The Wolverine has had its share of production woes – most notably when Darren Aronofsky dropped out as director, delaying the film’s release by two years – but that’s all a thing of the past now that production’s in full-swing.
Last week, production photos from the set of The Wolverine hit the internet (before they were taken down) featuring what looked like a World War II prison camp. Today, there’s a set video – courtesy of Autralia’s 7News – featruing the very same thing.
There’s very little footage of the set itself, but near the end of the above clip, you can vaguely make out a bunch of shirtless soldiers running as fast as they can – possibly as part of a prison break?
To mark the start of production, producer and star Hugh Jackman tweeted:
“we’re on day 1 of shooting…..wolverine is back… feel so pumped about this one… never felt so ready!!!! will keep y’all posted!!!”
It’s somewhat reassuring that Jackman sounds so jazzed about the film. Hopefully, that excitement will translate into a stellar product – or at least a product that’s deemed more stellar than its widely panned predecessor, X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
Meanwhile, Total Recall remake star Jessica Biel talked to Crave Online about the rumors of her being up for a role in Wolverine, only to bow out of the running due to scheduling issues. She said:
“Yeah, I was talking to them about it, hearing what it was about and everything. Yeah. It was not completely out of the realm of possibilities. We just couldn’t make it work.”
On the character she would’ve played in The Wolverine:
“That particular character was really cool. She was this vivacious woman who is thrilled about her own immortality, and it was interesting, that kind of persona, I thought, for a quote-unquote ‘villain’ character. And I was really interested in the director, so it was worth the conversation. [James Mangold] is great. He’s talented.”
The character she’s referring to is Viper, a villain(ess) who, at one point in the comics, blackmailed Wolverine into marrying her to shore up her criminal empire. She was also a member of Hydra, the evil organization that was used in Captain America: The First Avenger as a swastika-less stand-in for the Nazis. Which begs the question – if Viper first appeared in a Captain America comic and is not strictly a Wolverine character, how does Fox have the rights to use her in a Wolverine film?
The Wolverine - directed by James Mangold (Knight and Day) - hits theaters July 26th, 2013.
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Follow me on Twitter @benandrewmoore.
Sources: Australia’s 7News [via Superhero Hype] & Crave Online
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maybe a this means wolverine makes his way into Avengers 2?
Not aimed at you in particular, but I’m surprised that there are still Marvel movie fans that don’t get why X-Men characters, Spiderman, and the Avengers won’t show up in a movie together unless something drastically changes.
Because separate companies own the rights to these characters, Wolverine pretty much won’t be showing up in Avengers 2.
This is purely wishfull thinking, but after knowing how much the Avengers made in theaters, you would think that FOX and Sony would join up with Marvel and Disney instead of fighting them about it.
I would think they would, but IDK, I can still hope, right?
People keep saying that Avengers made a lot of money as if that should explain why Fox and Sony should get in the action for Avengers 2. How much money does Sony of Fox deserve for letting their properties appear in another studio’s film? And sure, Avengers made a lot of money. For Disney. Why should Disney want to share? Is anyone going to skip seeing Avengers 2 or 3 because it doesn’t have Spider-Man or Wolverine?
Lets say Fox says you can borrow Wolverine for $20 million, just to throw a number out (and this is probably a low number). Then you have to pay Hugh Jackman $14 million (did a cursory search for how much Hugh makes per film, this number may be inaccurate). Is an Avengers sequel going to make an extra $35 million just because you get Wolverine in there?
The dollar amounts don’t even matter, the question really is: With an already successful property, how much money does Disney expect to make (and therefore spend) just by adding a character?
To me, when an actor says, “We just couldn’t make it work,” it always sounds like, “They wouldn’t pay me what I wanted.” That said, I think there are better characters for Biel to play and am hoping she has upped her game with Total Recall.
As for Jackman, I’ve yet to see him in a role I didn’t enjoy.
I’m glad Biel passed on this, kind of getting sick of seeing her show up in everything.
I’m glad Biel passed on this, kind of getting sick of seeing her show up in everything.
Still have high hopes for this flick. It sounds like it can be really good.
Im hoping this one looks great.
Which begs the question – if Viper first appeared in a Captain America comic and is not strictly a Wolverine character, how does Fox have the rights to use her in a Wolverine film?
Because they can bring in any character (that is not a major character) that has had any connection to X-Men in this case Wolverine and has not been in a film by another studio yet. I’m telling you if fox wanted to derail some of the long term plans of Marvel by bringing in some characters they could and Marvel would not be left with many options in stopping them.
When I first heard who she was playing, I was wondering the same thing…
“Which begs the question – if Viper first appeared in a Captain America comic and is not strictly a Wolverine character, how does Fox have the rights to use her in a Wolverine film?”
The easiest answers is No one knows what deals are made with what characters.
Until I see said contracts the various companies have with Marvel we will never know the specifics.
It could be as straight forward as no characters that start with the letter W or as convoluted as no characters that are alive that had their first appearance on a Friday that was in the summer months that have hair and are not alien but are not of earth but have human parents….. etc and so forth.
Oh and where was it specific that the character was/is Viper?
I don’t think it’s been officially stated, but various sources have indicated that it’s Viper.
yeah a lot of people are saying Viper but IMDB (reliable source?) still list it as rumor.
Could be a Viper like character with a different name. No biggie if it is or not was just curious on an official word.
Still would love to see contracts with Marvel and the various studios..
Oh and Svetlana Khodchenkova replaced her…. I believe.
biel is damn sexy and the only roles she gets is always the beautiful and tough sidekick in action movies,but i found she´s so georgeous she can be in every movie,even if she´s not an actress like hathaway or portman.
Would really like to see Mojo sometime… And Apocalypse….
One time, I just wanna hear an actor/actress say, “The script sucked and the pay was low. So I declined.”
Agreed. Or, “I’ve done better films than this one.”
I hope this will finally show us the Wolverine we all want to see. I’ll be waiting to see what the first teaser trailer will show, though a trailer won’t be anytime soon but hopefully when it does it won’t disappoint.
I don’t remember Viper being immortal in the comics
Biel was in Blade3…..she has no right lol jk
She is a decent actress but I have heard rumors she is getting a ego that is not worth its weight. As I said very much rumors, like all celebrities at some point.
It will be PG 13 so there is literally NO CHANCE of a bonafide take on Wolverine in the movies. I am personally looking forward to the Wolverine : MAX series starting in October!! It’s gonna be brutal and more inline with how the character should be potrayed.
From what my friend tells me (and he has quite a few contacts in the comics industry, including at Marvel), the way the film rights for most of the non-Marvel owned properties are written, the “lesser characters” meaning ones not specifically named are allowed to be in any movie that they have a reasonable connection to in the comics. This means that certain characters can actually appear in both company’s properties. It’s unlikely to happen. But for instance, Quicksilver can appear in both X-Men franchises (as he already did (sort of) in Wolverine) and in the Avengers franchise (since he’s also been an Avenger). Doubtful they’d do it, but it’d be interesting to see happen.
Also, there were talks between Sony and Disney to some sort of cross promotional tie in between Avengers and Amazing Spiderman. There was actually a scene they were thinking of including in Avengers where you would see Oscorp as it appears in Spiderman. I heard the only reason it didn’t happen was the talks didn’t happen in time and there wasn’t time to get the scene in the theatrical release. But it was going to happen. Just some interesting tidbits.
Biel dropped out cuz she has too much class to play in this movie. Just an opinion.
You seem to have some hatred for this series, Biel is not an oscar worthy actress and is a supporting B-list actress at best, clearly you are having some mental issues with Hugh Jackman and the entire Wolverine series to hate on it so much. Must be a fat ass who sits around wishing you were Jackman, 44 and dropping panties like its a disease. Scrub.