For a moment there, it looked like the highly anticipated “The Wolverine” was in a spot of trouble. The devastating earthquakes in Japan scratched plans for location shooting and then abrupt departure of Darren Aronofsky added further woes to the film that seemed to be moving full steam ahead with fan approved adaptation of Chris Claremont and Frank Miller‘s extremely dark, bloody and intense 1982 limited series with a screenplay written by Christopher McQuarrie. But earlier this month, new life was kicked back in. James Mangold (“3:10 To Yuma,” “Knight & Day“) stepped into the hot seat and it looks like the film will get rolling this fall.
Speaking yesterday to the hugely irritating Darren Osborne of the Toronto radio station CHFI about his upcoming stage show coming to the Canadian city, Jackson let loose about the plans for the comic movie. “We shoot in October, so it will probably come out a year after that. That’s usually around the timeline,” Jackman said.
That last bit is intriguing. Earlier this year there was speculation that the film might be bumped to 2013, but it’s hard to just replace a film like “The Wolverine” (and the money it generates) on a studio release calendar so we won’t be too surprised if Fox still wants this to arrive as soon as possible. But Jackman also sounds pretty uncertain as to the release date, so don’t hold fast to it.
But what this does mean is that Tom Hooper‘s “The King’s Speech” followup that has Jackman set to star, will have to wait until he retracts those adamantium claws. “I’m going to ‘Les Miserables,’ the movie version of it, next year,” Jackman told the radio station, so any plans Hooper had to return the Kodak Theater have been pushed back a bit longer.
Jackman will next be seen in a brief cameo in “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan” and has “Real Steel” lined up to hit theaters on October 7th.