Maybe you cant kill Wolverine, but you’re free to certainly make him suffer.
Hugh Jackmans return as Logan the adamantium-clawed hero inThe Wolverine(due July 26) takes place in Japan.
If Logan does have a weak spot to explore, it may be his heart.
Credit: Marvel
How closely do you follow the Claremont/Miller comic book series that inspired this movie?
Sampling the vibe and some images?
Without being religious about it, I think its a very admiring adaptation.
Lewis Jacobs/NBC
Obviously when youre adapting anything you make some changes.
But all the characters are there Yukio, Viper, Mariko, Shingen, and Logan obviously.
The whole cast of characters that exist in that world exists in our film.
Chronologically, this follows all the other movies featuring Wolverine.
But the sense Im getting is that youre trying to reboot the character a little.
Its set afterX-Men 3, but I wouldnt call it a sequel toX-Men 3.
So why did you choose to set yoursafterall those others?
Because of some of the themes in the Claremont/Miller saga.
Kind of a soldier who is cut loose.
What does he do?
What does he face?
What does he believe anymore?
Who are his friends?
What is his reason for being here anymore?
I think those questions are especially interesting when youre dealing with a character who is essentially immortal.
Then it was important for him to have that baggage from the previous movies?
A lot of the key characters had died.
He is no longer a member of some superhero team.
Next Page: Where Mangold feels other tentpole action movies have gone astray …
Your other credits includeWalk the Line,Cop Land,Girl, Interrupted.
Youve done action in movies like3:10 to YumaandKnight & Day, but youre not known as a fantasy filmmaker.
What got you the job of directingThe Wolverinewhen Darren Aronofsky dropped out?
I couldnt tell you why they hired me, but I can tell you why I wanted it.
I have a long friendship with Hugh Jackman.
[They made the 2001 romantic comedyKate & Leopoldtogether.]
And Im a huge comic book collector.
When I was a kid, I had both Marvel and DC.
I was my own librarian.
I made card files.
I had origin stories of all the characters, and cross-referenced when they appeared in other comic books.
I was full on.
So youve just been waiting for your chance?
Theyre doing what theyre going to do, and what are you really going to bring to it?
And how did you break that mentality and do your own thing?
For me, the tremendous advantage and attraction of this material was working with an actor I admire.
I felt we could both make demands on each other and take it someplace the other hasnt gone.
Are there any other pitfalls you feel comic book movies fall into?
A fantasy film is often improved by some kind of human reality.
What are we left with?
Or a cop film.
Next Page: Finding the source of Wolverines despair …
There are a lot of rumors about possible X-Men characters turning up in this film.
Im going to let you off the hook there because we actually dont want to spoil such surprises.
What brings him there is an old ally in Japan.
We find Logan in a moment of tremendous disillusionment.
We find him estranged.
One of the models I used working on the film wasThe Outlaw Josey Wales.
He has lived a long time, and hes tired.
Hes tired of the pain.
Sounds like youre leaning hard on the despair of this character.
The story Ive been telling, he enters it believing that.
Therefore hes living in a kind of isolation.
Is there anything about the earlier Wolverine films that you want to avoid?
That sense of darkness.
The liberty I have making a film like this is I can find him.
Im not cutting away to catch you up on any of the Thunderbird team members.
The original Rambo was also a warrior who is lost, without a country.
You could say that.
That sense of simplicity of story.
Thats a lot of what Im really interested in.
You also talk a lot about his mutation which is the power to heal instantly.
Thats how its usually described, but you call it full-on immortality.
The fact he can heal from anything.
That is a kind of dream for us mere mortals.
But its interesting to explore what a curse that is.
True, Logan can heal but he still feels the pain.
That to me is so interesting, the pain.
