Hugh Jackman plans Japanese set WOLVERINE sequel & wants CAROUSEL remake with Anne Hathaway!

$87 million ($158 million worldwide) opening weekend for Hugh Jackman and Wolverine. Just goes to show how little movie piracy really effects movies in 2009 (I wouldn't have expected this movie to make $100 million plus regardless) and we maybe all exaggerated over the workprint leak last month. Still, it did cost Marvel millions of dollars, so it was still significant, just not quite as significant as we thought it could have been. Jackman still has awesome star power in this role (but for none others it seems) and there's still lots of money to be made from this X-Men series. Variety say Jackman is wanting to quickly get back aboard the Wolverine saddle. The 40 year old Aussie actor has been talking to 20th Century Fox about getting back into the Wolverine game quickly and of course the next journey in the character's saga is to take him to Japan, where comic legend has it he was trained as a Samurai. Apparentaly this was teased at the end of X-Men Orgins: Wolverine but who the hell stayed till the end of the credits of that movie anyways? I was barely able to stay till the end of the movie, let alone the million people who should be ashamed for working on that picture. Jackman already talked about the idea to MTV News recently...

"I'm a big fan of the Japanese saga in the comic book ... I love the idea of this anarchic character €” the outsider €” being in this world. I can see it aesthetically, too, full of honor and tradition and customs, and someone who's really anti all of that, trying to negotiate his way."

Fox are now on the hunt for a writer but Slumdog Millionaire scribe Simon Beaufoy recently announced he had secured the job. I like the idea of taking Wolverine to Japan but I don't want to see it becoming a character journey film where he is almost playing a video game character who moves from location to location, fighting a progressively harder bad guy each time. And is it just me, or without the presence of Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart, without the rest of the core X-Men characters, this Universe is pretty damn boring. Also on Jackman's potential slate of upcoming movies according to the trade are; Personal Security - Jackman would play a tough Gotham police detective forced into bodyguard duty for a spoiled teen heiress who is receiving kidnapping threats. That one is setup again at Fox from one of the writers on Dr. Dolittle: Tail to the Chief. Oooooh kay. Drive - A Steve McQueen esque movie which has taken the fancy of Jackman recently. He would play a solitary man who drives race cars by day and getaway cars by night. We spoke about the project, which was then setup for director Neil Marshall (Dog Soldiers, The Descent) last March and would likely be shot quickly, on a small budget. Carousel - Fox 2000's remake of the 1956 musical of the same name from Rodgers and Hammerstein. Jackman has become obsessed since his fun dancing performance at the Oscars to re-team with Anne Hathaway (though talks have not yet begun) for a glitzy show and he wants this to be the project they star in together. Jackman will play Billy Bigelow. David Magee (Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day, Finding Neverland) has turned in a screenplay. Houdini - Of course, in 2010, Hugh Jackman will return to Broadway to play his life long idol Harry Houdini in what should be one of the most popular shows in recent memory. Hairspray'sJack O'Brien is directing the production with Danny Elfman writing the music, and David Yazbek (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) writing lyrics. Of course a big screen adaptation is inevitable and welcomed and could be another defining performance for Jackman. And not mentioned in the trade but announced yesterday is Hugh Jackman's role in Ghostpolois, a Men in Black meets Ghostbusters mainstream action comedy from the creator of Earthworm Jim.