Comic book fans had been looking so carefully at the alleged troubles of The Punisher and The Watchmen that we took our eyes off Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine*. I call it Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine because he is the star, and because it looks like it may not be director Gavin Hood’s Wolverine.
It may in fact be Fox Co-Chairman and CEO Tom Rothman’s Wolverine!
The studio chief is apparently worried that the film will be too dark and he’s overriding the decisions of the films director in order to give it a lighter tone.
Worried?
Maybe you should be.
*technically the film is called X-Men Origins: Wolverine - but I don’t really like that title.
|
|
According to Hollywood Elsewhere there has been a bit of friction between Hood and Rothman on the set recently. When I say a bit, what I really mean is “a hell of a lot.” Hood is supposed to have asked for a “huge” set to be painted so that it would appear “dark, dinghy and somber side”, however when the director returned to the set a few days later it had been repainted a brighter color at the behest of Rothman.
Not a big deal, I hear some of you saying. Well, directors are supposed to have a vision - that is why they are usually hired–but it looks like Rothman’s vision is all that matters here. In fact, some might say that he’s robbing Hood of his duties, but I wouldn’t be so crass as to make such a bad pun. Whoops, just did.
Rothman wants a mega grossing summer movie for summer ‘09 - which is something that the studio lacked this year (X-Files anyone) and it looks like he’ll stop at nothing to achieve that no matter how much the quality suffers. It’s not like a dark, grim and violent comic book movie could make $500 million in the US alone. Oh, wait - The Dark Knight already did that!
For X-Men fans, or film followers in general, this will leave some of you with flashbacks to how Fox treated X-Men: The Last Stand. It’s no secret that Fox has constantly displayed a lack of respect for The X-Men as a property. From rushing the films into production, to giving them a relatively low budget, Fox has treated the franchise like an unwanted obligation, which is odd considering the amount of money X-men has made.
While this painting and decorating issue could be a one time event, there are rumblings that there have been other problems on the set. With a bit of luck it could be that everyone has so much passion for the project that they want it to succeed - because if it’s successful it would launch a huge (Jackman?) franchise.
Fingers crossed folks. When there’s more news you’ll get it here!
X-Men Origins: Wolverine opens on May 1, 2009
Source: Hollywood Elsewhere
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed or if you want more frequent updates follow us on Twitter. Thanks for visiting!
Loading ...
28 Comments
Rob and the rest of you guys, I totally agree with you. I cant’t wait to see the movie, I hope it will be better than all X-Men films, judging from the trailer it seems dark and moody and badass, exactly as everyone wishes for a Wolverine film. Reading words like ‘lighter colours’, ‘rated PG-13′ and all that stuff makes me feel so sad and dissapointed… Damn FOX will ruin the movie and neither Wolverine nor his fans deserve that. Please Fox, let Hood do his job right!!! The man knows what he does!!! F***K you and your money!!! Don’t you see you’ll make more with a somber, dark movie???!!! My hopes now rest on Hugh Jackman. I too want to see what HIS opinion is. I admire him a lot, he’s my favourite actor and I hope he won’t let me down… Hope that stupid Rothman will read these posts. OK, I know he won’t, but he should, really…
He, Jackman is listed as one of the producers for the film. Maybe somebody will ask him soon..
More on the Fox Studios nonsense, this time with Bablyon A.D., absolutely screwing the director over.
Fox Studios is at it again! Why are the executives at that company so out of touch with the industry and consumer-base.
http://chud.com/articles/articles/16113/1/NOT-EVEN-THE-DIRECTOR-OF-BABYLON-AD-LIKES-IT/Page1.html
that article talks about how the director of Babylon A.D. doesn’t like his own film and that Fox screwed him. Here we go again, its happening to Wolverine as we speak, and it happened to Joss Whedon’s Firefly
WOW I though fox read the comic books before they made a movie, boy are they dumbass. I don’t ever remeber there being a non Darkside to Wolverine, Hell isn’t Wolverine just has Dark Has the Punisher Witch was Rated R. Isn’t wolverine that dark and Badass, and Cussing and pissed off. how can you make a kids movie with a guy who just wants to cut some’s open? FOX couldn’t make a desent movie if it bit them in the ASS.
FOX SUCKS.
rothman needs to take a look at the batman flick which just came out. the reason why that movie is ranked number 2 as the biggest grossing movie on the planet is because they made that flick into a darker tone–more serious–leave the kids at home–type flick.
all directors need to take a look at the bat flick and study it, in order to come to the conclusion that just because the story is about a comic book superhero that doesn’t mean that they have to make it for 10 year old kids.
The Fantastic 4 films were all classic examples as to what happens when you make these types of movies appealing for children–they bomb. About the batman flick, one critic was telling the parents that they should leave their kids at home. fact of the matter is this, it is not toddlers or even teenagers that generate money into marvel and DC, but fans that have been around for decades. when will these filmmakers and studio heads realize this?
Honestly, i think the guys that made all 3 x-movies, superman returns, both ff movies, and other comic book flicks that didn’t even come near the box office take that bat’s took, are all scratching their heads wondering just how did this batman movie become number 2 on the planet.
there is nothing light about wolverine. the character can become a raging animal when he wants to, and if he has to. even when he is in a good mood, wolvie is still rough.
Honestly after X-Men Last Stand and its horrible storyline especially regarding Jean/Phoenix, I haven’t been looking forward to Wolverine. I’ve never been a fan of Hugh Jackman as wolverine, I think they could’ve found a better person to play him. I am looking forward t magneto’s movie.
What's your opinion? Leave a Reply!
Go to Gravatar.com and upload your own (we'll wait)!