As Katey noted transcribing a hurried voice mail I left her from just outside Hall H at Comic Con today, Hugh Jackman himself introduced a trailer like collection of footage of the upcoming Wolverine. Now that I’ve sat through a full days worth of panels and interviews (more on those later,) I can fill in a few blanks that were left out of the voice mail. Jackman, reportedly just off the plane from Australia was added to the end of the Fox panel highlighting The Day the Earth Stood Still and Max Payne. His arrival wasn’t a complete shock, since rumors had been flying around the Convention Center the day before and Rafe Telsch told me to, like the hyenas in Lion King, be prepared. Most of the attendees weren't prepared, though, and Jackman's appearance sent the girls waiting for the upcoming Twilight panel into a frenzy of screaming.
Jackman was full of compliments for the packed convention hall and said that everything related to X-Men and his career was due to us, the fans. No problem Hugh, anytime. He then started to get people pumped for the Wolverine clips by saying the movie was “bad ass” and “full of bezerker rage.” He also said he wanted to shake the hand of Wolverine creator Len Wein. He then jumped down off the stage and did just that. Then he said that the film had, literally, just finished filming and he just grabbed some footage and threw it in his bag, “gluing it together on the plane over.” I think he was probably kidding, since it looked professionally edited, but Hugh wouldn’t lie to us, would he?
The footage starts with Jackman and Liev Schreiber in a military jail (something about decapitating a superior officer) being recruited by Danny Huston’s Stryker. Then lots of Jackman being turned into the Wolverine and getting pissed off and going after Stryker’s men and ultimately Shreiber’s Sabertooth. Other characters shown including Gambit, The Blob, Wraith, and Deadpool. It’s hard to get a read on how good the movie will be with the fast edits, but it has lots of action, fights, cool stunts, and all those other things you expect from an X-Men movie not directed by Brett Ratner. I wasn’t that interested in seeing this when I first heard about it, I am now.
For all of our 2008 San Diego Comic Con criminally complete coverage go here.
http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Comic-Con-More-On-The-Wolverine-Footage-9625.html
