Though we’ve already seen quite a few photos from the set of director James Mangold’s (3:10 to Yuma) The Wolverine, the first official image of Hugh Jackman as the titular badass has now landed online.  Unsurprisingly, Jackman is ridiculously ripped and you can see nearly every single vein in his arm as he flexes his claws.  It’s almost hard to look at this image and think, “Yeah, that’s the same guy that was singing in that Les Miserables trailer last week,” but alas, Wolverine and Jean Valjean are one and the same.  The image isn’t necessarily revealing, but I’m really eager to see where Jackman and Mangold take the character in this Japan-centric follow-up to X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Hit the jump to check out the image.  The film also stars Will Yun Lee, Hiroyuki Sanada, Hal Yamanouchi, Tao Okamoto, and Rila Fukushima.  The Wolverine opens on July 26th, 2013.

Last week, director James Mangold (3:10 to Yuma) tweeted that the production for The Wolverine was headed to Japan for part two of their shoot.  After arriving in the Land of the Rising Sun, a few new photos popped up online: some show star Hugh Jackman sporting Logan’s signature hair style while out and about in Tokyo, and another gives us our first look at model-turned-actress Rila Fukushima as Yukio, a blood-thirsty assassin tasked with killing Wolverine, but who becomes enamored with him.  Be sure to check out some previous set photos from The Wolverine here and here.  Hit the jump to check out the new photos. [Update: We've also got a first look at Tao Okamoto as Mariko Yashida after the jump.]

The reason I have hope for The Wolverine is because it has distanced itself from X-Men Origins: Wolverine as much as possible.  It takes place in Japan so American audiences aren’t used to seeing a superhero movie in that setting.  More importantly, the story will have no connection to Origins, and Hugh Jackman said it won’t be overloaded with mutants.  Today, Fox has released a brief and official plot synopsis.  It doesn’t reveal any major details, although I’m curious how Wolverine will be “forever changed” by the events in this film.  He’s already lost his memory, so what will connect this movie to X-Men?

Hit the jump to check out the synopsis along with some tweets from director James Mangold about what’s happening on set.  The film also stars Will Yun Lee, Hiroyuki Sanada, Hal Yamanouchi, Tao Okamoto, and Rila Fukushima.  The Wolverine opens July 26, 2013.

Production on The Wolverine is finally underway, and the images and videos from the set keep pouring in.  We previously saw video of an action sequence, images of Hugh Jackman’s new shorter hairstyle for the follow-up, and subsequent images of Jackman on a “Canadian Rockies” set in Australia, where the pic is being filmed.  Now images have surfaced that show yet another side of said Wolverine, with Jackman looking plenty disheveled sporting a scraggly beard and unkempt hairstyle.  The bulk of the story finds our hero in Japan, but I’m unsure as to how “Hobo Wolverine” fits into the plot.

Hit the jump to check out the images.  Directed by James Mangold, the film also stars Will Yun Lee, Hiroyuki Sanada, Hal Yamanouchi, Tao Okamoto, and Rila Fukushima.  The Wolverine opens on July 26th, 2013.

After a rather long development that saw Darren Aronofsky sign on and then subsequently drop out of the director’s chair, The Wolverine is now finally heading into production.  Under the direction of James Mangold, Hugh Jackman returns as the titular mutant, and the story finds Logan as a stranger in a strange land (ie. Japan).  The ensemble cast includes Will Yun Lee, Hiroyuki Sanada, Hal Yamanouchi, Tao Okamoto, and Rila Fukushima, with Svetlana Khodchenkova recently entering into negotiations to play Viper.  Stage work is being filmed in Australia while on location shooting will take place in Japan, and now a batch of images of some under-construction sets and quite revealing concept art has landed online.

Hit the jump to check out the images of the sets and concept art, but beware of possible major spoilers.

Those of you who were worried that The Wolverine cast would be white-washed can put your fears to rest.  A slew of new casting additions include two veteran actors and two relative newcomers to the screen, all of Japanese descent.  Hiroyuki Sanada (The Last Samurai) and Hal Yamanouchi (The Way Back) will be joined by Tao Okamoto and Rila Fukushima. The latest additions to director James Mangold’s The Wolverine will join Hugh Jackman, who is starring in the title role.  We previously reported that Japanese talent would be featured in the film, which will shoot on soundstages in Australia starting this August along with on-location shots scheduled for Japan.  The Wolverine is currently set for a July 26th, 2013 release.  Hit the jump for more details.

[Update: Variety reports that Will Yun Lee (Die Another Day) has also joined the cast as the film's villain, Harada (aka The Silver Samurai).]

After numerous delays, shooting on The Wolverine will finally begin later this week.  When Steve spoke with 20th Century Fox CEO Tom Rothman at CinemaCon back in May, Rothman stated the that the production would be shooting the sound-stage work in Australia, and shooting on-location in Japan.  Rothman added there will be a lot of local Japanese talent in the movie, and that casting will begin next month.  Today, speaking to his fans on Twitter, star Hugh Jackman says shooting in Australia will begin in August.  Jackman is currently shooting Tom Hooper’s film adaptation of the stage musical Les Miserables.

The Wolverine, directed by James Mangold (Knight and Day), is due out in theaters on July 26, 2013.

Hugh Jackman is currently doing press rounds for Shawn Levy’s Real Steel, which means he’s constantly being asked about The Wolverine. After a rocky start, James Mangold is set to direct the sequel to 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which will take place mostly in Japan. Jackman recently talked to Steve a bit about how much of Darren Aronofsky’s original version of the script is intact in this new iteration, and now the actor has revealed that there’s a possibility that we might see an R-rated version of the film:

“James Mangold and I talked about [an R-rated version] and we’re like ‘Look, let’s not put it off the table.’ There’s even talk about us doing two versions, as in finding a way to do both while you shoot it, which could be really cool. But you need to have a really good reason to exclude those fans.”

We got a glimpse of a NSFW Wolverine with Jackman’s glorious cameo in X-Men: First Class, so I think everyone would agree that an R-rated Wolverine would be a very good thing. Hit the jump to see what else Jackman had to say about the possibility of going R.

While it’s taken awhile to come to fruition, it sounds like The Wolverine is finally on track and heading towards production. After Darren Aronofsky abruptly dropped out of the director’s chair this past March, the project and its 2012 release date were left in a state of limbo. Following an extensive director search, Fox and Hugh Jackman finally settled on James Mangold to take the reins of the superhero flick. Production is now set to begin next spring, straight after Jackman wraps Les Miserables.

Steve recently got the chance to speak with Jackman about the upcoming sci-fi pic Real Steel, but the actor also provided an update on The Wolverine during the course of the conversation. He revealed that the current iteration of the script is about 85% the same as Aronofsky’s version, and commented on Mark Bomback’s rewrite of Christopher McQuarrie’s initial script, saying that he thinks it’s as strong if not stronger than the Aronofsky/McQuarrie version. Hit the jump to check out what he had to say.

Fox’s X-Men: First Class caught quite a few people off-guard when it opened this past May.  The stories of the rushed production schedule and reshoots had many thinking that the prequel would be a mediocre popcorn flick at best.  Instead, we got a smart, taut, and entertaining period film that turned out to be one of the best superhero movies of the year.  Among the film’s many strengths were the nods to the previous entries in the X-Men franchise, including quite possibly one of the greatest cameos of the past decade: Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine.  The actor turns up for just a few seconds, and delivers just one line, but he gets the biggest laugh of the entire film.

Recently, Steve got the chance to sit down with the actor to talk about his upcoming pic Real Steel.  We’ll have the full interview up soon, but Jackman told a great story about how his cameo in the X-Men flick came to be. The scene was filmed at the last minute, and Jackman came up with the final version of his line himself. Hit the jump for the full story.

Screenwriter Mark Bomback (Jack the Giant Killer, the upcoming remake of Total Recall) is set to re-write Christopher McQuarrie’s script for James Mangold’s The Wolverine.  According to Variety, the story still revolves around Wolvie heading to Japan where he falls in love and fights the country’s criminal underworld with nothing but a healing factor, super strength, an adamantium skeleton, and razor-sharp retractable claws (Am I the only one who thinks Wolverine is overpowered?).  The entire cast will be comprised of Japanese and Japanese-American actors except for the new character “Viper” who’s the white secretary for Japan’s Minister of Justice.  I guess the Japanese government is cool hiring people who sound like they should be in a biker gang.  As we previously reported, filming will take place in Vancouver but Variety reports the film will also shoot in Tokyo.  Filming will begin next year after Hugh Jackman wraps on Les Miserables.

Bomback’s previous credits include Live Free or Die Hard, Unstoppable, Godsend, Deception, and the remake of Race to Witch Mountain.  I try not to hang bad movies on the screenwriter since blockbuster films have so many uncredited scribes, but that filmography does not inspire confidence.

The Wolverine is having trouble becoming a movie.  Last fall, Darren Aronofsky signed  on to direct a March 2011 shoot, at which point you got excited about the sequel.  When March came around, Aronofsky dropped out, and you gave up all hope again.  Hugh Jackman promised they’d get The Wolverine in front of cameras by October, and the city of Vancouver was preparing to welcome the crew in November.  About that last point: Christopher McQuarrie’s script takes place mostly in Japan.  The bulk of filming was also scheduled for Japan, but the massive March earthquake complicated things, necessitating a greater reliance on Vancouver.  Deadline hears “weather-related considerations” could pull Fox out of Japan altogether, which is unfortunate.  Moreover, the fall start looks increasingly unlikely, in part to allow Jackman to film Les Miserables.

The delay won’t cripple development.  Despite critical evisceration, X-Men Origins: Wolverine earned nearly $400 million worldwide.  Fox wants a sequel, but director James Mangold may not get the chance to film until spring 2012, and he may not be able to shoot on location as much as we hoped.

I don’t think this news really matters to anyone outside of Vancouver (who are probably so used to seeing films shot in their city that it doesn’t phase them much anymore), but for anyone that cares, The Wolverine and Superman will be shooting in the everycity.  The Vancouver Sun reports that the Wolverine sequel will be shooting in the city from Nov. 11 to March 1, 2012 at Canadian Motion Picture Park in Burnaby, a location that also played host to scenes from Twilight, Supernatural, and Fantastic Four.  The five month shoot in Vancouver indicates that the original plan to film the movie in Japan is probably out.

Man of Steel is also setting up shop in British Columbia and will be filming from September 21 – January 21st.  There will be a casting call this weekend and they’d especially like some people with “older character faces and those who could be passed off as loggers for Nanaimo and commercial fishermen in Ucluelet.”  Click here for details on how to apply.  Other films currently shooting in Vancouver include Diary of a Wimpy Kid 3 and Robert Redford’s The Company You Keep.

Formerly seen together on-screen as the Petrelli brothers on Heroes, Adrian Pasdar and Milo Ventimiglia will now team up behind the mic under the Marvel Television banner. At their WonderCon panel, Marvel’s Head of Television Jeph Loeb announced that Pasdar and Ventimiglia will voice the title roles of the new Iron Man and Wolverine anime series:

“Adrian and Milo are perfect as Iron Man and Wolverine [respectively]. It’s extremely exciting to see these talented guys take on two of the most iconic super hero roles of all time.”

The Iron Man series will feature Tony Stark traveling to Japan to take on the Zodiac consortium while Wolverine, also in Japan, battles the criminal underworld. Each anime series, along with Blade and X-Men will appear exclusively on the G4 network here in the US. G4 will air an exclusive clip from Wolverine on this Wednesday’s Attack of the Show at 7pm ET/PT. Hit the jump for the full press release and an Iron Man anime trailer.

You know it is a slow day when a cabbie’s FaceBook status sparks rumors that Hugh Jackman, currently beefing up for the second Wolverine flick, will also appear in Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class. We did not report on that little bit of “news” because, well, it did not have a ton of merit. The rumors went something like, ‘Hugh Jackman was near the set of First Class, which means he might be in the film.’ So, when The Geek Files (via CBM) spoke with producer Bryan Singer about Jackman’s possible role in First Class, we got a definite answer that should quiet that terrible rumor.

“He’s not in the movie,” Singer said. “He’s in the Wolverine movies.” A Fox spokesperson also added that First Class has not even started filming in Georgia. All of this lends itself to the thought that Jackman visited the set, but did not do much else. I have heard nothing but backlash to the possibility of Jackman reprising his role as Wolverine in First Class. What do you think? Would Jackman’s involvement spark your interest in the film or do you want him to stay away from this?