Wolverine character creators thrilled by X-Men: Origins movie

From: coventrytelegraph.net
Written by: David Bentley

TWO comic book writers who created key characters in Hugh Jackman's X-Men Origins: Wolverine say the filmmakers did an amazing job.

Chris Claremont, who created Sabretooth and Gambit, told Newsarama: "Hugh Jackman is such a delight to watch on the face of it, but then when you throw in Liev Schreiber as Sabretooth and Taylor Kitsch as Gambit, it was just amazing."

London-born Claremont (pictured) added: "The bringing to life of characters that I've worked on, and doing it so well, was just an incredible treat."

Claremont, 58, has a long history of writing for the X-Men comics and created the legendary and acclaimed Dark Phoenix Saga which was adapted for the big screen in the second and third X-Men films.

Len Wein, who created Wolverine in 1974, said: "I was thrilled. I had a terrific time at the movie. I thought, and it was my wife's point too, that it was very much my Wolverine.

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Let's Rebuild Len Wein's Comic Book Collection!

From: ComicM!X.comcomicmix.com
By: Glenn Hauman

From Mark Evanier:

Earlier this month, my friends Len Wein and Chris Valada lost a pretty good sized chunk of their house and belongings in a fire. They're moving (today, I think) into a rental home for what might be a year while their regular dwelling is rebuilt. Insurance is paying for most of the reconstruction but there are things that just plain weren't covered. One was Len's book collection, most notably his shelves of comic books he's written over the years.

The loss in that category is not primarily financial. Some of Len's comics — like the ones in which he co-created Swamp Thing or Wolverine or Human Target — go these days for hefty bucks but many do not. They're sitting in the bargain boxes at comic shops or in collectors' piles of duplicates. The big problem here is the time it would take to track down all the issues of everything. Len has enough other things to do, just to rearrange his life these days. So some of his friends decided to take that chore off his shoulders.

In that spirit was born The "Let's Rebuild Len Wein's Comic Book Collection" Project. The goal is to...well, you can probably figure out the goal. Go to that page. Read about it. See what you can send. And please spread the word.

Just a quick note: the list that's currently up at the site is only of books that Len wrote, none that he edited. We expect there will be a modified master list shortly, even if we have to compile it ourselves.

Hugh Jackman Condemns Wolverine Leak; Buzz Still Strong

From: FirstShowing.net

As unfortunate as the X-Men Origins: Wolverine leak was, it has created a bit more buzz, at least in theory (we have yet to see how well it'll do on opening weekend). Take these results from a recent MovieTickets.com poll: 70% of male ticket buyers polled, and 60% of female ticket buyers, intend to see Wolverine on opening weekend. Additionally, 3 of the 5 age groups polled (Under-24, 25-34, 35-44) list Wolverine as the No. 1 next film they intend to see in theaters. Of course, because it's the first big summer movie opening on May 1st, this could all just be natural, but this is a good sign it'll still do well, I think.

At a recent press event held in Syndey, Australia to kick off the worldwide press tour (via Reuters), Wolverine star Hugh Jackman condemned the leak, saying, "It's a serious crime, and there's no doubt it's very disappointing — I was heartbroken by it." Jackman, who really is the perfect Logan, has been championing this project and the character for a long time, even appearing at Comic-Con last year to debut footage and give his thanks to Wolverine creator Len Wein. "Obviously people are seeing an unfinished film. It's like a Ferrari without a paint job." Let's just hope it's an unfinished Ferrari, not an unfinished jalopy.

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Len Wein house fire

From: ComicMix.com

Harlan Ellison just posted the following on his website: Monday, April 6 2009 11:55:36 EXTREMELY BAD NEWS
Len Wein called this morning. More than half of his house burned down earlier today. Len and Chris Valada and Chris’s son, Michael, got out okay, but their beloved dog, Sheba, ran back inside and is gone. In addition to both bedrooms, the bathroom, and much of the office, what was burned first was the original art for the first Wolverine story, the cover of GIANT X-MEN #1 and other art pieces worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

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Wolverine Artist Appreciation Month

From: ComicMix.com
Written by: Glenn Hauman

Marvel's press release:

Marvel is proud to announce that in honor of Wolverine's 35th anniversary, numerous Marvel titles will feature Wolverine Art Appreciation Variant Covers in April, as part of Wolverine Art Appreciation Month. In the tradition of Marvel's previous variant cover programs, featuring everything from villains to zombies to monkeys, select Marvel titles will feature variant covers spotlighting the most popular X-Man through a unique lens! Inspired by some of the world's greatest artists, these variant covers depict Wolverine like you've never seen him before, in styles reminiscent of Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol and more!

"This is a huge year for Wolverine as he proves why he's arguably one of the most popular characters in the world," explained Joe Quesada, Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief. "He's not just popular with fans but also with artists, as evidenced by how many of today's top comic artists jockey for a chance to draw him. This got us thinking: what if Wolverine had been around for hundreds, if not thousands, of years? What great, classic artists would want a crack at drawing a Wolverine cover?"

We here at ComicMix are hereby starting Wolverine Artist Appreciation Month. This will pay tribute to the great, classic artists that have gone into creating Wolverine over the years, yet somehow are not getting their fair share from Marvel over the character to which they contributed so much, and who have been underappreciated in so many other ways.

So please, take a moment to thank:

• Len Wein
• Herb Trimpe
• John Romita Sr.
• Chris Claremont
• Dave Cockrum
• John Byrne
• Terry Austin

In particular, if you'd like to honor the late great Dave Cockrum, please consider purchasing some of his file copy comic books from his estate to help his widow Paty. The list of available books is here.

10 Essential Facts About 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine'

From: Movies.Yahoo.com
Written by: Matt McDaniel

You know the claws. You know the rage. And you know the sideburns. But there is a lot about Marvel Comics' mutant superhero Wolverine that you might not know. So here are ten facts you should know before you see "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," the upcoming prequel that sheds light on his mysterious past. And to see Hugh Jackman back in action, you can skip down to watch three exclusive TV spots from the movie.

1. Wolverine wasn't in the original line-up of Marvel Comics' "X-Men" that was created by Stan Lee in the 1960s. He first appeared as an adversary to The Incredible Hulk, and was brought into the X-Men when the series was restarted in 1975.
2. Co-creator Len Wein's original idea was that the character was actually a wolverine cub that was mutated into human form. He also intended for Wolverine's signature claws to extend from his gloves, not from his body. But these ideas were dropped when new writer Chris Claremont took over the series.
3. Wolverine was originally a supporting character, with the focus of the X-Men stories mostly on team leader Cyclops. But he quickly became a fan favorite, and he got his own solo series in the '80s. Last year, Wizard Magazine ranked him at #1 in their "Top 200 Comic Book Characters of All Time" list.
4. Logan's backstory was mostly kept hidden for the first 25 years of his existence. Finally in 2001, Marvel released the six-issue series "Origin" which told Logan's life story. Born in Canada in the 1800s, James Howlett discovered his mutant powers (and claws of bone that pop out of his hands) after a family tragedy. This story is the jumping off point for the new movie.
5. Russell Crowe was director Bryan Singer's first choice to play Wolverine in the first "X-Men" movie, but his asking price was too high. Scottish actor Dougray Scott was then cast, but he dropped out when filming went long on "Mission: Impossible 2." Hugh Jackman stepped into the role two weeks into filming, and at 6'2", he stands about a foot taller than how Wolverine is depicted in the comics.
6. Around 700 pairs of Wolverine claws were constructed for the original X-Men movie. They were made of metal for close-ups, plastic for longer shots, and rubber for stunts. Each pair were specially fitted for Jackman or the stuntman who wore them. The special effects crew also made a replica of Jackman's arm so that the claws could physically pop out without digital effects.
7. "X-Men: The Last Stand" was the final movie with the original lineup of characters, but more X-movies are in the works. "Wolverine" is intended to launch not only a series of solo movies for Jackman, but also the "Origins" franchise. Currently in the works is "Magneto," exploring the backstory of the villain. Also, "Gossip Girl" creator Josh Schwartz is writing "X-Men: First Class," about the teenage students of Professor X's school.
8. "Wolverine" introduces some new mutants that will be played by some fresh faces. One is long-time fan favorite, Gambit, a mutant who can energize objects into explosive weapons. He'll be played by Taylor Kitsch, star of TV's "Friday Night Lights." It's the biggest movie role yet from the Canadian hockey player-turned-actor, who previously appeared in "The Covenant" and "Snakes on a Plane."
9. The new movie will also introduce audiences to Daniel Henney, an American-born actor who has become an enormous star in South Korea. He broke out in the TV drama, "My Name Is Kim Sam-Soon," a show so popular over half the country tuned in for the series finale. In "Wolverine" he plays Agent Zero, a government operative who is part of the Weapon X program that gives Logan his metallic skeleton.
10. Some more familiar names popping up in the new movie include Liev Schreiber, who put on 40 pounds of muscle to play the menacing Sabretooth. Ryan Reynolds appears as Deadpool, a mutant mercenary who may get his own movie in the future. Dominic Monaghan plays Bolt, who manipulates energy, and will.i.am has his acting debut as the teleporting Wraith. One face you know but won't recognize is Kevin Durand, who was the evil soldier Keamy on "Lost" last season. He is unrecognizable under piles of makeup as the immovable villain, The Blob (but you'll see him in flashbacks).

"X-Men Origins: Wolverine" will kick off this year's summer movie season when it rides into theaters on May 1st. To get a peek at the story and action of the highly-anticipated movie, check out these three exclusive TV spots that debuted on FOX earlier this week.

Stan Lee's Wolverine Cameo Confirmed by Hugh Jackman

From: ComicBookMovie.com

Hugh Jackman learned of Lee's cameo from the X-Men creator himself while both were attending the San Diego Comic-Con...

Jackman, who returns to his iconic role as the mutant super-soldier, Wolverine in the X-Men films, was amongst the first to hear the news directly from Lee, and soon spilled the beans to the attending press.

Jackman and Lee, who have known each other since 2000 from the first X-Men movie, hooked up Thursday at the con after Jackman made an unscheduled surprise appearance. Jackman later proceeded to make an unscheduled surprise announcement when he accidentally told the the Associated Press about Lee’s cameo appearance. “Don’t tell anyone,” he joked. “It's always a big shock when people see him."

Jackman went on to praise Lee; "Around here this guy is like a god," he said. “People see this guy, they faint. Their whole livelihood and everything they're interested in came out of his mind."

Lee joked with Jackman, promising that he would try not to overshadow him in the movie.

Side note: The character of Wolverine is one of the few characters not created by Stan Lee. He was created by writer Len Wein and Marvel art director John Romita Sr., who designed the character, and was first drawn for publication by Herb Trimpe in a cameo appearance on the last page of Incredible Hulk #180 (October 1974) and his first "full" appearance in Incredible Hulk #181 (November 1974). X-Men writer Chris Claremont played a significant role in the character's subsequent development as well as artist/writer John Byrne, who insisted on making the character older than the other X-Men. Frank Miller also helped to revise the character in the early 1980s with the eponymous limited series in which Wolverine's catch phrase, "I'm the best there is at what I do, but what I do isn't very nice", was first written.

A mutant, Wolverine possesses animal-keen senses, enhanced physical capabilities, retracting bone claws, and a healing factor that allows him to recover from virtually any wound. This healing ability enabled the supersoldier program Weapon X to bond the near indestructible metal alloy adamantium to his skeletal system. He is also a master of hand-to-hand combat and martial arts.

20th Century Fox’s new X-Men film, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, is due for release in May 2009.

SDCC: First Wolverine Footage Screened!!

From:

At the end of the 20th Century Fox presentation where they showed new footage from The Day the Earth Stood Still and Max Payne (more on that exciting footage coming soon), the studio who has produced the most Marvel comic book movies so far pulled a surprise on the packed audience by bringing out Hugh Jackman, who had just gotten off a plane from Australia where they had just finished filming X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Written by David Benioff and directed by Oscar-winning director Gavin Hood (Tsotsi), the movie had been cloaked in secrecy except for a few scattered pictures that have leaked out, and Jackman was really excited about debuting some of the first footage at Comic-Con, since they weren't able to bring any of the "X-Men" movies there. He thanked everyone in the audience for helping make comic book movies so big in the past few years as well as going to see the three "X-Men" movies because it's the fans who helped make Jackman's career.

Jackman introduced Len Wein, the creator of Wolverine, who was in the audience, but that wasn't enough for Jackman, as he jumped off the stage and ran over shake Wein's hand and thank him for creating such a great character. Once he was back on stage, Jackman gave a really heart-felt speech to Wein saying, "I waited a long time to thank you personally and I wanted to shake your hand, mate. It's one of the best comic book characters ever created and as an actor, it's a challenge to play and I've just done it for the fourth time, and I still feel there's more to find out and that's down to you, from your great mind and heart creating a great character."

Jackman promised that the movie is "big, action-packed and bad-ass" and that we'll see a lot of "berzerker rage" in it, before showing the footage that was cut together especially for Comic-Con, even though he promised that it would look even better when the movie comes out next May.

The footage went by so fast that it was impossible to catch everything the first time--and they only showed it once unfortunately--but it begins with Jackman's Logan and Liev Schreiber's Victor Creed dressed in military gear in a detention cell where they're being interrogated by the younger Major William Stryker, played by Danny Huston. He says, "You were sentenced to death for decapitating a senior officer. Your sentence was to be carried out by a firing squad at 1000 hours. How'd that go?" Then Wolverine said, "It tickled." We see the two of them put in front of a firing squad who shoots at them, but they escape and we see Logan walking away as the building explodes behind them.

Stryker continues asking them if they're tired of running and denying their true nature and tells them he's putting together a "special team with special privileges" referring to the early stages of Weapon X or Alpha Flight. As he says this, we see brief glimpses of all the other characters in the movie, including Taylor Kitsch's Gambit, who looked amazing in action, Lynn Collins as Silverfox, Kevin Durand as The Blob, and even a short glimpse of Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool.

Most of the non-action scenes in the footage were dialogue sequences between Jackman and Schreiber with them talking over whether to take up Stryker's offer, and this is obviously what's going to lead to the long-time friends having a difference of opinions that leads to their age-old conflict. Logan says to Creed something about wanting to make a difference and asks how he'd like to get started, at which Creed tells Logan, "We didn't sign up for this. Who do you think you are? This is what we do! Become the animal."

From there, we get a few scenes of the experiments done to Logan to turn him into Wolverine, which looks like it was designed after the classic origin tale told in Barry Windsor-Smith's "Weapon X" story with him bursting out of the vat with the adamantium spikes coming out of skin. There was also a brief glimpse of Logan as a boy in a kimono with his claws extended which harks back to images from "Origins" and Frank Miller's take on the character's roots in Japan.

We see a few quick bits of Wolverine fighting some of the characters, including the Blob and Gambit, but the best moments are when he's taking on Sabretooth (of course)--sorry, Tyler Mane, but I think Liev Schreiber is going to make a lot better Victor Creed--and the clip reel ended with Wolverine hanging from the top of the helicopter while it's flying through the air.

Even though the usual claims were that this was unfinished footage, it looked good enough to make a pretty kick-ass trailer and fans of the character should be happy if the movie delivers on what we were shown.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine opens on May 1, 2009, and Jackman mentioned that they'll be presenting more footage and have a full panel for the movie at Wonder-Con in February.