Wolverine Week concludes with our look at the new movie
The hype is over. The controversy over leaked workprints is over. And, yes, our Wolverine Week is over. X-Men Origins: Wolverine is in theaters nationwide today, and despite mixed reviews expect fans wearing toy claws in honor of their hero, as played by Hugh Jackman, to crowd multiplexes this weekend. Our Brian Truitt has followed the making of this fourth X-Men movie and was the reporter with all the interviews this week. He went to a screening here in Washington, D.C. last night to see if it lived up to expectation. Click read more for his thoughts on what may be the summer’s first big blockbuster.
Photos by James Fisher
April 30, 2009
Wolverine Week: Taylor Kitsch on working with Hugh Jackman
When our Brian Truitt caught up with Friday Night Lights star Taylor Kitsch earlier this year, Kitsch was on the set of X-Men Origins: Wolverine completing reshoots in his native Canada. The two mostly talked about that TV drama, but Kitsch also discussed playing the popular Wolverine mutant Gambit, a flamboyant Cajun card shark who can do wonders with a staff and a royal flush. (As you saw in our exclusive Wolverine video, the man has style and can throw a mean six of spades.) Brian saved the Wolverine talk for this week, so click on read more to learn who Kitsch learned the most from on the movie set, as well as what one FNL co-star thinks of Kitsch's newfound stardom.
Photos courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox
April 29, 2009
Wolverine Week: Will.i.am makes film debut
It's been a life-changing year for hip-hop musician and Black Eyed Peas frontman Will.i.am. His songs Yes We Can and It's a New Day became Internet sensations and anthems for Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, his group the Black Eyed Peas recorded a new album The E.N.D. (out June 9), and he got his first film role, as teleporter John Wraith in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Making the movie was so much fun, "it’s like they took me to freakin’ Mars. It showed me a whole new world," says Will.i.am (pictured at left with Wolverine star Hugh Jackman), a longtime fan of the X-Men comic books. Our Brian Truitt recently talked with the fledgling actor as he was finishing up the new Peas album. Click read more for his thoughts on Wolverine, his changing musical influences and what summer movies he wants to see.
Photo by James Fisher
April 28, 2009
Wolverine Week: Kevin Durand chats about playing Blob
X-Men Origins: Wolverine is mostly about how title character Wolverine, played by Hugh Jackman, originated. But movie goers also will get some of the back story of other characters, including one called Blob. Comics fans know Blob as the ultra-obese member of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, but in the movie, he's an extremely muscular mercenary who does something he regrets while on a mission and deals with his guilt by eating way too much pizza. "He Blobs out," explains Kevin Durand, the buff, towering star of Lost, Smokin' Aces, 3:10 to Yuma and Wild Hogs. "At first we [filmed] Fat Blob stuff, and that was just an absolute laugh and it was sad. And then with Muscle Blob – I call him Muscle Blob – we did get to do a wee bit of action. I got to beat up a tank, which was cool." Our Brian Truitt talked to the Canadian actor, who's currently filming Robin Hood with Russell Crowe in and around London, about playing an 800-pound behemoth, a Norse god (possibly) and one of Robin Hood's Merry Men. Click read more below for their entertaining Q&A.
Photos courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox
April 27, 2009
Wolverine Week begins with director Gavin Hood
We're making it Wolverine Week on the Who's News Blog because X-Men Origins: Wolverine is the first expected blockbuster of the summer movie season, it opens Friday (some cities will have midnight showings Thursday) and thanks to our Brian Truitt, a huge Wolverine fan, we have our own interviews and Q&As with cast and crew. Plus, I figure any movie that stars the current "Sexiest Man Alive" Hugh Jackman, the heartthrob of Friday Night Lights, Taylor Kitsch, and is directed by an Oscar winner is a movie you ought to know about. Yes, the new Wolverine is directed by Gavin Hood, the South African filmmaker who wrote and directed Tsotsi — the 2006 Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film. What makes him the right director for a movie about a mega-popular clawed superhero? Hood, pictured left with Jackman, wondered the same thing at first. But it turns out Jackman is as good a salesman as he is an actor. Click read more below for Brian's interview with Hood, and if you missed it, check out our exclusive Wolverine video.
Photos by James Fisher
