Well it would seem that someone at Fox Studios is aching to take advantage of the head of steam the Wolverine franchise is building. Is it any wonder that Fox is fast-tracking Wolverine 2 at a frantic pace? X-Men Origins: Wolverine has brought in over $350 million worldwide and that number is sure to go up when the DVD sales start up.

Screen Rant reported on Hugh Jackman at the Teen Choice Awards, verifying that Wolverine 2 was indeed being made. Next, Screen Rant writer Rob Keyes wrote a piece talking about possible villains for Wolverine 2.

Now, less than a week later after Jackman spilled the news, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed that Oscar-winning script writer Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects) has been hired to write Wolverine 2’s script. Indeed, the storyline will follow the Frank Miller and Chris Claremont Japan saga from the 80’s, which just confirms one of the multiple endings for Wolverine and what Jackman hinted at this past weekend.

That is great news for fans who are already excited to see this story told. Other good news: this won’t be McQuarrie’s first time playing in the Marvel universe. He helped pen the first X-Men script but removed his name when the draft that made it to the screen more closely resembeled what David Hayter (Watchmen) had written.

Back in June, Screen Rant reported that Bryan Singer had expressed interest in returning to the X-Men universe in one form or another. Could he return to helm Wolverine 2? No one knows yet at this early stage, but the way information is being released, we could easily hear something sooner rather than later. McQuarrie has already worked with Singer on The Usual Suspects and X-Men and I personally wouldn’t mind seeing one more pairing between the two. Hugh Jackman is set to produce Wolverine 2 along with Lauren Schuler Donner, who also produced X-Men, giving us yet another connection to Singer.

I think we can all agree that having Christopher McQuarrie onboard for the Wolverine sequel is a good thing -but do you think we could see a possible return of Bryan Singer to the director’s chair for the film? And does this news give you hope that the next Wolverine installment will be better than the first?

Wolverine 2 has no scheduled release date.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

• Will Bryan Singer Direct X-Men 4?
• Gavin Hood Talks Wolverine 2 & District 9
• Hugh Jackman’s Next Projects (Including Wolverine 2)
• Hugh Jackman Talks Wolverine 2 & Sequels
• Wolverine 2 “Will Stay Very Close To The Source Material”
• X-Men 4 & New Mutants Movies On The Way?

In the Wrap Up this Week:

The box office is UP; Robert Downey Jr might still saddle up for Cowboys and Aliens; Lucy beats Nicole Kidman to the Punch; Natalie Portman, Danny McBride and James Franco salute Your Highness; Seann William Scott and Adam Brody are A Couple of Dicks and Chevy Chase dips his toes in the Hot Tub Time Machine and he may return as Fletch.

BOX OFFICE:
The summer season is now well and truly here. Pixar’s Up shows that family films and the Pixar brand are hugely profitable. The animated film banked a huge $68 million over the weekend. For a film that sells most of it’s tickets in half price matinees that’s a lot of attendance.

Last week’s champion Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian had to settle for the runner up spot with a weekend take of $25 million. With a total now over $100 million it looks like we might be in for a third installment.

Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man stop-gap, Drag Me To Hell, opened to a disappointing $16 million. It probably cost about $20 million to produce, so it’ll be profitable, but I’m sure Raimi wanted more.

Speaking of more – will we ever get to see any more Terminator films? With a weekend take of just $16 million for Terminator Salvation it looks like McG might not get to finish his proposed trilogy. Maybe international grosses will help. It looks like the franchise needed Schwarzenegger’s charisma and not just a grumpy looking Christian Bale.

Star Trek flew past the $200 million mark with a weekend gross of $12 million. Angels & Demons has crossed the $100 million milestone, but will the film be profitable to warrant a sequel? Doubtful.

Dance Flick made another $4 million giving the spoof a total gross of almost $20 million. Who pays money to see that?

X-Men Origins: Wolverine made just under $4 million this weekend bringing the Hugh Jackman starrer’s total to $170.

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past hit $50 million and Beyonce Knowle’s Obsessed is closing in on $70 million.

MOVIE NEWS

1. Everyone wants Robert Downey Jr in their movie these days. It’s funny how times have changed. Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman have spoken about how they still hope to snag the Iron Man for their upcoming adaptation of Cowboys and Aliens.

Speaking to Sci-Fi Wire the duo said that they‘ve been speaking to Downey Jr about the film but that scheduling is the issue:

“We’ve been talking to him about that. He’s one of the busiest men on the face of the Earth. If the schedule can line up, we’d absolutely love it.”

The pair also said that they’re finishing up scripting duties on the film:

“We are just about to finish our draft of Cowboys and Aliens, which we are writing with Lost’s Damon Lindelof. For Cowboys and Aliens, we got an amazing first draft from Mark Fergus, who wrote Iron Man, and now we are continuing on with Damon. We are in the middle of the second draft.”

*Please note that Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman do speak separately.
They’re also incredibly in demand with Transformers 2 and Star Trek out this summer alone!

Source: Sci Fi Wire

2. Nicole Kidman has dropped out of Woody Allen’s forthcoming film. The Aussie star will be replaced by British actress Lucy Punch.

The plot and title for the film are unknown but sources believe:
“Punch will play a high-priced call girl similar to Ashley Dupre, who was at the center of the scandal that brought down New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer.”

The cast for the film is pretty darn good – even for a Woody Allen film. Josh Brolin, Anthony Hopkins, Antonio Banderas, Naomi Watts and Slumdog Millionaire’s Freida Pinto have roles in it.

Source: Variety

3. Natalie Portman will join Danny McBride and James Franco in Your Highness for Pineapple Express director David Gordon Green.

According to Variety:

“McBride, who wrote the script with Ben Best, plays an arrogant lazy prince who with his brother (Franco) must complete a quest to save the kingdom and his brother’s fiance. Portman will play a warrior princess that the lazy prince falls in love with.”

The Princess Bride with pot anyone?

Source: Variety

4. Seann William Scott and Adam Brody know A Couple of Dicks. The pair will join Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan in Kevin Smith’s forthcoming detective comedy.

“Scott plays a thief known as the Sh**t Bandit for the souvenirs he leaves at his robberies. Brody is an abrasive detective not happy to be working with Willis and Morgan.”

A Couple of Dicks starts shooting this Monday in New York.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

5. Chevy Chase seems to be on the comeback trail. Not only has the 80’s icon scored a role in John Cusack’s Hot Tub Time Machine but the Weinstein Company have apparently approached him with a script for a third Fletch movie.

With regards to Hot Tub Time Machine:

“Chase plays a mysterious repairman who dispenses pearls of wisdom and may or may not be behind the metaphysical road trip.”

Now, a Fletch film has been in the works for almost a decade. Kevin Smith originally wanted to make a Fletch film with Jason Lee, and then Scrub’s Zach Braff was attached to the project for a while, but nothing ever came of it. This new script is passing of the baton-type film where Chase’s Fletch advises his journalist nephew on his career.

With a bit of luck this will mean that we get to see more of the criminally underused Chase on the big screen.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

That’s it for now. See you at the movies.

• Favreau & Downey Jr vs. Cowboys & Aliens
• Movie News Wrap Up: May 25, 2009
• Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: March 8, 2009
• Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: September 20, 2009
• Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: July 12, 2009
• Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: May 17, 2009

This week:

Tom Hanks is the box office champion; Terry Gilliam kills Don Quixote…again; Spider-Man has a new Green Goblin (on stage); the Basterds are online; Toy Story 3 is moving Up; Ewan McGregor won’t be Trainspotting and who are the Six Suspects?

Box Office

Tom Hanks charged to the top of the box office with Angels and Demons. The sequel to The DaVinci Code grossed $48 million over the weekend, which is down from the $77 million opening for the first film. Having said that, reviews are better and the audience is more mature so it might have legs to make it profitable. Expect a third movie – but might they replace Hanks with someone younger and cheaper next time?

Star Trek showed great legs with a second weekend take of $42 million and a drop of less than 45% from its opening weekend. With a total gross of $147 million it looks like this installment of the long running science fiction franchise really does have phasers set for stun!

X-Men Origins: Wolverine clawed in another $15 million for a grand total of $151 million.

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past pulled in another $4 million for a total of $40 million. Expect it to hit the $50 million mark.

Obsessed has now banked $62 million so expect to see Beyonce Knowles in more romantic comedies. 17 Again is also teetering around the $60 million mark while Monster Vs Aliens is closing in on $200 million.

Movie News

1. It looks like Terry Gilliam’s The Man Who Killed Don Quixote is looking like it’s going to finally hit the big screen. Although having said that I wouldn’t get too excited until I’ve bought my ticket.

Gilliam and Tony Grisoni (a very nice man) have rewritten the script where a filmmaker ends up in Don Quixote’s world.

Gilliam said:

“I’m not so much a filmmaker as someone who gets possessed by an idea and it doesn’t leave me until I make the film. I commit myself to it so fully.”

Johnny Depp was set to star in the original incarnation of the film and Gilliam is in talks with the star to return to the project, but Depp’s a busy man these days and he might not be able to fit it into his schedule.

Time will tell.

Source: Variety

2. X-Men 2 star Allan Cumming is in negotiations to star in Julie Taymor’s $40 million Broadway musical production of Spider-Man.

Cumming would play the Green Goblin in the play which will have music by U2.

Anybody else think that this is a crazy idea?

Source: New York Post

3. The official website to Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds has been launched. Excited? Don’t be – there’s just a trailer there and some facebook and twitter links.

Expect more as we get closer to the August 21st release date.

Source: Inglourious Basterds

4. If you’ve been waiting 10 years for Toy Story 3 then wait no more. Well…you’ve got to wait a bit more. The trailer for the long awaited animated film will be attached to Pixar’s forthcoming UP.

Toy Story 3 will open on June 18th, 2010.

Source: Movieblog

5. With Slumdog Millionaire raking in Oscars and grossing millions it’s no surprise to learn that the author of the book on which the film was based – Vikas Swarup has become a hot commodity. The author’s next novel Six Suspects is being developed by BBC Films. The book which is billed as “Agatha Christie meets Elmore Leonard” is being adapted by John Hodge, who also wrote Slumdog director Danny Boyle’s Shallow Grave and Trainspotting.

The film is due to shoot in Delhi next year.

Source: Screen Daily

6. Speaking of Trainspotting – it looks like Ewan McGregor won’t be slipping back into Renton’s tight jeans in a Trainspotting sequel.

Speaking to Moviefone McGregor said:

“I don’t think I would, for several reasons. The first one is that I didn’t think the book was very good. The novel of ‘Trainspotting’ was quite fantastic, it was beautiful, quite moving and disturbing writing, and then I find that the sequel … the book that Irvine Welsh wrote was called ‘Porno,’ and … it didn’t move me as much … He’d written a good sequel to the film as opposed to a sequel to his book. It’s also a similar story, you know, the betrayal of trust … Renton walks away with all the money at the end again. And I thought I don’t want to make the same story again. And, also, I think just the idea of getting the cast together again 10 to 15 years later isn’t good enough, you need more than that.”

Fair point – I think the fact that Boyle and McGregor had a huge falling out over Leonardo DiCapario being cast in The Beach might have something to do with it.

You might be angry Ewan – but he did do you a favor on that one.

Source: Moviefone

That’s it for now. See you at the movies.

• Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: September 13, 2009
• Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: September 27, 2009
• New Inglourious Basterds International Trailer
• Badass New (Italian) Poster For Inglourious Basterds
• Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: May 31, 2009
• Eli Roth Is A Basterd In Tarantino’s ‘Masterpiece’

This is the weekly TV update coming at you yet again.  Today I chat about how Numbers has survived on Friday nights, I share my suspicions on what will happen with Chuck on NBC and I celebrate a bit about Fringe on Fox.

I’ll also touch on how the new Wolverine movie has already had its TV rights secured while I tell you about a couple of upcoming Sci-Fi Channel marathons, and then I’ll close with some depressing inclinations about Dollhouse and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.  At the very bottom, past my ratings chart, I actually make a suggestion about an episode of Criminal Minds that I suggest hunting down to watch.  (Yes, I make a recommendation.)

Let’s get on with it, shall we?

Numbers Survives On Fridays

Even though the viewing audience does not like programmable personalities, they sure do seem to like Numbers on CBS because it keeps trudging along despite airing on Fridays.

The show is about solving the crime of the week using mathematical calculations and you wouldn’t think a concept like that would jive with viewers who slurp up reality TV.  Heck, it’s a great surprise to me that Numbers has survived this long.

In reaching it’s 100th episode milestone, CBS is leaving the show in its present Friday night time-slot because it has a loyal following and they don’t want to upset the applecart.  FOX…  helloooooo?  Applecart?  Dollhouse?  Oh, Nevermind.

Source: Variety

Did I Hear Someone Asking About Chuck On NBC?

Chuck got 25% of the votes from an E Online survey about rescuing shows and there’s a lot going on right now to help Chuck survive.  But I have a bad feeling something is amiss.

Maybe it’s my natural distrust of the system but I think we’ve seen an interesting and probably honest mistake by the keepers of the web over on NBC. Check out the screen captures below of the Chuck website.

If you look real close that the middle of the right side, there’s the next on block…  here, let me zoom in for you:

Yes… it said at one point SERIES FINALE for Chuck.

The wording has since been changed but is this a taste of things to come?  Was NBC referring to the last episode of Chuck because that’s their intent and they’re just placating the fans by not making any decisions right away?  Or was that just an honest mistake?

The sharp guys over on TV by The Numbers thinks it was a screw up.  Color me suspicious, but I think the non-messages are adding up, hate it as I may to say that.

If Chuck does come back it will probably be on a different night because it looks like they will be pairing up Heroes with the new comedy, Parenthood.  Crickets…  What an odd combination of shows.  Which one are they trying to kill off?

Come on NBC, surprise me and renew Chuck!

Sources:  TV By The Numbers, THR Feed, EW

Fringe Gets Renewed

Didn’t I say last week that Fringe will probably be renewed? Fringe has been the number one performing (scripted) drama of the season for Fox and they’ve ordered a full 22 episodes for season 2.  After what Sci-Fi did to Battlestar Galactica, I’m always nervous to reference 22 episodes as a whole season.  Thanks Sci-Fi!  (No, I’m not bitter.)

Also – Keep your eyes out for Leonard Nimoy in the May 12th season finale of Fringe.

Side note:  Is that a Slusho in Walter’s hand?  Yes… and if you look carefully at any of J.J. Abrams other shows, you’ll see it pop up in the most surprising moments.  (I think I might do a report on that unnatural phenomenon.  What do you think?)

Source:  Sci Fi Wire

FX Network Is Getting Aggressive And Has Bucks To Spend

The TV guy gets to talk about movies for a change.  Cool!

Even though X-Men Origins: Wolverine has only been out for less than a week, FX smells a good thing when they see one and went on a spending spree.

The FX cable network has bought the network rights to broadcast Wolverine.  In fact, this isn’t the only movie they’ve snagged up.  In a massively expensive deal they’ve also acquired the network rights to Taken, Marley and Me, The Wrestler, the wonderfully stoic (read: boring) remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still, Bride Wars, 12 Rounds and Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li.

This is a big package deal and it can only be seen as an investment.

These latest acquisitions can be added to the network rights they’ve previously acquired for Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Baby Mama, Iron Man, Tropic Thunder, Hancock and DreamWorks Animation’s Kung Fu Panda.

DVR, meet FX.  FX, meet my DVR.

Source: Variety

Family Guy Spin-off, Cleveland:  Already Renewed! (Weird)

If you order a show and it does well enough in the ratings, you order a 2nd season.  Right?  Well, in my world that’s how it’s done but what do I know?  (You don’t have to answer that.)

Fox ordered this spinoff from Family Guy called Cleveland.  The folks at Fox have gotten so excited about the show that they’ve already ordered a 2nd season… and it has yet to even premiere.  Yep, you read that right.  It hasn’t even aired yet.

First it was a 13 episode order, then they ordered more, making it a 22 episode order.  Then they got even more excited and ordered more, making it a 35 episode order.

From the looks of things Fox is locking up it’s animated talent so they don’t drift off to other network.  Or, the guys at Fox just have  a ton of faith in Seth MacFarlane at this point.

Cleveland is the product of Seth MacFarlane, Rich Appel and Mike Henry with MacFarlane and Henry also doing some of the voice talent for the show.

Source:  The Hollywood Reporter

Sci-Fi Channel Marathons

Over on the Sci-Fi Channel, we have a couple of all-day marathons coming at us.

If you’ve gotten this far in the article, and you’re a Star Trek fan, the Sci-Fi Channel is having a Star Trek marathon on Friday, May 8th.  It’s Star Trek: Enterprise, but at the end of the day, Star Trek: First Contact will air.  I’m guessing they’re trying to capitalize on the opening day hype of J.J. Abrams Star Trek.

If there are any Eureka fans in the crowd here, there will be a Eureka marathon on May 10th.

Source:  The Sci Fi Channel

Dollhouse and Sarah Connor

Dollhouse may have a faithful following, but the ratings aren’t reflecting that there are enough of the faithful tuning in.  Last weeks episode drew it’s worse estimated overnight ratings to date, with a 1.9 / 3 share.  (Huh?  I like using millions because it’s much easier to digest without having to consult my higher reasoning.  A rating point represents approximately 1 million viewers.  The share # is the % of TV’s that were turned on and tuned into the program.  I know it’s not hard, but I like the big numbers.)

The Sarah Connor Chronicles has an even stronger following than Dollhouse and yet Fox is silent about their plans on the show.

Over on E Online they had a “save the show” kind of poll and after all was said and done, TSCC had 53% of the vote.  It sounds impressive but that only accounts for 150k+ potential viewers.  That’s not millions, so I’m guessing Fox or the advertisers probably don’t care.

Josh Friendman, the show runner, hasn’t even heard from Fox so he’s in the dark as much as we are.

Sources:  Airlock Alpha, E Online

TV Ratings from April 27th to May 3rd

The Ratings for the last week had it’s usual ups and downs while Fox held on to the top spots with American Idol.  I have to say, if Adam doesn’t win this season, the voting process needs to change big time.  He is a true talent in the scheme of things.

Of the top 5 shows, 2 were scripted dramas.  Go NCIS and The Mentalist!  The Mentalist gained ~ 5 million viewers from the week before and jumped into the 4th slot.

Though 24 is getting better with each week, it oddly slipped from 16th to 22nd but the number of viewers remained the same. 

Fringe dropped 11 spots (dOh!) to 29th while retaining the number of viewers.

NBC’s newest hot show Southland (so they say) dropped 14 spots to 48th while losing 2 million viewers.

The Unusuals continued its downward slide by 9 spots to be 63rd of 90 shows, losing an additional million viewers in the process.

Bruce’s Closing Thought

Did anyone catch the April 29th Criminal Minds episode titled “Big Wheel”, where Alex O’Loughlin guest starred?  I have never seen an actor transform so differently between television roles like Alex did for this one.  In fact I watched the episode and it wasn’t until the teaser opener was done that I recognized his eyes.  And if I didn’t know at some point he was guest starring, I’d never have caught it.  He changed his looks, his voice and mannerisms to the point of being this character.

Aside from O’Loughlin guest starring, for the first time in my life, I felt truly bad for the murderer.  O’Loughlin pulled this off in a way I never expected and if you are even a partial fan of either the franchise or the actor, TRACK IT DOWN. That’s my recommendation for the week.

After seeing that, I truly am looking forward to his new pilot on CBS, a medical drama called Three Rivers.

• Weekly TV Wrap Up – July 30th, 2009
• Weekly TV Wrap Up – April 30th, 2009
• Weekly TV Wrap Up – February 26th, 2009
• TV Renewal And Cancellation Notes To Date
• Weekly TV Wrap Up – May 21st, 2009
• Fox Announces Fall TV Lineup & Squirms On Sarah Connor

We all remember the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike that lasted 100 days (from late 2007 to early 2008) and cost Hollywood a couple of billion dollars in lost wages and revenue.  Sure, plenty of movies went into production anyway so there would be at least some new movies, but without writers to do onset re-writes has the quality suffered?

For example, the recent James Bond film Quantum of Solace; writer Paul Haggis turned in the script right before the WGA strike began in November 2007, and the film started shooting soon after.  Production was well underway by the time the strike ended, so it is possible they had some rewrites done, especially if there were any major reshoots.

The movie opened November 2008, and while our own Niall Browne gave it 4 out of 5 stars, Screen Rant’s  owner and Editor-in-Chief Vic Holtreman had this to say:

“Too much action at the expense of story/character development.  I thought they turned Bond into nothing but a revenge-crazed murderer.  He was closer to The Punisher than 007.”

Of course, Vic also felt the directing of the action sequences wasn’t good at all: too many close-ups, fast-cutting and jerky camera work, something that was big for a while in films including Batman Begins, the first Transformers, and the latter Jason Bourne films.  But the previous Bond film (Casino Royale) really blended great writing with terrific stunts and action set pieces.

Let’s move onto movies coming out this year.  Terminator Salvation went into production as the WGA strike was ending, but that didn’t give the crew much time to do any major work on the screenplay before cameras rolled. I’m guessing that onset rewrites happened.  We’ll see how the overall quality of the latest Terminator film is when it opens May 21, 2009.

And what about X-Men Origins: Wolverine?  It may have shredded the box office with an $87 million opening weekend and Vic gave it 3 out of 5 stars, but the critics have ravaged it and fan word-of-mouth isn’t doing so great.  I expect a major drop this coming weekend and that’s only partly because Star Trek is coming out.  Could the quality of Wolverine suffered because of the WGA strike?  I’d say yes, but we may never know because of the involvement of the studio, director, etc.  And there were some expensive rewrites and reshoots done earlier this year.

Speaking of Star Trek, I believe its release date was bumped from December 2008 to May 2009 partly of the WGA strike.  JJ Abrams and his writers couldn’t even touch the script when shooting began at the height of the strike, and I wonder if they delayed the film to do rewrites and reshoots?

Angels and Demons had to delay the start of production for months because the script just wasn’t up to par when the strike happened.  I also think Thor and Ant-Man were delayed a year or two because of the strike, though it looks like an Ant-Man movie may not happen until after The Avengers.

Michael Bay worked on his own ideas for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen while the WGA strike happened.  Most of it was probably visual effects set pieces, but once the strike ended, his three writers (Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, and Ehren Krueger) were holed up in a hotel to pound out the script in a short time to get the film ready for production.

We won’t know about the quality of some of these and other films until they open, but I do believe we’ll see some movies that went into production without the much-needed onset rewrites, or even a script that was ready to go before cameras.

What do you think?  Have movies that have opened, or are coming out, suffered because of the WGA strike?

Source: Screen Rant

• Summer 2009: The Season Of Bad Movies [Updated]
• Wolverine Shreds Box Office: $87 Million Opening Weekend
• Terminator Salvation Desperate To Fill Seats
• GROAN… Summer 2009 Sets Box Office Record
• Wolverine & Star Trek Outselling Iron Man In Ticket Sales
• Star Trek Rocks The Box Office

They call him Wolverine, and he’s the best at what he does, and what he does is shred the box office with berserker rage!  Okay, enough of the Wolverine analogies, but you can’t help but be impressed with the $87 million haul of X-Men Origins: Wolverine!

What a way to start off the summer–with the 2009 box office up over last year, people are still hungry for movies, even in this economy. Fox need not fret any more about the pirated version that leaked out, hurting the box office, because the Hugh Jackman-starrer proved that people love to see movies in the theaters.

But the one thing Wolverine’s healing factor and near-indestructible adamantium-laced skeleton can’t stop, and that’s the critical drubbing it’s receiving. It stands at an awful 37% rating over at RottenTomatoes.com, though Screen Rant’s owner and Editor-in-Chief Vic Holtreman gave it 3 out of 5 stars.  I’ve been reading online that it’s also getting fair-to-poor word-of-mouth ratings from viewers, and that has the potential to hurt the film in the coming weeks.

I’d say a Wolverine 2 is now extremely likely to get green lit (how about Bryan Singer directing?!), and other X-Men movies could see the green light, too, like X-men: First Class and X-Men Origins: Magneto and spinoffs for Deadpool and Gambit.

Add to that another May that’s over-stocked with movies, so something’s going to give and a movie will crash and burn.  Iron Man, which opened the same weekend last year, was able to stay invincible because it was a well-received film by fans and critics, while Speed Racer and The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian were both weak films that crashed and burned.

With Star Trek, Angels and Demons, Terminator Salvation, and Disney/Pixar’s Up all coming out in the coming weeks, can Wolverine stay the positive box office course?  We’ll have to keep our eyes on it.  For now, X-Men Origins: Wolverine has started the summer off with a rip-roaring howl!

• X-Men Origins: Magneto Could Start Next Year?
• Will Bryan Singer Direct X-Men 4?
• X-Men 4 & New Mutants Movies On The Way?
• X-Men Producer Talks Magneto & X-Men: First Class
• What Do X-Men Fans Want Most: Deadpool, Wolverine 2 or First Class?
• The Plan for X-Men: First Class [Updated]