Hugh Jackmanhas dropped 20th Century Fox's comedy
Avon Man that will still shoot in October and will probably tell director
Les Daniels he no longer wants to be considered for his civil rights drama
Selma (where he would need to gain 30 pounds then quickly drop it and without financing there's no guarantee's it would get made anyway) as the actor's usual 3-4 month intense physical preparation to reprise Wolverine is gearing up. Last we heard a January shooting date was in place but without a director assigned, perhaps, it might be pushed back a month or two into early Spring. Scripted by
Chris McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects, un-credited X-Men 1 & 2) -
Wolverine 2 will adapt the famous Claremont/Miller Japanese set storyline that features ninja's and an epic love story. Initially the idea was for
Bryan Singer to direct but as he is busy making
Jack The Giant Killer at WB, Fox have had to look elsewhere. Which,
last we heard was down to two;
Tony Scott (who has since
moved on to Nemesis) and
Matt Reeves (Cloverfield, Let Me In). Everyone pretty much expects by now that Reeves will be the man given the job but as it's not too late - I'm going to throw another name in the ring. As
George Miller/Bryan Singer/Matthew Vaughn are unavailable, my firm choice is
Robert Schwentke (Flightplan, Time Traveler's Wife, Red)...
From the two movies the German born filmmaker has seen released to date, Schwentke has a steady hand, a good eye for action/thriller situations, he knows how to compose a sequence (something
Gavin Hood lacked) and importantly have it make sense. He's just been unfortunate so far to work off weak screenplays. That's probably a testimony to any director that he is still able to impress despite the material he has been working with not being up to snuff. His next movie however, the hotly anticipated
Red, based on a Warren Ellis comic book has become the buzzed movie of the Q4 2010. Schwentke been
flirting with a couple of other comic book projects and is clearly a fan of the genre and has an open window. For me, out of those available, he is my first choice to direct Wolverine's next adventure. Or
Robert Rodriguez I guess if
Deadpool doesn't get made. Whomever is given the job, they can't possibly do a worse job than Gavin Hood.