Tuesday 12 April 2011

Duncan Jones On Wolverine Rumours

The director on Mute, Moon and Logan
Source: IGN Movies
By: Phil de Semlyen

As anyone who's seen Source Code will testify, Duncan Jones has made the transition from indies to big studio fare look very easy indeed. Other directors who've made the journey - Alex Proyas, Richard Kelly et al - will admit that it isn't as straightforward as Jones' action/thriller makes it look, A-listers, pyrotechnics, CGI and all.

So what's next? When the Moon man stopped by for a webchat he was as cagey as you'd expect for a man on the cusp of great things, but still those Wolverine rumours kept surfacing. So would Jones's next project have adamantium claws?

"Who knows what'll be coming up next - I have a lot of meetings and catching-up to do when I get back to LA," says the director, who's since confirmed that one of them would be with 20th Century Fox to talk Logan. "[Wolverine is] more interesting to me than Batman," he told IGN at this weekend's Kapow! "A good Wolverine film could be an amazing thing." Yes, it's vague but it does sound like Jones is a strong contender for the berth recently vacated by Darren Aronofsky. Watch this space.

His Blade Runner-homaging sci-fi Mute, meanwhile, is inching its way to fruition. Its first incarnation will be as a graphic novel, with Jones plumping for the tried-and-tested route of winning studio backing to bring his story to the big screen. "I have some meetings set up to start discussing how the graphic novel will come together," he explained, in between sharing his passion of homegrown comic books and explaining what happened to his Judge Dredd pitch.

"My preference would be to do a 2000AD character, which is why I got very excited about Judge Dredd. But unfortunately I had such a strong idea of what I wanted to do with that that it wasn't going to mesh with the very strong script that they had. Maybe I'll get another shot one day, or maybe I'll get the chance to try one of the other characters from Britain's sci-fi bible."

We're thinking a Jones-directed Rogue Trooper could be fairly awesome. So what of Sam, GERTY and the Moon world? Would we see them again on our screens in years to come? Click here for more on that and the Duncan Jones webchat in full.

Source Code is out now. See it, then see it again differently eight minutes later.

Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool movie gets a director

Visual effects maestro Tim Miller is taking the reins
By Matt Maytum

After an irksome amount of to-ing and fro-ing, Fox have finally found a director for Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool spin-off, with visual effects whizz Tim Miller landing the job.

Miller has worked on comic-book movies including X-Men, X2 and Daredevil, so he's no stranger to the superhero scene. He also worked on Scott Pilgrim's extremely nifty VFX, which is promising for offbeat anti-hero Deadpool.

The character, AKA Wade Wilson, AKA the Merc with a Mouth, had a few minutes of scene-stealing screen time in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, before being offed by Wolvie in the film's climactic moments.

This new outing will apparently stand independent from Wolverine, and the script, by Zombieland scribes Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, will apparently see the mercenary return to his comic-book roots, which means we should be in for tons of anti-heroism and fourth-wall breaking.

The path from VFX guru to director isn't always a smooth one (we've all tried to forget Alien vs Predator: Requiem), but perhaps a fresh approach is what's needed to give Deadpool the edgy adaptation he deserves.

It's not yet entirely clear when the film will happen, although with a director now hired, Fox are obviously moving forward with the project.

Reynolds' rival superhero movie, DC's Green Lantern, is out this summer, and depending how it fares, he could be roped in on sequel duties for that one.

He's also shooting paranormal cop thriller R.I.P.D. this summer, so perhaps Fox would be looking to slot Deadpool in after he has completed work on that one.


Read more: Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool movie gets a director | TotalFilm.com