ROTTEN TOMATOES: Wolverine Gets Official Title, Release Date

Wolverine Gets Official Title, Release Date

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by Jeff Giles | October 18, 2007

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Cue the chorus of claw jokes, everyone: Variety reports that 20th Century Fox has settled on May 1, 2009 for the release of X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

The much-anticipated X-Men prequel, which finds Gavin Hood directing Hugh Jackman in his return to the role of the cigar-chomping costumed superhero, will give fans a peek at Wolverine's backstory. From the article:

There's been much speculation about the spinoff, which gained speed when the studio finalized deals with Jackman (who reprises the role he played in the three "X-Men" pics), Hood and scribe David Benioff, who penned the script.

Pic explores the claw-wielding character Wolverine's violent and romantic past, and his complex relationship with Victor Creed and the ominous Weapon X program, as well as his encounters with other mutants.

Hood will start shooting in Australia before moving to New Zealand and, later, to New Orleans. Latter location is a clue that the storyline might include New Orleans-based character Gambit, who is able to make objects explode and was a professional thief before joining the X-Men.

One character seemingly certain to make an appearance is William Stryker, the Army colonel with a vendetta against the X-Men. According to Variety's report, Liev Schreiber is "reportedly in final talks" to play Stryker.

As the article points out, Wolverine's 5/1/09 debut adds to an already-busy summer for 20th Century Fox -- the studio will go on to release James Cameron's Avatar on May 22, followed by Ice Age 3 on July 1.

Source: Variety

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(1-20 of 68 posts) | Reply

JpPrewitt789 writes:
on Oct 18 2007 05:26 AM

This will be more interesting than Magneto.

(Reply to this)

Elixor writes:
on Oct 18 2007 05:30 AM

I don't see any room for robot villians, and considering this is frick'in Wolverine, this movie should be rated R, as there's no reason he shouldn't be tearing his enemies apart. But of course we'll get the TMNT treatment where he'll use his claws like prop swords and we'll get nothing more than the illusions of stabbings. If they want to make PG-13 spin-offs, then don't make a Wolverine movie!

(Reply to this)

phoenixp3k writes:
on Oct 18 2007 05:57 AM

Having Gambit and other characters would be nice. I don't know how a movie with JUST Wolverine would be great... He was a central character in all X-Men films until now.

I guess we can also expect X-Men Origins: Magneto
This sounds like titles for DVD extra features!

(Reply to this)

Gimy writes:
on Oct 18 2007 06:05 AM

ooomph, ROMANTIC past??? lets hope he doesn't prematurely use his claws when he's going down on her...phew, that could get messy.

Elixor, the R rating has been talked about before. GET OVER IT. makes no logical sense to anybody but comic nerds to REDUCE the audience size just to get more blood. invent your own comic book character and make your own d3mn movie. besides, pg-13 can vary from film to film...they can get away with alot. again, its not YOUR character...thank god.

and Jackman was the best actor in these flicks anyway, so this has a way better chance of being successful than the Magneto spinoff.

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arpeggio191 writes:
on Oct 18 2007 06:10 AM

this is a terrible title.

Gambit rules. He should have been in the xmen movies.

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xenogears writes:
on Oct 18 2007 06:17 AM

Elixor is right. This needs to be a rated R pic. The whole point of unbreakable, never-dull blades is to tear things (and by 'things' I mean people) apart and perform home amputations. Gotta have blood, some guts and gore would be nice. but, and feel free to correct me if i'm wrong, wasn't it Lady DeathStrike's (who he killed in the second movie like she was just some random chick) dad that gave him the claws and didn't wolverine love her? kinda throws continuity off.

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crystalwhiteeyes writes:
on Oct 18 2007 06:24 AM

Where the hell is Gambit!!??

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TombstoneLawDog writes:
on Oct 18 2007 06:25 AM

They should be more honest and simply change the title to

"Merchandised product: this year's offering"

Seriously; I had some modicam of faith that this could be cool until I heard that title. It's basically "You're all too retarded to remember that this character is from the X-men and we don't have the balls not to remind you like the retards we think you are."

I personally like my suggestion: "X-Men Salvation: Wicked Prayer About a Crystal Skull When the Future Begins so Fight it" otherwise known as: 'XMSWPACSWFBF' to the cool kids in your neighborhood.

3 Schrutebucks if you know all the movies I pillaged for that.

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dahluzz writes:
on Oct 18 2007 06:29 AM

see, you can't have the best of both worlds. everyone wants realistic-looking special effects and action set pieces, but the studio won't pony up the that kind of dough for an R-rated comic book movie. it WILL be PG-13 (this is FOX) because the studio's had three hits with x-men movies under that rating. they have no reason to change things now, espeically in going out on a limb with a solo story.

(Reply to this)

crystalwhiteeyes writes:
on Oct 18 2007 06:34 AM

What I mean is....where has Gambit been this whole time? He's like my favorite character of the comics. Hopefully someone reasonable will be casted for the part. I don't know who though.

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TombstoneLawDog writes:
on Oct 18 2007 06:38 AM

And the word is 'modicum'

..I hate typos.

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frogleg writes:
on Oct 18 2007 06:42 AM

There's not good reason to make this R. It doesn't make good business sense and it doesn't even make that much artistic sense. Yes, some of the Wolverine comics were fairly graphic, but not all of them; not by a long shot.
I'm pretty interested in this. I like everything I'm hearing so far. Don't get so hung up on continuity. There's waaaaay too much history and backstory here to even think a series of movies can fill everything in the way the books were written. As long as Gambit's there and the Weapon X program is fleshed out more, I don't need it to be just like it was in the books. I just want it to be good.

(Reply to this)

deneco4 writes:
on Oct 18 2007 06:50 AM

bold title. I love it. Its a great name for this movie, not something lame like most prequel movie titles are.

Cant wait to see this movie!

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cmonsteve writes:
on Oct 18 2007 06:51 AM

it would be nice to see a "grown up" wolverine movie considering the character is over 20 years old that puts half of the fan base in their 30s.

that being said i thought singer did a great job with the mansion fight scene in X2, very primal and raw, just without the kill bill jet streams of blood.

it could be done well, i just don't hold out much hope these days.

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Baccus83 writes:
on Oct 18 2007 07:19 AM

Let's stop complaining about studios making PG-13 movies, okay? It's a tired argument. No studio in their right mind would make Wolverine an R film, no matter how much "better" it would be. This is first and foremost a tentpole movie, and they're sinking a LOT of money into it, so it needs to perform, ESPECIALLY with the young male demographic. It's also a franchise character, so they need to guarantee the largest audience for not only this installment, but for future installments. Lastly, it's just easier to market a PG-13 superhero movie.

Say what you will about the un-zestyness of the PG-13 rating, but it's still the only business move that makes sense. It might be nice indeed to see a "grown-up" Wolverine movie, but major studios don't care about grown-ups, at least when it comes to action tentpoles. They care about who has the most disposable income, which is teenagers.

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blank blank writes:
on Oct 18 2007 07:20 AM

gimy,

imagine if tarantino had to made a pg-13 movie out of pulp ficiton or resevoir dogs. some things are just meant to have an R rating. wolverine is one of them.

as for the title, i agree that it insults our intelligence and gives fox the path to create crappy mutant movies like "Xmen Origins: Jubilee" in the future. Whats wrong with plain old "Wolverine"?

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arendr writes:
on Oct 18 2007 07:35 AM

Why don't they just drop the X-Men origins part?

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Shatter24 writes:
on Oct 18 2007 07:52 AM

I think the title is fine, compared to some other sequel titles I've heard. Also, I'm sure they'll be an unrated DVD w/ all the extra blood and gore we all crave. In theatres, the studio wants some kids to see it, after all it is a comic book character.

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laika86 writes:
on Oct 18 2007 08:13 AM

Why does everyone want to see gore so much? Blood doesn't make a movie more mature. If anything it makes most movies these days less mature.

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opTIMus Nerd writes:
on Oct 18 2007 08:26 AM

OMG!?!? They are releasing Ice Age 3!??!?!?!?

(Reply to this)