Back in March 2011 when Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan) chose to depart the project, it was starting to look like The Wolverine might never become a reality, but now - some sixteen months later - filming has finally got underway on Fox's latest X-Men offering this past Monday in Kurnell, New South Wales. Once again, Hugh Jackman leads the cast in his signature role as the adamantium-clawed mutant, becoming the first actor to portray the same superhero on six separate occasions (or five, if you're not including his brief cameo in last year's X-Men: First Class), with director James Mangold (3:10 to Yuma, Knight and Day) taking on the reigns of the follow-up to 2009's disappointing solo spin-off X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Based on a script by Academy Award-winner Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects) with additional rewrites from Mark Bomback (Total Recall), The Wolverine is set to adapt Chris Claremont and Frank Miller's classic 1982 four-issue limited series Wolverine, which centres on Logan's pre-X-Men exploits in Japan. Early set photos have hinted towards a World War II setting, depicting a Japanese prisoner of war camp, as well as concept art that points towards the detonation of an atomic bomb - something that's sure test Wolverine's astonishing healing powers to the max...
Jackman is joined in the cast of The Wolverine by Will Yun Lee (Total Recall) as Harada (a.k.a. the Silver Samurai), Brian Tee (The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift) as Noburo Mori, Hiroyuki Sanada (The Last Samurai) as Shingen, Hal Yamanouchi (The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou) as Yashida and Svetlana Khodchenkova (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) as Viper, along with newcomers Rila Fukushima as Yukio and Tao Okamoto as Mariko. Take a look at the first set video, which comes courtesy of Australia's 7News:
The Wolverine is scheduled for release on July 26th, 2013.
