Darren Aronofsky shocked the world when he signed on to direct Fox's upcoming Wolverine sequel. Then, he proceeded to thoroughly un-shock it when he dropped out for various personal reasons, and not, as I like to assume, because Fox was unable to provide the number of fancy neck scarves clearly outlined in his directorial contract. So for weeks, we've waited with casual interest to see what out-of-left-field pick Fox would choose as a replacement director, with everyone from Duncan Jones to Antoine Fuqua finding their names tossed around in the mix.
Well, according to today's news on Deadline, it sounds like Fox just gave up on any of that unpredictable nonsense and just gave it to James Mangold.
That is not necessarily to deride the talents of Mangold, who has made some pretty great movies in Cop Land and 3:10 to Yuma (though, to be fair, he also made Kate & Leopold and Knight and Day...yeesh). But considering the pedigree of some of the other directors being talked about, the Mangold pick seems...incredibly safe? I guess? I dunno. I think I'm just left with a feeling of "Oh, okay..." on this whole thing.
At the very least, people continue to talk a whole bunch of yang about how good Christopher McQuarrie's script is for this thing, so here's hoping Mangold can bring back the bad ass in Wolverine. Presuming, of course, that he'll actually stick with the project long enough to bring it to fruition. I guess it's not like he has anything else going on, right?
Not super exited about the choise to be honest...
I was so completely pumped up for an Aranofsky Wolverine movie, that I simply can't get excited about another director (unless it's Neil Marshall). And certainly no the guy who did Knight and Day.
Pass....
I hope this is the Cop Land and Identity James Mangold we are getting.
He can't replace Aronofsky for me. I wasn't a big fan of Knight and Day. It was serviceable, but shallow nonetheless. I just really hope it doesn't suck as much as the last movie, Wolverine desrves better than this damn it!
Huh.
Still, this doesn't mean the final product will be any better than Origins.
I love the character of Wolverine I hope this guy can do him some justice.
Everyone is acting like Knight and Day is the only movie he's ever made. This guy made Walk the Line, the most infinitely rewatchable biopic of all time. You guys need to see Cop Land.
If this movie already has a good script, Mangold will make it good, barring any interference from Fox.
Anyway, I don't care. I enjoyed X-Men, X2 and Last Stand well enough, even though I was never in love with the X-Men film universe anyway (I'm informed mostly by the 90's 'toon, so I'd rather see Morlocks and Sentinels onscreen than the Brotherhood of Mutants all the time). But I've been burned out on this series ever since; and Wolverine 1 and First Class are not nearly exciting-looking enough (or different enough from Bryan Singer's established tone and universe) to make me care again. So I doubt I'll care about The Wolverine unless it actually feels like it's own movie, instead of someone chasing Bryan Singer again.
Maybe "safe" is a good thing. Hopefully he can churn a decent Wolverine movie.
yeah. Knight and Day was terrible.
they should have kept Gavin Hood.
oh come on man. kate and leopold was pretty awesome when meg ryan wasn't on screen!