At this point, there's probably nobody outside of Fox that wants to see The Wolverine get moving more than Hugh Jackman. Anticipation has been running high for the superhero sequel, even though the first film wasn't exactly highly regarded. Most of that sprung from Christopher McQuarrie's well-received script, which would take the Canadian X-man to Japan in a story based on the classic Chris Claremont/Frank Miller series. The hype was also due to the involvement of Darren Aronofsky(Black Swan
), and the potential for him to work the same magic he brought to The Wrestler
and Black Swan. But when Aronofsky dropped out, and Japan was hit by a horrific tsunami, all seemed lost, or at least hopelessly delayed. That was until James Mangold(3:10 to Yuma
) took over a couple of weeks ago, but the expectation was that we wouldn't see The Wolverine until around 2013.Hugh Jackman himself says otherwise, though. While discussing the film on a Toronto radio station, he revealed that production could begin sooner than expected. Like in three months...
Jackman: "We shoot in October, so it will probably come out a year after that. That’s usually around the timeline.”
That's pretty quick, but it's probably better to just get the ball rolling now rather than wait another year. Then again, after X-men: First Class
's middling box office haul, maybe the franchise could use a breather. Jackman's plan would have the movie out in 2012. This also means his plan to star in Les Miserables, from The King's Speech
director Tom Hooper, may get pushed back.
