Hugh Jackman has been speaking about the current status of the upcoming Wolverine prequel to the X-Men franchise with Coming Soon…

“….We’re a year away from shooting the film and we have the script…

…And, by the way, it is unbelievable. It’s a David Benioff script. He’s probably the hottest writer going around town, and he was beating down our door to write this movie… 

….I’ve got a couple of movies coming out in the next month, and I might be able to tell you who the director is by then. We’re seriously into talking about it now.”

Wow I didn’t realise they were so far down the road with this. Great news though, it probably means that shooting will begin late next summer with the movie coming out sometime in the summer of 2008.

I’m really suprised that Jackman wants to do a Wolverine stand alone movie, or any more X-Men movies for that matter. With his upcoming roles in The Prestige and The Fountain, I would have thought he would continue in this direction and move away from playing the superhero he is famous for, at least for a short while.

It will be interesting to see who they find to direct the picture to. Will Brett Ratner be interested in a Wolverine movie? Which characters are going to make an appearance, surely Brian Cox as Will Stryker will have a role after the events in X-Men 2.

So many questions still be answered with this movie, should be an interesting twelve months till shooting (if Jackman is to be believed).

source – coming soon