X-Men Origins: Wolverine 2 Update! Hugh Jackman Leaves Avon Man

By Kevin Coll • August 17, 2010 • 2 Comments

It’s been a while now since we have had some Wolverine 2 updates on the site, and with The First Class taking precedent at the studio, we didn’t think we’d have one for awhile. Nice to know we were wrong. Deadline New York is reporting that Hugh Jackman has left the project Avon Man, of which he has recently been attached to star in after his robot flick, Real Steel.

The site presumes, as do we, that this is because he is ready for the mutton chops and claws again for Wolverine 2, which rumor has it, is going into production next year. The film has no director attached to it yet, but screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie, who went uncredited for his work on the first X-Men film, has turned in his script.

The rumored plot for the sequel will focus on the relationship between Wolverine and Mariko, the daughter of a Japanese crime lord, and what happens to Logan when he escapes to Japan after the Three Mile Island incident of the first film.

This is the Wolverine movie I have been waiting for, as the tone, style and story are elements we haven’t seen before in the X-Men universe. One of my biggest complaints about the first film is that it didn’t show us an origin we didn’t already know about from X2: X-Men United. Producer Lauren Shuler-Donner has said that, “Wolverine will have a different fighting style due to Mariko’s father having this stick-like weapon. There’ll be samurai, ninja, katana blades, different forms of martial arts – mano-a-mano, extreme fighting.” She continued: “We want to make it authentic so I think it’s very likely we’ll be shooting in Japan.”

As far as Avon Man is concerned, it’s scheduled to start shooting in October, and the trade site indicated that producers have already started reaching out to other actors to fill in for Jackman. They still plan on making their October start date for the film. Avon Man, which was written by Allan Loeb, centers on an auto salesman who, after getting laid off, swallows his pride and takes a job selling Avon door-to-door. He then rallies his struggling town and laid-off co-workers to join him to help win a regional sales competition. I wonder if Clooney is available?

Read more from Kevin Coll >>

Be the first to like.

like this post?

(unlike)