About three weeks ago a shortlist of names was announced that were vying for The Wolverine director’s chair, which was previously vacated by Darren Aronofsky. The names included Jose Padilha, Doug Liman, Antoine Fuqua, Mark Romanek, Justin Lin, Gavin O’Connor, James Mangold and Gary Shore. I asked readers to vote for which they would prefer and while Romanek was voted at number one, it turns out the number two choice by readers is the one that got the job.
Deadline reports James Mangold, who recently directed Knight and Day and before that Walk the Line for Fox, is preparing to enter negotiations for the job on the sequel to X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which brought in $373 million worldwide in 2009. Filming is now expected to get underway this fall from a script by Christopher McQuarrie.
As for that script, Romanek confirmed commented on the script while also saying he passed on the job saying, “That script was a terrific version of that kind of thing, but not something I felt really passionate about.” I’m not sure how to interpret that exactly, but I’ll allow you to make of it what you will.
The story, from what has been previously reported, will take its cue from the early 1980s Chris Claremont/Frank Miller miniseries, which is set in Japan and features Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) dealing with ninjas as he struggles whether to follow his animal killer instincts or the life under a samurai’s code of honor and respect. The setting shouldn’t be much of a surprise to fans who caught one of the two alternate post-credit endings which featured Wolverine in Japan and speaking Japanese with his bartender who asks him if he’s drinking to forget. He replies in English that he’s, “Drinking to remember.”
The film will likely find its way to theaters in 2013.
