David Benioff on the Wolverine Spin-Off
Source: Daniel Robert Epstein
December 28, 2004
In a new interview with "Troy" screenwriter David Benioff, he talks about writing the Wolverine spin-off. While Benioff couldn't reveal many details, here's an interesting bit:
I'm not allowed to talk about it. Fox is pretty careful about that. It's not even totally finalized what story we are doing. What I can say is that in the X-Men movies we've seen a lot of the sweet Wolverine so I think it's time to mess him up a little bit because all the fans know that he's the best there is at what he does but what he does isn't very nice. Also getting to write "Snikt" in a comic book is the coolest thing.
Read this highlight from the interview, it doesn't actually sound that bad.
BENIOFF: Well with Wolverine it was easier because Troy was already being done. For Troy it was a leap of faith because I had only done a $12 million Spike Lee movie. With Wolverine the story is already there so the people at Fox and Marvel know everything about Wolverine. That meeting was just showing them how passionate I was about this character. I’ve been reading Wolverine comics for 23 years.
DRE: What was the first Wolverine comic you ever read?
BENIOFF: I think it was the issue of X-Men that a friend lent to me when I was 12. I believe it was a really early issue of X-Men that Chris Claremont wrote.
Here is another highlight, and possible indications on the story for the new film.
BENIOFF: Well with Wolverine it was easier because Troy was already being done. For Troy it was a leap of faith because I had only done a $12 million Spike Lee movie. With Wolverine the story is already there so the people at Fox and Marvel know everything about Wolverine. That meeting was just showing them how passionate I was about this character. I’ve been reading Wolverine comics for 23 years.
DRE: What was the first Wolverine comic you ever read?
BENIOFF: I think it was the issue of X-Men that a friend lent to me when I was 12. I believe it was a really early issue of X-Men that Chris Claremont wrote.
HERE is the link if you want to check it out yourselves.
Hugh Jackman to Produce X3 & Wolverine
Source: Variety
January, 2005
In a Variety article talking about how "X-Men" series star Hugh Jackman is developing three new musical features at Disney (more here), it also states that he'll be producing X-Men 3 and Wolverine:
Jackman has formed a company with new partner John Palermo...whom he met when the latter was Bryan Singer's assistant on "X-Men."
Jackman would seem a good candidate to broaden the audience appeal of tuners. He is most readily identifiable to moviegoers for the "X-Men" character Wolverine and the vampire hunter Van Helsing.
He'll continue on the action track: Jackman and Palermo will cut their teeth as producers by getting involved in the third installment of "X-Men," as well as a "Wolverine" spinoff feature "Troy" scribe David Benioff is penning at Fox.
He is expected to return as Logan/Wolverine in both films as well, of course.
David Benioff Talks About Wolverine!
Source: Newsarama
April 15, 2005
Newsarama has transcribed part of a new interview with Wolverine screenwriter David Benioff in which he reveals a few details about the X-Men spinoff movie:
Newsarama’s friends at Comics Buyer’s Guide scores an exclusive interview with Wolverine screenwriter David Benioff in their latest issue (#1605, June 2005). The Troy scribe cops to a life-long obsession with the character, citing 1982’s Chris Claremont/Frank Miller limited series as his favorite Wolverine storyline and the moment Logan’s adamantium skeleton gets sheared of all flesh by a Sentinel blast in “Days of Future Past (Uncanny X-Men #141-142) as a traumatic moment for his as a kid.
While understandably tight-lipped on details regarding this screenplay (an assignment he calls “living a childhood dream” and aggressively pursued going back as far as 3 years ago), Benioff did tell CBG he’s writing Wolverine with Hugh Jackman very much in mind.
“Other than the height, I think Jackman was inspired casting,” he tells CBG. “Though, when he was first picked for the role, I thought, “Huh?’ at the time, probably along with most Wolverine fans. Now I can’t really imagine Wolverine being played by anyone else: Jackman’s performance obviates consideration of anyone else for the part.”
That said, Benioff did say he wants to “rough” Wolverine/Jackman up a bit, giving him an opportunity to show sides the first two movies didn’t afford the character aside from the Mansion invasion scene in X2. Promising his story will be a “bit darker and a bit more brutal”, Benioff says he’s writing an ‘R’ script and that Marvel Studios and director will have to decide where to go from there.
Finally, Benioff tells CBG that his script and vision stays away from the more “fantastical” elements associated with the X-Men franchise.
“I’m going to stay away from the ‘Four Riders’ kind of stories and the science fiction stories where he was battling aliens or demons”, says the writer. “I’m sticking with something more realistic. Of course it is kind of hard to talk realism when you’re speaking about a guy who has adamantium claws popping out of this hands. But my concept of him for this movie is the one I grew up with: He’s a gritty character, a tough, working-class Canadian guy who was born with certain special powers and granted more through a series of brutal experiments – for more that’s my Wolverine reality. I’m not going too far from that.”
The full 3-page interview which details Benioff’s thoughts on the character in much greater detail can be read in its entirety in the new issue of CBG, on sale now at comic book shops and newsstands and arriving in subscriber’s mailboxes right now.
Yes its true, hopefully the studio won't reduce it to a PG-13 flick though.
That said, Benioff did say he wants to “rough” Wolverine/Jackman up a bit, giving him an opportunity to show sides the first two movies didn’t afford the character aside from the Mansion invasion scene in X2. Promising his story will be a “bit darker and a bit more brutal”, Benioff says he’s writing an ‘R’ script and that Marvel Studios and director will have to decide where to go from there.
Wolverine with a girlfriend is bad for him, because he wouldn't be able to anything he ordinarily does, like staying in both the New Avengers and the X-men, go aroung the world just to kick some asses, drink every night, go chase some chicks, etc. Wolverine's a nomad, and nomads are not the best partners you can have.