Fox CEO Tom Rothman Says THE WOLVERINE Will Shoot in Australia and Japan; Calls it the “True, Berserker, Bad Ass Wolverine”

All throughout last week, we brought you updates on a number of 20th Century Fox projects gleaned from Steve’s wide-ranging interview at CinemaCon with the studio’s CEO, Tom Rothman.  The exec talked about a New Mutants movie, the rating of Prometheus, the Rise of the Planet of the Apes sequel, A Good Day to Die Hard, and gave updates on Fantastic Four, Daredevil, and Chronicle 2.  Today we have one last update to share, and it concerns a highly anticipated Fox property.

During the interview, Steve asked Rothman for a status update on the sequel The Wolverine.  James Mangold (3:10 to Yuma) is onboard to direct and after a number of delays, production is finally slated to get underway later this year once Hugh Jackman wraps Les Miserables.  Rothman revealed that filming will take place in Australia and Japan, and reassured fans that we’re in for a very hardened Wolverine.  Hit the jump to see what he had to say.

A couple weeks ago, it was announced that The Wolverine would be filming in Australia.  The news wasn’t incredibly shocking given that X-Men Origins: Wolverine also shot Down Under, but fans were left wondering about the long-planned location shooting in Japan.  Much of the story of The Wolverine takes place in Japan, but the destination was thrown into doubt when production was delayed and the country was hit by a devastating natural disaster.  Rothman revealed that, despite some work in Australia, filming will also take place in Japan after all:

“Hugh Jackman is finishing Les Miserables in London, we’re gearing up and prepping now.  We’ll shoot the stage work in Australia and the location work in Japan, and we’ll start casting in the next month or so.  There’ll be a lot of local Japanese talent in it.”

Rothman also had some encouraging words to say about the story itself:

“This is […] a pretty original take.  It’s based on a very successful run in the comics, but it’s a true Wolverine movie, I mean this is the true berserker, bad ass Wolverine.”

A berserker, bad ass Wolverine is certainly a Wolverine I can get onboard with.  This description jives with Jackman’s comments about the film’s rating, as he previously revealed that he and Mangold were looking into possibly shooting both a PG-13 and R-rated version of the film.  He cautioned that they would need to find a really good reason to exclude fans by going R.

Whatever the rating they eventually settle on, it’s definitely looking like Mangold and Jackman have some exciting plans for the Wolverine character and I’m eager to hear more about the project as it moves closer to production.  The Wolverine is slated to open on July 26th, 2013.  Be sure to look for Steve’s full interview with Rothman on the site soon, in which the exec talks about everything from Fox’s philosophy on making quality films, to what Rothman thinks about all this 48 frames per second business.