Wolverine 2 “Will Stay Very Close To The Source Material”
(Image edited from cover of Wolverine: The Anniversary #1)
Fox Studios held a presentation yesterday in LA to show-off the upcoming release of
X-Men Origins: Wolverine on Blu-ray and DVD. Producer Lauren Schuler Donner and director Gavin Hood were in attendance to answer some questions about the franchise, adapting the source material and the sequel to Wolverine’s first solo adventure.
The Blu-ray edition for
X-Men Origins: Wolverine is set to be something special with the plethora of bonus features it includes. There’s even a live feature that allows viewers the option to see information on the actors on screen while they watch through IMDB. It essentially will let you look at previous & upcoming projects for all of your favorite stars.
You can head over to
Latino Review who were in attendance for more information on this and some of the deleted scenes they got to see. We’re instead going to focus on what was said in the Q&A session about
X-Men Origins: Wolverine and its sequel,
Wolverine 2.
Currently, Oscar-winning writer
Christopher McQuarrie is working on a script to adapt the popular ‘80s Chris Claremont/Frank Miller Wolverine series set in Japan. This of course, is where we’ll see Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine go to for his next adventure, as hinted at in one of the bonus ending scenes in
X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
In the Q & A session of the Fox event, producer Lauren Schuler Donner and director Gavin Hood were asked about how the financial success (not critical success) of the first movie give them liberty to drift away from the source material more or make them follow the source material more closely.
Lauren Schuler Donner:
I think it’s our responsibility to remain true to the source material. There are other influences and other factors that make us deviate from it, the first of which being transcribing it to the screen. We certainly are fully aware of the fan base and try in every way possible to stay close to the source material. I think in ‘Wolverine’ it was a little bit different because there was a lot of different source material, a lot of different legends in Victor Creed’s relationship to Logan and Logan’s background. There were some choices we had to make. Certainly in ‘Wolverine 2,’ in the Japanese saga, we will stay very close to the source material. I think it’s just best that way.
Gavin Hood:
The truth is, what freaked me out a little when I was doing my research was that I was looking for the definitive origin story of Wolverine. And, of course, any of you who know the comics know that doesn’t entirely exist because this guy’s been written about for 40 years by many different writers, different illustrators. Wolverine’s been drawn wearing a yellow spandex suit and he’s been drawn about wearing jeans and a jacket. The truth is, all of these versions are from source material. The origin story of him as a kid and the bone claws happening and the hint that Victor Creed may be his half brother. In the original draft, when we looked at it without him being a half brother, there wasn’t as much emotional connection between the hero and the villain. So we had to make the choices that were right for this movie. That doesn’t mean there aren’t other options that other writers have written. I just prefer to do a movie with him in jeans and a leather jacket rather than yellow spandex. (Laughs)
Next question: there’s so much material to choose from to make 2-hour feature films from, do they look at the modern Wolverine comics for story ideas?
Lauren Schuler Donner:
There are 40 years of material. Chris Claremont, they’re still writing. Chris is writing an amazing series right now where Wolverine’s killed, Storm is the villain. Sure, one day I’d love to do that.
Gavin Hood:
I think that’s the joy of this character. He isn’t just one thing. He’s this great icon that can be played by different people and different people get different [things] out of him in different ways. Everybody has their own interpretation.
Hood’s point raises an interesting idea. Because of Wolverine’s ability to live so long, and because there are so many stories that can be told in the form of movies for the characters, could we see something similar to the James Bond franchise based on the Wolverine character?
Lauren Schuler Donner:
Yes, that would be wonderful. There’s enough comic book material to support it. If we were to make up our own story, which we’ve never talked about, personally I would do it with Chris Claremont. I would stick with the creator.
This is actually an interesting point, because unlike Bond, Wolverine can actually live that long to have that many films made about him. As the years go by, they’d have to find different actors to play him similar to the Bond franchise.
Gavin Hood:
I just think that the Japanese story is so iconic and beautiful and could be so visual. That’s the one and I’m reluctant to talk about others because I know Len [Wein]’s writing others now. And honestly, here’s the truth: if the Japanese story works, there might be another sequel. And if it doesn’t, there won’t be. You can get ahead of yourselves by sort of stirring up rumors of what might be. I’m not going to even go there.
I don’t even know if I would be involved. Right now I’m not attached. Nobody’s attached. They’re developing a script and we’ll see where everybody is. I’m hoping to be shooting something next year and I don’t think that ‘Wolverine’ will be ready for next year. I haven’t been approached one way or another. The studio is obviously very cautious. They want to see how Wolverine does on DVD. Let them develop the script, let’s see what the script looks like, let’s see how the studio feels about the script, how Hugh feels about it and then we’ll take it from there.
Hood’s last response above mentions that there are other stories being written by Len Wein - he wrote the Watchmen video game and has written a bunch of TV stuff, including a few episodes of the X-Men animated series of the nineties.
For the full question and responses, head over to
Latino Review.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine is available on DVD and Blu-ray with 4 different editions on September 15th.
Source:
Screenrant
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