major moment in his life that changes who he is, re-defining him. However, this is just one example of the many issues I saw as something that could have been easily improved.

What’s really weird about this is that the tie-in video game for X-Men Origins: Wolverine was infinitely more gruesome. It looked better, had better story elements and really showed what Wolverine and his rage are all about unlike the film – it might be the first time the video game tie-in is actually better than the movie it’s based on (a whole ton better). Just the cutscenes alone were cooler than most of what we saw in the feature film – That is the Hugh Jackman and Wolverine I want to see on-screen.

So, looking forward to the sequel, will they repeat the same, having a movie disliked by most critics and many fans (Wolverine’s solo film had the lowest ratings out of all four X-Films by a massive margin) with rushed special effects? How will it treat the well-respected Japanese storyline of Wolverine’s past?

Or can we get something polished and complete like the first two well-regarded X-Men movies?

Click to continue reading about Wolverine, Wolverine 2 and how the source material is adapted…

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GROAN… Summer 2009 Sets Box Office Record

Kofi Outlaw — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 16:55:02 +0000

So we just finished telling you why the Summer of 2009 was the season of bad movies. Now, as if to validate our point (sarcasm alert) Variety has just announced that the Summer of ‘09 has set a new record as the highest grossing summer of all time at the U.S. domestic box office.

So there you have it, folks, it’s official: Hollywood has no reason to ever hire good writers, produce good scripts, or offer us anything better at the multiplex than what Michael Bay can half-envision.

Awesome.

The numbers of course tell a deeper tale than that, so if you’d like to find out just how the heck this summer managed to break the box office bank, here’s the breakdown:

Top earners for the season were Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen ($399.4 million), Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince ($294.3 million), and Disney/Pixar’s Up ($289.6 million). We all know why the franchise players made bank (it certainly wasn’t because the newest installments were great films in and of themselves) and Pixar is a proven brand that happened to offer a truly exceptional film. Other crap sequels that helped fill the piggy bank: Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs ($193.3 million), Angels and Demons ($133.4 million) and Night at the Museum 2 ($176.5 million)

There were also some unexpected boosts to the box office this year, thanks to Warner Bros.’ breakout hit The Hangover ($270.2 million) and the Sandra Bullock / Ryan Reynolds rom-com, The Proposal ($160.2 million).

Rounding out the Summer ‘09 box office cash pile were reboots/relaunches of popular franchises. On that front you had Star Trek ($256.7 million), Wolverine ($179 million), Terminator Salvation ($125.3 million) and G.I. Joe ($133.4 million and counting).

This really must be just a cruel joke being played by God, IMHO. You have he Writers Guild of America strike back in 2007, during which the scripts for a lot of these films were forced to go into production half-cooked (or less), and what’s the moral of the story? What’s the grand example that the talented writers in Hollywood can hold up to the studios? “Hey, you better treat us right, otherwise we’ll stop working and you’ll end up making more money than you ever have before!”

Pretty short soapbox to be standing on.

It’s also arguable evidence of the (snooty) stereotype that the average American moviegoer has the cerebral capacity of a third grader. Just looking at the numbers I have to wonder just how so many people could be so entertained by so much crap. It once again raises a question one of our readers put to us back in June, after the release of Transformers 2: Is there really a difference between movies like The Dark Knight and TF2 when both films start pulling in crazy bank? How much does quality count?

It was an intriguing topic before, but after hearing that the Summer of 2009 will go down as a the “best” summer at the movies ever (from a profit standpoint), it’s now a raging debate. Expect Screen Rant’s post about it soon.

Source: Variety

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Summer 2009: The Season Of Bad Movies [Updated]

Heath McKnight — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 16:38:14 +0000

Well, the summer movie season is officially over, and while box office earnings are way up, it seems like the quality of the films have actually gone way down. But for every few badly-written movies (like X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Transformers 2, and G.I. Joe–though some will say it’s not that bad), there was a diamond in the rough like District 9. So why were so many movies so bad in the summer of ‘09, even if they did make a lot of money? Hint: The Writers Strike!

Before the summer began, I wrote an article about how the 2007 Writers Strike might affect the summer 2009 movies. I speculated that back in 2007, studios were nervous about how long the writers strike could last, leaving them with a possible lack of films for the fall/winter 2008 and all-important summer 2009 season (early May to late August 2009). To make sure they had big films lined up for Summer ‘09, the studios pushed to have their big-budget scripts quick-finished before the Writers Guild of America’s (WGA) contracts were up in November 2007 and the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) in summer of 2008.

So what happened? Movies like Wolverine, Transformers 2, GI Joe, Angels and Demons, Terminator Salvation, and others got thrashed by critics (and our own, brave reviewers here at Screen Rant), for their lackluster scripts that showed every sign of being half-cooked. Now, some of you might thing bad scripts and summer blockbusters go hand-in-hand – but let’s be honest, when was the last time there were so many stinkers that came out in one summer? Sure, many of these films made a lot of money, but how much of that profit hinges on moviegoers looking for affordable entertainment and “stay-cations” in this bad economy?

It’s very well known that most of the summer ‘09 films were rushed into production. Angels and Demons was delayed a year due to the Strike, but that didn’t seem to help make the final product that much better; Michael Bay has said in interviews that he worked out the overall story of Transformers 2, all the way down to the action AND comedic bits. However, when the WGA strike ended, writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman were joined by fellow writer Ehren Krueger to try and get the script for TF2 hammered out in a matter of three or four months to meet the production start deadline. At that rushed pace, the script was bound to suffer.

Several Big-budget franchise installments failed to live up to the hype.

Here’s a quick recap of some of the more disappointing movies this summer:

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Terminator: Salvation
Angels and Demons
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Year One
Public Enemies (this one is open to debate–it seems kind of split on how people and critics liked it–Vic liked it)

(Continue to pg. 2 to see which movies of Summer ‘09 were actually good!)

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2009 Scream Award Nominations

Ross Miller — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 17:37:08 +0000

The nominees have been announced for the fourth annual Scream Awards, held every year by Spike TV. The decisively more “fan-friendly” award ceremony (compared to the Oscars) honors films from the sci-fi, fantasy, horror and comic-book genres of movies, TV shows and comic books. The awards are described as, “the first and only global event of its kind,” to honor those genres.

The Scream 2009 nominees were chosen by the Advisory Board of Hollywood and Genre Leaders, a list which this year includes the likes of Wes Craven, Roland Emmerich, Neil Gaiman, Frank Miller, Eli Roth and Zack Snyder, plus many more. The event will be taped on Saturday, October 17th this year at The Greek Theater in Los Angeles, and will air on Spike TV ten days later on Tuesday, October 27th (check for local times).

Along with the awards, the show will also be airing some exclusive, world premiere of footage of some of the most anticipated movies of 2010! Presenters and musicians for the event are to be announced shortly.

Below is the list of a selection of the 32 categories from this year’s Scream nominations. For those of you (all of you?) who want to have YOUR say on which film should win, you’re in luck! Public voting for the awards has opened already and will run right up to October 17th. But before you head off to vote, here are some of the nominees:

BEST FANTASY MOVIE

“Coraline”

“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”

“Twilight”

“Up”

“Watchmen”

“X-Men Origins: Wolverine”

BEST HORROR MOVIE

“Dead Snow”

“Drag Me to Hell”

“Friday the 13th”

“Let the Right One In”

“My Bloody Valentine 3D”

“Splinter”

BEST COMIC BOOK MOVIE

“Dragonball Evolution”

“Punisher: War Zone”

“The Spirit”

“Watchmen”

“X-Men Origins: Wolverine”

BEST VILLAIN

Eric Bana as Nero; “Star Trek”

Cam Gigandet as James; “Twilight”

Lorna Raver as Mrs. Ganush; rag Me to Hell”

Liev Schrieber as Victor Creed/Sabretooth; “X-Men”

Alexander Skarsgård as Eric Northman; “True Blood”

BEST DIRECTOR

J.J. Abrams; “Star Trek”

Tomas Alfredson; “Let the Right One In”

Michael Bay; “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”

Pete Doctor & Bob Peterson; “Up”

Duncan Jones; “Moon”

Sam Raimi; “Drag Me to Hell”

BEST TV SHOW

Battlestar Galactica

Dexter

Fringe

Lost

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

True Blood

BEST ACTOR IN A FANTASY MOVIE OR TV SHOW

Ed Asner, “Up”

Hugh Jackman, “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”

Robert Pattinson, “Twilight”

Brad Pitt, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”

Daniel Radcliffe, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”

Michael Sheen, “Underworld: Rise of the Lycans”

BEST ACTRESS IN A FANTASY MOVIE OR TV SHOW

Scarlett Johansson, “The Spirit”

Jamie King, “The Spirit”

Rhona Mitra, “Underworld: Rise of the Lycans”

Kristen Stewart, “Twilight”

Emma Watson, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”

For the rest of the nominees you can head over to Spike.com, where you can also cast your votes.

Although some of the awards are truly suspect (how the hell The Spirit got nominated for ANYTHING is beyond me), I still like the overall celebration of the type of sci-fi, fantasy, comic book and horror films we here at Screen Rant revel in Although I won’t go into a specific rundown of who I think should win, I’d like to throw my opinion in the ring for a few of them:

Lost should win Best TV Show (I love Dexter, but it’s no Lost); Best Horror Movie should go to Let The Right One In (I would say Drag Me To Hell, but since that’s a comedy too, Let The Right One takes it for me); Best Actor in a Fantasy Movie Or TV Show should go to Brad Pitt for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; and Best Comic Book Movie should (EASILY) go to Watchmen.

But enough from me, what and who will YOU vote for? As stated, you can cast your votes over at Spike.com, and you can see if the winners match your picks when the Scream Awards 2009 air on October 27th this year on Spike TV.

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The Future of Sabretooth in the X-Men Films

Rob Keyes — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 00:53:58 +0000

In our last discussion of the story and characters of Wolverine 2, we talked a little about Liev Schreiber and what his thoughts were on the sequel.

At the time, he seemed not too interested in putting his body through all the physical work again, now that he’s over 40, but he did say that he’s very interested in seeing how the character of Victor Creed goes from how he portrayed him, to what we saw of the animalistic Sabretooth from Bryan Singer’s first X-Men movie.

Now, it seems that he’s changed his mindset and is in fact interested in returning to the role.

Schreiber, although a strange casting decision initially, was arguably the best part of the highly disappointing Wolverine origins adaptation. In a movie full of weak plot points, bad characterization and a terrible waste of great source material, Liev’s take on Victor Creed was one of the most enjoyable parts of the film.

Unfortunately, the story didn’t make much sense for him in the end and X-Men Origins: Wolverine concluded with Hugh Jackman’s character losing his memory and Sabretooth completely fine, running off after their team-up. From what was shown, Sabretooth has no idea that his brother doesn’t know who he is anymore. Knowing Victor’s nature and his relationship with his brother, more specifically his desire to compete with and be better than Wolverine, he wouldn’t just disappear – we know at some point, Victor would seek out his brother.

So, what happens to him between the end of that movie and where we see him in X-Men? For the most part, all of the films so far and the ones in planning are all sharing the same continuity which means this needs to be explained.

With the sequel following our favorite clawed mutant on his adventures in Japan, the story doesn’t really allow for Sabretooth to partake. However, Schreiber seems interested again and has an idea of what we could see.

“There’s been some smatterings of conversation about it, but nothing concrete yet… I had a ball doing it, so I’d do it again.”

Click to Continue Reading about ‘The Future of Sabretooth in the X-Men Films’ for much more!

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Potential Villains of Wolverine 2

Rob Keyes — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 14:31:33 +0000

The folks at Cinema Blend spoke with Liev Schreiber the other day during a press junket for his upcoming film, Taking Woodstock, and touched base with him on what his future may be in the X-Men franchise.

Unfortunately for fans of Schreiber’s portrayal of Victor Creed, the talented actor didn’t sound too enthused about the idea of returning to the role of Wolverine’s brother and arch nemesis. Join us as we discuss what the storyline of Wolverine 2 may entail in terms of characters and what other stories and villains could be introduced.

We’ll be touching on Silver Samurai, Team X, Omega Red and more!

In speaking with Cinema Blend, Schreiber pointed out that he may not be ready to play the part again.

“I’m over 40 now, and do I really want to go through the physical stuff that it took to pull that off again? I’m not so sure.”

Bah! If Hugh Jackman can do it, you can too, Liev.

I do understand what he’s saying though: by the time Wolverine 2 starts shooting, he’ll be in his forties. At the same time, if the filmmakers want Schreiber back, this is probably their last chance.

Storywise, I don’t know how they’d turn Wolverine and Creed against one other again, what with Wolvy’s memory loss at the end of the Origins film – especially since we already know the two characters don’t know each other in the first X-Men movie.

With Liev’s disinterest and the way the character has been treated in the series, I could see sadly writing Victor Creed and Sabertooth off as separate characters.

Cinema Blend’s Katey Rich made a good point on this, saying that Schreiber may not have much of a choice, assuming he’s signed to a multi-picture contract (which is pretty standard for these genre movies at Fox Studios).

That being said, if he doesn’t want to come back, his friend Hugh Jackman definitely wouldn’t force his return as a contractual obligation.

Continuing his thoughts on the Wolverine sequel, Schreiber continued,

“As an audience member, I’d be really interested to see how you’d go from the Liev Schreiber Victor Creed to the Tyler Mane Victor Creed [from X-Men]. So I’d like to see that.”

I think we’d all like to see that. It’d be a big let down (we’ve had far too many already) if the filmmakers just ended up leaving Victor Creed and never addressing how he goes from this:

The talkative and egotistical Victor Creed (with normal eyes)

…To this:

The dumb, slow and quiet animal, Sabretooth (with abnormal eyes)

Click to continue reading ‘Potential Villains of Wolverine 2′

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Look Out Japan: Here Comes Wolverine!

Paul Young — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 23:26:52 +0000

Like it, love it or leak it, there is no denying that the summer of 2009 started off with a bang when X-Men Origins: Wolverine slashed and hacked its way into theaters and into the top 10 grossing movies of the summer. Box Office Mojo currently has it listed at number 8 domestically with $179 million. Combine that with the additional $170 million for foreign sales and is it really any surprise that we are hearing Hugh Jackman talking about a sequel?

During the Teen Choice Awards (which took place this weekend but airs tonight on Fox), Wolverine actually won the action/adventure category but there is a better-than-slim chance tweens across the continent tried to write in Twilight instead. While accepting his surfboard award (whatever happened to trophies?), Hugh “6 Blades” Jackman threw out this quip:

“Who knows, maybe Wolverine will use one of these when he heads to Japan.”

During a backstage video interview, which you can watch here from MTV, Jackman added:

“The ‘going to Japan’ was pretty serious, the ‘using the surfboard’ was not. Not a lot of surfing in Japan. Japan is where we’re heading, [and] we’re starting to work on it now. We’re in the … first steps of developing that story.”

In one of the after-credits segments (there were multiple secret endings) of Wolverine, audiences were treated to a scene of Logan drinking in a Japanese bar, which sort of verified what most of us were hoping – Wolverine 2 would follow the Frank Miller and Chris Claremont storyline which is still wildly popular in the comic world. In their sprawling saga, Wolverine learns to have more control over his rage, to focus it with meditation and use it to his advantage. He has always been a brawler but during this saga he learns to become a skilled fighter using more than just the blades in his arms to fight.

Jackman has never kept it to himself on how important it is to bring that story to life and how much he thinks fans want to see it told as well.

“I think the fans love that saga. 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.”

I had my issues with the origin story like a lot of people did, but I can’t help but think the second installment will be much better than the first. Here’s why; they were just making stuff up to fit a story that would eventually get Wolverine to Japan, that’s why the first movie was so convoluted and didn’t make any sense to fans of the Wolverine character. Now that they are in a setting were a very popular story has already been told, they have something to go off of and have no need to shoot from the hip. Also, Hugh Jackman is quickly making Wolverine his legacy. Assuming Wolverine 2 aims for a 2012 release, he will have been in five films in twelve years as the mutant superhero.

Do you like where the Wolverine franchise is heading with the Japanese saga or do you think it’ll disappoint?

Wolverine 2 has no officially scheduled release date.

Source: MTV

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Marvel Anime: Iron Man & Wolverine Teaser Trailers

Kofi Outlaw — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 15:19:56 +0000

About a year ago we told you that Marvel was extending its brand name to the Far East, partnering with Japanimation studio Madhouse to produce four anime films to be released in 2010. At the time there was no official word on which Marvel characters would be getting the ‘animakeover,’ though Iron Man, Spider-Man and The Hulk were early guesstimates.

Well, flash-forward a year later and we finally have a first look at two out of the four Marvel/Madhouse films on the way. The first characters to receive their animakeover? (Surprise, surprise) It’s Wolverine and Iron Man. Check out the teaser trailers:

Anime is an art form that has a tendency to split people right down the middle: you either love it or hate it. Personally, I used to be an anime fanatic back in high school (over a decade ago, yikes!) but have found it increasingly difficult to appreciate the genre in my older years. Too much ’style over substance’ too often for my liking.

However, I find myself facing a split decision in regards to these trailers: I like the Iron Man one but don’t like the Wolverine one. At least the Iron Man movie still retains the feel of the Iron Man we know and love (if not slightly altered) – that Wolverine flick is something I would never recognize if I didn’t already know what it was.

But then, Marvel International President Simon Phillips stated last year that these new anime films would “create a parallel universe for Marvel.” That anime Wolverine definitley looks like he’s from another universe.

The four Marvel/Madhouse anime films will each be written by Warren Ellis, writer of renowned comic book series Transmetropolitan and The Authority.

Both the Iron Man and Wolverine animes are due out in 2010. We’ll have a look at the final two Marvel anime films whenever the trailers drop.

What do you think: Is anime a good look for the Marvel Universe?

Source: You Tube via Slash Film

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Ryan Reynolds Discussion: Deadpool, Green Lantern & More!

Rob Keyes — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 05:43:24 +0000

It’s a big time for comic fans who want to see their favorite characters grace the silver screen. With plenty of major comic book films debuting to widespread success in recent years, it’s no surprise that there are dozens more of these genre films in production or development as we speak.

Some major ones have made big strides in recent weeks, confirming dates and announcing casting decisions, and we expect some more of that soon with San Diego Comic-Con around the corner.

Join me as I try to make sense of a large mess of comic book movie news involving my one of my favorites, Ryan Reynolds (Plus: 2 pieces of awesome fan art!).

Several films that I’ve been following closely and expecting to make casting decisions this month and last are Thor and Green Lantern – both of which are planned for releases in the early part of summer 2011.

Luckily for us fans, I was right and we’ve seen several of the key characters for Marvel Studios’ Thor movie been cast and following in suit, DC’s counterpart movie which has been moving along the same trend in development and casting timing, Green Lantern, finally made its lead star casting decision last week.

The man who will play Hal Jordan in the upcoming Warner Brothers DC Comics film is Ryan Reynolds.

That’s not all though. Screen Rant has also been closely following other Marvel film franchises that have their licenses owned by other studios, such as Fox’s X-Men movies and there’s been some major developments there as well… also involving Ryan Reynolds.

As we all know, Reynolds played a part in X-Men Origins: Wolverine which opened in May to financially successful results. Critics everywhere and a large portion of the fans did not share in that success however.

As I’ve been reporting on all along, leading up to the film, we all thought Reynolds was a perfect selection to play the role of Wade Wilson/Deadpool in that movie and we hoped, as Reynolds did, that the character would get his own spinoff.

Unfortunately, the makers behind the Wolverine Origins film messed up the character and his storyline but on the positive side, in the few minutes we saw Reynolds playing Wade Wilson on screen, he was spectacular and easily one of the best parts of the film.

As a result, a Deadpool Solo spinoff movie was given the greenlight and Reynolds now has the opportunity to deliver what he wants from the character and what the fans want. From what Reynolds has been saying all along, they seem to match up very well.

In interviews everywhere for X-Men Origins: Wolverine prior to its release, and then after with the announcement of the go-ahead with Deadpool during interviews for his recent and successful romantic comedy, The Proposal (with Sandra Bullock), he’s been making confirmations about the movie for the fans left right and center.

He’s already said the film will closely follow the comics, that he’s been given a lot of control over the movie with Fox studios apparently also wanting to respect the source material closely with this one.

He’s also confirmed that the movie will feature Deadpool in his trademark red and black duds and that the character will be breaking the fourth wall in the movie like he does in the comics, interacting with the audience directly, knowing full well that he is in fact in a film.

Continue Reading ‘Ryan Reynolds Discussion: Deadpool, Green Lantern & More!’

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Roger Friedman Sues News Corp, Blames Them For Wolverine Leak

Bruce Simmons — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 11:13:30 +0000

Do you remember that rant I went on back in April about the Wolverine online movie leak and later in a subsequent article, when I wrote about Roger Friedman, who worked for a subsidiary of News Corp called Fox 411 for over 10 years, who had reviewed the online work copy of Wolverine and bragged about the ease of how he could abscond with the illegal print. In fact, he bragged about how he could get a copy of any of the present box-office top-10 films from the Internet.

He was subsequently fired for his part in the process of seemingly supporting this act of copyright infringement.

Me personally, I’m not sure I’d brag about snagging something my own bosses created, but that’s old-school me. Now, Friedman is now firing back with a $5 million lawsuit.

He claims his contract was violated when he was let go after his April 2nd review of the bootleg movie.

He claims he was told that after his review was pulled, that he didn’t need to worry about his $250k a year job. Alas, that was not to be.

Friedman was let go, and News Corp stated that it had “zero tolerance for any action that encourages and promotes piracy.”

Friedman is saying that News Corp boss Rupert Murdoch invalidated their zero tolerance policy by allowing the inadvertent online release of the film.

According to Friedman’s lawyer, Martin Garbus, Murdoch had asked the studio to make him a copy of the unfinished movie and it seemed that during that process, someone made another copy for themselves.

So things aren’t as clear cut as they may seem and I am a wee bit surprised that Murdoch may actually have been part of the process that caused this whole shindig. If that’s accurate.

I guess as time moves on, we’ll discover all the nitty gritty of this situation. Wouldn’t that be a hoot if Murdoch really was part of this mess?

Sources: Variety, Deadline Hollywood Daily

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Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool Will Smash The Fourth Wall

Rob Keyes — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 00:04:48 +0000

The folks over at Empire caught up with Canadian star Ryan Reynolds at the London press event for his recent comedy The Proposal where he stars alongside Sandra Bullock and got a little update on his Deadpool project.

Deadpool, the quickly greenlit spinoff to this summer’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine is Ryan Reynolds’ dream project where he can finally make what he wished for leading up to his on-screen debut in character as Wade Wilson.

Unfortunately, the character he finally got to play was completely misused by the filmmakers to the dismay of comic fans everywhere but Reynolds was incredible in the few scenes he had as Wade Wilson (the man who later becomes Deadpool).

As you no doubt already know, Reynolds was happy at the opportunity to play the character even though he and the fans knew he wasn’t being utilized well in the movie – this was evident in his many interviews leading up to the film’s release. The good news though is that it led to him getting his own spinoff where he could finally bring to the screen what he and Deadpool fans love about the comics.

He’s already stated that we’ll be seeing the true and complete Deadpool costume from the comics and that the movie will be heavily based on how the character is portrayed in the books. Today, we can report that he’s gone another step forward and confirmed that he will in fact be breaking the fourth wall in the movie.

“Break the fourth wall? Oh yeah, he’s got to. I want to see him break the Great Wall.”

In the books, the mostly-insane Deadpool knows full well that he is a character in the comic book and he communicates directly to them throughout the stories in his infamous yellow dialogue boxes. The “fourth wall” terminology originates from old stage shows where it refers to the imaginary wall facing the audience.

Now we know for sure that in the movie, Reynolds will be talking to us who are watching in our theater seats.

Good! I love the guy and I want him to talk to me. Many others seemingly do as well since Deadpool was voted as the most wanted spinoff/sequel to the Wolverine origins film in a recent poll by MTV. Continue to Page 2 for the second half of this article…

Continue reading ‘Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool Will Smash The Fourth Wall’

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What Do X-Men Fans Want Most: Deadpool, Wolverine 2 or First Class?

Rob Keyes — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 01:30:03 +0000

In the wake of the financial success of the recent X-Men spinoff film featuring everyone’s favorite nice-guy Hugh Jackman as the overly nice Wolverine, there’s been plenty of talk, speculation and excitement over what the future holds for X-Men film franchise.

That being said, some don’t want that future at all. Not with Fox Studios anyways…

Shortly after the huge box office opening of X-Men Origins: Wolverine film, it was announced that Ryan Reynolds would be getting his own spinoff film for Deadpool – a character that wasn’t utilized right in the movie at all, to the point where they literally ruined him (the character and his life in the movie) to the dismay of many comics fans.

The bright side to that was the fact the Reynolds’ portrayal of Wade Wilson in his few scenes early in the film were spot on and in my mind, were the best part of the movie. Most agree that he was cast perfectly into the role before the movie even debuted and he sure proved them right. It’s unfortunate what they ended up doing with the character on screen out of his control.

What made the idea of Reynolds playing Deadpool even better was the fact that the Canadian actor loved the character and the books and he knew he (Wade Wilson/Deadpool) wasn’t being treated right in the movie. He said multiple times before the film came out that he’d love to make a proper Deadpool film based on the comics and he looked at the situation as an exciting opportunity to 1) play the ‘Merc with a Mouth’ and 2) to get the character introduced on screen in hopes of getting the chance to play him again under better circumstances.

Well, he was right and his movie was greenlit first out of the many X-projects in development over at Fox.

In addition to that, the folks over at MTV Splashpage held a little poll the other week to see what the fans wanted to see most of the potential sequel/spinoffs to X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

The votes pushed Deadpool into the winning spot but only by a bit. It had 32% of the votes with a Wolverine sequel at a close second with 28%. Who knows how many voters there actually were but its interesting nevertheless and it matches my tastes too. The other options were X-Men Origins: Magneto and X-Men: First Class.

For the Marvel Studios-based movies, I’ve made it well known in my writing that I’m most excited for Kenneth Branagh’s Thor film and for Fox’s ill-treated X-franchise, I’m most excited for the Deadpool spinoff.

Continue Reading ‘What Do X-Men Fans Want Most: Deadpool, Wolverine 2 or First Class?’

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