Good guys, bad guy join 'Wolverine'
By Borys Kit
Feb 20, 2008
Danny Huston, Taylor Kitsch, will.i.am and Lynn Collins have joined the cast of "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," Fox's "X-Men" spinoff starring Hugh Jackman.
Ryan Reynolds is making a cameo in the tentpole film being directed by Gavin Hood.
"Wolverine," set 17 years before the "X-Men" movies, traces the origins of the popular mutant superhero.
Huston, who most recently appeared in "30 Days of Night," is playing Stryker, the military general who subjected Wolverine to the experiment that laced his bones with an unbreakable metal called adamantium. Brian Cox played the character in "X2: X-Men United."
Kitsch, one of the stars of NBC's "Friday Night Lights," is playing Gambit, a Cajun thief whose powers include the manipulation of kinetic energy, which allows him to use card-throwing to deadly effect.
Will.i.am, frontman of hip-hop group the Black Eyed Peas, will play Wraith, a mutant with the power to turn himself translucent.
Collins ("The Number 23") will play as Kayla Silverfox, Wolverine's lover and a member of Team X, a superpowered covert ops team.
Reynolds, onscreen in "Definitely, Maybe," will appear as Deadpool, a wisecracking mercenary.
Liev Schreiber already has been cast as Victor Creed, a mutant with bestial superpowers who also is known as Sabretooth.
Production began this month in New Zealand before moving to Australia. A New Orleans shoot also is on the docket. Fox is releasing the film everywhere May 1, 2009.
David Benioff wrote the screenplay. Lauren Shuler Donner and Ralph Winter are producing, along with Jackman and his Seed Prods. producing partner, John Palermo. Marvel Films' Kevin Feige is executive producing.
Huston is repped by ICM and Evolution Entertainment, Kitsch is repped by Endeavor and Untitled, and will.i.am is repped by Paradigm. Collins is repped by Endeavor and 3 Arts Entertainment, while Reynolds is repped UTA and attorney David Weber.
