Wolverine Movie News/Press releases!

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http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/international/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002728916

June 28, 2006


'Wolverine' pumps up Cine Expo Day 2


By Stuart Kemp

AMSTERDAM -- The promise of Hugh Jackman's Wolverine headlining a spinoff of 20th Century Fox's "X-Men" franchise next year was a highlight of Day 2 here at Cine Expo.

The day also saw MPAA chairman and CEO Dan Glickman deliver an industry rallying cry, the awarding of the Nielsen EDI International Gold Reel prizes and a slick 20th Century Fox showreel with an appearance by directors' Shawn Levy and David Frankel.


20th Century Fox promised the gathered exhibitors a Jackman starrer titled "Wolverine" for next year and Jackman himself sent the show a taped promise to back up the news.
Fox went on to present its upcoming showreel in the early afternoon, featuring Levy's "Night at Museum," Frankel's "The Devil Wears Prada," and "Borat" with special guest appearances from the two directors, and "Borat" star Sacha Baron Cohen as the fake Kazakhstani reporter to support the shindig.

Earlier in the day, Glickman jetted in to call on all European exhibitors to join the fight against piracy, or as it is now dubbed, copyright theft.

The issue of copyright theft, Glickman told the sizeable audience, was "the single biggest threat to the film business."

The animated Glickman dished out a few statistics to the exhibitor crowd, saying that a recently commissioned MPAA research document indicated that more than $18.2 billion worldwide had been lost to piracy.

"This activity (of copyright theft) is deplorable and illegal," Glickman told the crowd in a stern address.

He also warned against any thoughts of complacency in Europe over the piracy issue, a place Glickman said had a long and powerful history of cultural and intellectual influence on the world that ought to be protected and continue.

He said that the MPAA is looking at ways to bring over tailored educational efforts aimed at the youth in Europe to ensure they know stealing intellectual property is wrong, mirroring the organization's efforts in the U.S.

"We need to start educating the youth of the evils of stealing intellectual property," Glickman said, telling the audience to be aware of a growing subculture that believes file sharing is not a crime.

But he also noted that the growth in venture capital cash in the movie business in the U.S. had grown 44% in the first six months of this year, putting a big part of that commitment down to the result in the MGM-Grokster Supreme Court case.

"Some of you may not know but today is the one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court's decision in the MGM v. Grokster case," Glickman said. The ruling saw peer-to-peer network file sharing on Grokster outlawed and the Web site shuttered.

"We need to stay in front," Glickman said, adding that he would work hard with exhibitors, governments and distributors to "break the piracy plague on our industry."

His early Tuesday morning industry address was followed by a screening of "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift," introduced by United International Pictures president and chief operating officer Andrew Cripps.

The day then saw Nielsen EDI International Gold Reel awards dished out for movies that have earned more than $100 million at the international boxoffice with a decidedly reduced number of films achieving the status.

This year, however, saw two films grab a Platinum Reel award, which is reserved for movies that surpass $500 million at the international boxoffice.

"Harry Potter and the Goblet Of Fire" conjured up more than $600 million at the boxoffice for international distributor Warner Bros. Pictures International and was the highest-grossing movie honored here. Sony Pictures Releasing thrilled its way to more than $500 million to date with the ongoing international rollout of "The Da Vinci Code."

Warner Bros. also scored Gold Reels for "Batman Begins," "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "The Island." SPR also shared a Gold Reel with Spyglass Entertainment for "Memoirs of a Geisha."

United International Pictures once again picked up the largest haul of Gold reels, taking trophies for "King Kong," "Madagascar," "Mission: Impossible III," "War of the Worlds" and "Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit."

20th Century Fox International earned Gold Reels for "Fantastic Four," "Ice Age: The Meltdown," "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" and "X-Men: The Last Stand."

Buena Vista International scored for "Chicken Little," "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" and "Flightplan."

Nielsen Entertainment International president Nick King also told a lunchtime audience of largely European-based theater operators that the impact of the World Cup soccer tournament has been dramatic in its first few weeks but played down its overall effect as it comes to a conclusion.

The major territories in Europe -- the U.K., Germany, France, Spain and Italy -- are expected to end up down 1%-3% year-to-year during the World Cup weeks, King said

 

[YJ1]

20th Century Fox International earned Gold Reels for "Fantastic Four," "Ice Age: The Meltdown," "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" and "X-Men: The Last Stand."



I hope the mean they'll film in 2007 and release it February 2008.

 

[PWN3R]

Please God no! Not another rush job....do they not learn from their mistakes??? Oh yeah.....

 

[GNR]

2007?Way too fast.

 

[SANTANA SANCHEZ]

I'm happy it's gonna be out so soon, but That is too soon!!

 

[Retroman]

Oh boy. Here we go again.

 

[Deep Thinkin'!]

hmmmm.... you never know..... they may have been filming all this time and not given any info out....... but heck, i don't know ***** about filming..... but if it comes out in 2007 then it will most likely be VERY rushed, and if in 2008.... well, we'll just have to hope for the best.

 

[LostSon88]

WHY! WHY! WHY! Are they trying to rush Wolverine out for next year?! F***! Its not like they don't have anything coming out next year! Remember FOX? Fantastic Four 2?

Money hungry jackasses...

Man, at this point i'm startin' to like Jon Peters a lil' bit more...

 

[Retroman]

Hugh is going on tour with the Boy From Oz thén he's got to promote 4(!) movies he's starring in; The Fountain, The Prestige, Flushed Away and Happy Feet. After that he starts shooting that Baz Luhrman epic with Kidman.

When do Fox expect to start filming Wolverine when they don't even have a director on board?The last thing i heard was that Benioff was still working on a 3rd or 4th draft.

 

[zer00]

oh jesus.

 

[Retroman]

I wonder if there will be some kind of annoucement at Comic Con in July?

 

[sidewinder]

i dont see what the big deal is. filming shouldnt take that long and with wolverine they dont need a lot of cgi. just a lot of kick ass fights. personally im looking forward to it.

 

[-WildCard-]

Im sure they released this purposely while this spidey teaser business was going down as to keep it on the DL. As long as it doesnt suck ill be happy.

 

[Slim_X]

Please God no! Not another rush job....do they not learn from their mistakes??? Oh yeah.....

That's exactly what I thought. Man, I can't wait to see the rights for X-Men taken away from FOX.

 

[Celestial]

Hugh is going on tour with the Boy From Oz thén he's got to promote 4(!) movies he's starring in; The Fountain, The Prestige, Flushed Away and Happy Feet. After that he starts shooting that Baz Luhrman epic with Kidman.

When do Fox expect to start filming Wolverine when they don't even have a director on board?The last thing i heard was that Benioff was still working on a 3rd or 4th draft.

He also needs time to bulk up after his tour - for X3 he needed 4-6 months which would take him to next year.

I suppose it's possible that the Luhrmann epic could be delayed which could free Jackman up for early next year and make it possible to aim for a late 2007 release.

I just hope they choose a good director.

 

[vampireslayer97]

Ugh, might as well call it Batman & Robin 2. I just pray I'm wrong.

 

[Jan Irisi]

He also needs time to bulk up after his tour - for X3 he needed 4-6 months which would take him to next year.

I suppose it's possible that the Luhrmann epic could be delayed which could free Jackman up for early next year and make it possible to aim for a late 2007 release.

I just hope they choose a good director.

Isn't the Luhrmann film being filmed in the fall?

Let's not....get our collective panties in a bunch here. This film will be much smaller in scale than X-Men or FF. It will not be a FX blowout, and will probably be more character driven rather than have an FX showpiece every five minutes. The shooting schedule will be much shorter. The script has been worked on since before the X3 script was thrown together.

And nothing is set in stone...the release date has not been announced yet, and is subject to change.

 

[x-fan]

i'm thinking with all the time they have already put into the script, they didnt do that with x3, it can still be good, some of the guys and girls above are right it isnt a special effects driven movie, relax and see how it goes down

my two cents

oh and maybe it will be a fall or winter release....maybe

 

[Dr. MIX]

WB once killed superhero films, Fox will take its turn soon, sigh...

 

[Advanced Dark]

This film has been in development just as long as X3 if not longer. The scripts were being written before the X3 scripts even started.

 

[Advanced Dark]

Update from AICN:

UPDATED!!! Wolvie going into a berserker rage next year? Maybe not...
Hey fellas! Quint here again. Got an email from Hollywood Reporter wanting to clarify their original story. Apparently some wires got crossed and an earlier, incorrect version of the report went up saying that Fox was gunning for a 2007 release on the Wolvie movie when in fact that emphasis wasn't in place at Cine Expo. It's certainly in the works, but the rush for a 2007 release date might not be set in stone. Whew... that's just good news for us fans as it gives the production team time to refine a quality script. At least, that's the hope, yeah?

 

[MaleRogue]

OMG What is the name??
Ultimate Alliance????

 

[Gambit_rx8]

Update from AICN:

that's good news

 

[Celestial]

Isn't the Luhrmann film being filmed in the fall?

Let's not....get our collective panties in a bunch here. This film will be much smaller in scale than X-Men or FF. It will not be a FX blowout, and will probably be more character driven rather than have an FX showpiece every five minutes. The shooting schedule will be much shorter. The script has been worked on since before the X3 script was thrown together.

And nothing is set in stone...the release date has not been announced yet, and is subject to change.

The Luhrmann film is supposed to start pre-production in October and production in February. It was originally supposed to start shooting July/August this year (with Russell Crowe).

I think you could be right about the rest. I think there's even a quote about it being more character-driven. I'm hoping for a moderate budget so there's less studio interference and less pressure for it to have blockbuster success.

 

[Prognosticator]

Please God no! Not another rush job....do they not learn from their mistakes??? Oh yeah.....

YES!!! Another rush job! That way, it will be harder to produce more comic book movies in the future b/c piss poor movies will create a backlash in the movie industry!... Those bastards at marvel don't know what the hell they are doing