http://www.theage.com.au/news/film/jackman-takes-a-stand/2006/05/25/1148524796309.html
It's all systems action in the latest X-Men film, writes David Michael.
GATHERED for press duties at the Cannes Film Festival, all is not well in the
X-Men camp. In a villa in the hills overlooking the town, the demands of the 12 cast members' personal publicists are adding to the studio publicist's logistical nightmare of scheduling interviews.
Anna Paquin's publicist pulls her from a photoshoot with Halle Berry and Famke Janssen, as she isn't getting the required attention from the photographer; Ian McKellen, leaning against a pillar, is grumbling about the delay to proceedings; and even Janssen's black Boston terrier, Licorice, is in full diva mode, whining for attention.
The scene is at odds with the frequently offered message in the final
X-Men film: that teamwork can conquer adversity.
Hugh Jackman, though, is rather enjoying himself. Entertaining a group of French journalists, the 37-year-old actor is animatedly re-enacting an encounter with Clint Eastwood, with whom his short-tempered character, Wolverine, has been compared.
"I was at this Warner Bros luncheon where they trotted out all the people who had been in Warner Bros movies," says Jackman of the meeting five years ago.
"We had to stand there in order and Clint was behind me. As we went to walk off, I turned around to Clint and said, 'Hi, Mr Eastwood, it's Hugh Jackman. It's funny that you should be here, as in this movie
X-Men a few people have been saying I look a little bit like you'. He just looked at me and said, 'You're holding up the line, kid'."
If Eastwood's persona is the opposite of the affable Jackman, Eastwood's fingerprints are all over the character of Wolverine. Jackman repeatedly viewed
Dirty Harry, A Fistful of Dollars and
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly to help shape Wolverine.
In
X-Men: The Last Stand, there is little time, however, for Wolverine's Eastwood-esque cigars and surly one-liners. With action director Brett Ratner (
Rush Hour) taking the reins from Bryan Singer, the third and final act of the
X-Men franchise has its action quota noticeably amped up. As the body count mounts and fresh plots are needed for the tombstones of his
X-Men colleagues, the film soon revolves around Jackman's character.
Fittingly, with the curtain now closed on the
X-Men, the inevitable spin-off Wolverine film is well under way. While most actors create production companies for tax write-off purposes, Jackman has set up Seed Productions to co-produce the film with 20th Century Fox.
"We're two drafts into it, so it's well under way," says Jackman.
"It's probably going to be a prequel. In the movies he's evolved a lot, so I think we need to go back to his origins. There's a lot in the character that hasn't been told, there really is. I don't need to do it contractually, or because of the money."
As well as his own projects, the production company will help develop directorial projects for his wife Deborra-Lee Furness, who has enjoyed her own premiere in Cannes this year, appearing in Ray Lawrence's Jindabyne.
"I always believed as an actor you should be proactive," says Jackman.
"When I first graduated from drama school, me and my friend Simon Lyndon had a theatre company together because I never liked the idea of being a victim sitting by the phone waiting for a call."
But Jackman need not worry. Before he sharpens his claws once more for Wolverine, he will appear in Woody Allen's next film,
Scoop, and his biggest lead role in
The Fountain.
The diplomatic force amid the mayhem of the X-Men press junket, Jackman doesn't flinch when asked if he had any reservations about replacing Brad Pitt in
The Fountain, in light of the ill feeling in his home country about the production being uprooted from Australia to the US after Pitt pulled out.
"I never thought about that," says Jackman.
"It doesn't make me heartless; I obviously had nothing to do with the original production. It's probably the greatest opportunity I've had on film and it's an extraordinary movie.
"I don't think anybody in the (original) crew would wish, just because they got burnt, it would never happen."
X-Men: The Last Stand is now showing.
