Oh my, how we have fallen. Remember just a bit ago when Darren Aronofsky was going to direct a Christopher McQuarrie script of his vicious take on X-Men‘s Wolverine? The Black Swan director departed to take on Noah and the serviceable, but disappointing replacement of James Mangold occurred. Now, Variety reports another downgrade.
The guy behind Live Free or Die Hard and Unstoppable, screenwriter Mark Bomback, has been hired to rewrite the original script my McQuarrie. While I don’t hate his work, it seems like 20th Century Fox is getting further and further away from the raw take Aronofsky talked about and more studio-friendly fare. Bomback’s work will next be seen/heard in Len Wiseman‘s Total Recall and Bryan Singer’s Jack the Giant Killer next summer.
Hugh Jackman is back in the role after briefly appearing in X-Men: First Class this summer (sorry, spoiler window over), and will find him in Japan, “suffering from amnesia and searching for answers about his past.” Variety also reports that the “entire cast will be comprised of Japanese and Japanese-American actors except for a newly-expanded character named Viper, who’s the Caucasian secretary for Japan’s Minister of Justice.”
Production on the film was recently delayed due to weather in Japan, which means Jackman will jump right to Tom Hooper‘s The King’s Speech follow-up Les Miserables, then follow-up with Wolverine in the spring. I’d wager a summer 2013 for the blockbuster pic.
What do you think about Bomback taking on Wolverine?