So… with Darren Aronofsky excusing himself from helming the next Wolverine movie some months ago, who might 20th Century Fox be looking at to replace him?
A handful of 8 directors are on the short list, says Variety, and our man Antoine Fuqua is one of them! He joins Jose Padilha, Doug Liman, Mark Romanek, Justin Lin, Gavin O’Connor, James Mangold and Gary Shore.
But no need to get too excited, because, well, it’s a just short list; he’s one of a few and hasn’t been hired for the job… yet 🙂
Who’ll get the job? *Shrug* It partly depends on what Fox is going for.
And I’m guessing since Aronofsky was the primary, Fox execs appreciated his usually wildly imaginative, inventive directing style. He seems to revel in “dark” material, so one can also assume that his take on Wolverine would have been gloomily pessimistic, and much grittier and “dirtier” than Gavin Hood’s rendition, which I thought was weak.
Of all the names above, I think Brazillian Jose Padilha (Elite Squad 1 & 2, and Bus 174), who’s already been hired to direct the Robocop reboot, would be the most curious choice.
The screenplay, written by Christopher McQuarrie, will reportedly take place mostly in Japan.
One of the contenders, Gary Shore, whom I had to look up because I wasn’t immediately familiar with his name, cut the below Wolverine “trailer,” which he uploaded to Vimeo 3 months ago. No idea if it was something he’s used to campaign for the job, or just done for the fun of it.
Wolverine Vs The Hand from Gary Shore on Vimeo.