‘The Wolverine’ Starts Production!
The Wolverine has had its share of set backs, which delayed the film’s release by two years — Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan) leaving the director’s chair, tsunamis in Asia throwing off production — but today 20th Century Fox, Hugh Jackman and the cast can finally say, “We’ve entered production!”
Filming is currently taking place for The Wolverine in Kurnell, Australia. No, it’s not Japan, but the beach has been made to look like a Japanese prisoner of war camp. Australia’s 7News has the latest from the set down under:
Go On-Set for ‘The Wolverine’
The clip doesn’t feature a lot of footage, but it does raise several questions: What are the men running towards? Have they just broken out of the prison? Also, as we all know, the X-men films weave together history and storyline flawlessly — it’s been a strong suit of the heroes since Jack Kirby and Stan Lee introduced the first set of characters in 1963. When it comes to the X-men, history tie-in is expected.
X-men fans are keeping their fingers crossed for a much better sequel to a mediocre X-men Origins: Wolverine. Personally, I like to think the film never existed. It doesn’t fit with the rest of the films’ timelines and muddies several characters’ existence/ages (e.g. Emma Frost, Cyclops, Charles Xavier). We all want Wolverine in Japan; the storyline is one of the strongest and more interesting plots in the character’s comic book history; the story’s full of new characters, a new location, and includes lots of hand-to-hand combat and sword fighting. Here’s what Jackman tweeted at the start of production:
Why Did Jessica Biel Depart?
So what really happened to Jessica Biel’s involvement with the film? According to a recent interview with Crave Online she had to depart from The Wolverine due to scheduling conflicts. Her next project, The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, is in pre-production, and is due to hit theaters 2013. It could be that the schedules for the two films were butting heads. Here’s what Biel had to say:
“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.”
She was set to play a Marvel villianess known as Viper. In the comics she blackmails Wolverine into taking her hand in marrige to secure her criminal empire. The character’s involvement isn’t solely tied down to the X-men universe as she’s a member of Hydra, the organization tied to Captain America: The First Avenger. Here’s what Biel had to say about the character:
“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.”
Directed by James Mangold, The Wolverine slams into theaters July 26th, 2013.
