Saturday 31 May 2008

Ian McKellen answers e-mails

Ian McKellen has answered e-mails from his fans.
Check it out here.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine Wraps Principal Photography

From: SuperHeroFlix

The Hugh Jackman starring X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which serves as a prequel to the X-Men trilogy of films, has just wrapped their principal photography, which had been taking place in Australia and New Zealand. Our friends at IESB.net were told by Marvel Entertainment's Kevin Feige that shooting has finishes in Australia, and there are only a few weeks left of filming on the second unit shots.

According to early reports, X-Men Origins: Wolverine will share a tone with the gritty 1970s style action-films, which will make it an odd pairing with the X-Men movies.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine explores Wolverine's early days, before joining the X-Men. The film will cover Logan's early life, and his involvement with the mysterious Weapon X program. The film stars Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Dominic Monaghan, Danny Huston, Ryan Reynolds, Taylor Kitsch, will.i.am, Daniel Henney, Scott Adkins and Lynn Collins. X-Men Origins: Wolverine is due to arrive in theatres in 2009.

Hugh up for auction

From: TheDaily.com.au
By Blythe Seinor

Fancy lunch with Hugh Jackman? Dream on, right?

Wrong. The star of Wolverine has offered a day of his time as an auction prize in a Noosa Anglican Church fundraiser, which will raise money towards building an orphanage in Nepal.

The winning bidder will be flown to Sydney where they will visit the set of Hugh’s new movie. They will receive a framed and signed photograph of Hugh, have their picture taken with him, and will also get to have lunch at Fox Studios with the Boy From Oz himself.

Parishioner Graeme Marlow was able to sign the star up for the event, since they have been mates since primary school.

“We’re best mates, yeah,” Graeme said.

“Jacko’s always very obliging in supporting us with any of the charity work that we do.”

Graeme said his old Knox Grammar School buddy, who he catches up with about once or twice a year, was a truly genuine person.

“He’s exactly as he comes across, he’s a champion bloke.

“He’s very humble and I don’t think I’ve heard a bad word about him.”

Graeme said the cause of the fundraiser was close to Hugh’s heart, since he and his wife Deborra-Lee Furness had adopted two children of their own.

Hugh will be unable to attend the fundraiser at Ricky’s in Noosa this Wednesday because of filming commitments, but he has pre-recorded a video message for the evening.

“We so wished to be there to help raise much-needed funding. However, I’m filming and I’ve gotta save the world from bad guys with my claws,” Hugh joked.

Five Noosa teenagers will travel to Nepal at their own expense to work with orphans in their school holidays, and Hugh had a piece of advice for them in his video message.

“Make sure whatever you learn you come back and teach all of us,” Hugh said.

Auctioneer David Garwood from Remax Noosa said he expected a lot of enthusiastic bidding for Hugh Jackman.

“This is something really special, you can’t just go and buy a day with Hugh,” he said.

The project to build an orphanage is sponsored by the Noosa Anglican Church, which has already raised $40,000 to purchase land. The fundraising night is already sold out.

How Hugh said no to soap on a rope

From:

Hugh Jackman thanks his lucky stars he never took a job on Neighbours 15 years ago. "It would have been detrimental to my career as an actor," Jackman admitted to PS yesterday, fresh from the hair and make-up chair on the set of his new action sci-fi thriller Wolverine.

Jackman hosted the 21st birthday party last night for the Actors Centre Australia in Surry Hills, one of the few self-funded acting schools in the country. "After I studied communications and listened to my journalism teacher, Wendy Bacon, talk about doing death knocks I was somewhat disillusioned about becoming a reporter … I had always thought about acting … I auditioned for ACA and got in, but it was going to cost me $3500, which I didn't have … but my grandmother had just passed away and left me the exact amount of $3500 … I took it as a sign from Nan."

These days Jackman commands multimillion-dollar pay cheques, but admits that studying for one year at the actors centre "ignited the passion for acting" within him. Jackman was offered a role on Neighbours after graduation in 1992 , but opted to continue studying his craft at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in Perth.

"While I would have learned a lot about handling press and camera technique on Neighbours,
I kept asking myself would it help me audition for the Royal Shakespeare Company or the STC … and I had to admit it probably wouldn't."

Jackman said he and his family, fellow thespian and wife Deborra-Lee Furness and kids Oscar and Aida, will happily remain in Sydney until the end of the year, with work on Baz Luhrmann's epic Australia continuing for some time before its release in November.

"I have never seen such dedication and so much attention to detail working a film. It has been the best experience of my acting life so far," said Jackman, who plays Nicole Kidman's cattle-droving love interest.

As for Kidman: "She's a phenomenal actress … kissing her was the easiest part."

Strong dollar a threat to films, Jackman says

From: News.com.au
By Vicky Roach

HUGH Jackman says he probably wouldn't have got the green light to shoot X-Men Origins: Wolverine in Sydney in the current economic climate.

"It would have been very hard," the actor-producer said as a strong Australian dollar took a heavy toll on the local industry, deterring overseas productions.

Jackman is particularly concerned about crew members, many of whom he worked with on the back-to-back big-budget productions Australia and Wolverine.

"The crews we have are world class. Without consistent work, the industry will falter," he said.

Veteran grip Ray Brown, who among a string of other projects worked on all three Matrix films, said the situation was "desperate".

When the plug was pulled on George Miller's Justice League: Mortal because it failed to qualify for the 40 per cent tax rebate awarded to films with significant Australian content, 1200 jobs and a year's work were lost, Brown said.

After three weeks work on thriller Knowing, he has nothing to go to.

What happens when a toad gets hit by lightning?

It’s common knowledge that Joss Whedon was brought in to do a pass over on the screenplay for the X-Men film. It may also be common knowledge that his draft of the script was pretty much chucked because, as the telling of it goes, the studio only wanted him to spice it up with the odd witticism here and there rather than do a complete revision of the draft.

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