A Battle is Waging between The Director and Studio over ‘Wolverine’
Venkman here - Well it seems that ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ is having some who’s in control problems. Here is a big movie, with big stars, and a popular character so of course there are going to be big problems. I’ve heard about some rumblings going on between the creative people and the studio executives, but nothing really to back it up until now. So there are 2 main players in this little war for the Wolverine movie, in the first corner the director of the film Gavin Hood who is trying to do the right thing. He is the man with the creative talent and vision. In the other corner FOX co-chairman CEO Tom Rothman the meticulous micro-manager. Notice that Marvel is not involved because they have no control over what is done in this movie because the property belongs to Fox now. So if it ends up sucking its not Marvels fault. At the same time they did give up the rights and the fans will blame who they feel fit to blame.
Hollywood-elsewhere has the scoop:
There was/is a huge Wolverine set being recently used. I’m not even sure which lot it was built on, but the look or mood of the set is, according to a source who was told Hood’s view of things, supposed to be on the dark, dinghy and somber side. I only know what I was told, but the basics are that Hood was away from the set for whatever reason (shooting something else, taking a day or two off), and when he returned to the big somber set he was shocked to find that it had been repainted top to bottom on Rothman’s orders. The murky-scuzzy vibe was gone, and a brighter and less downish look had taken its place.
Now that is a total dick move on Rothmans part. Hey CEO Rothman if you want your Wolverine movie to be successful then stay out of the production. What the hell are you trying to do? Kill it? Are you trying to prove to everyone that you are the guy in charge and you can do what you want? If so it’s a big mistake because the fans will turn on you and the studio for jacking up their favorite comic book character. Do you want this to end up like X-Men 3?
There is also a rumor out there that the studio has changed the Character of Deadpool. I wonder if they were trying to hide that aspect of the character. All I saw was a quick glimpse of him with bleached out hair. Not impressed.
Now is a time to take a lesson from ‘The Dark Knight’. Dark, dinghy, and somber sells you fools! Look how much money Batman made because it was done right! Wolverine has that type of money potential earning power you idiots! Now your going to go out and take that away from one of the darkest comic book characters of all time? Are you insane? If you take the grittiness out, the movie will make less money and you’ll have a bunch of pissed off fans. Is that what you want? Another failed attempt and an X-Men movie?
The studio hired a director with a vision you obviously liked otherwise why did you hire him? He is in his position to make a great movie and get people pumped up about it. A lot of fans are still pissed off about what the studio did to X-Men 3. I just hope Gavin Hood has the balls to stand up to the studio execs and make his film instead of doing what Brett Ratner did and make the movie with his tail between his legs.
Most likely this Tom Rothman guy will not ease up. He seems like one of those guys that is there to let you know he has the power and can do what he wants, even if it means screwing up one of the studios biggest movies to come out next year.
This is Tom Rothman
Right on the money.
But I feel that when you say that if it ends up sucking it’s not Marvel’s fault, you’re not putting enough emphasis on fan reaction. If it does end up sucking, the fact that Marvel didn’t leave room for itself to maneuver might come back to bite them in the rear.
Of course, if it doesn’t fail and ends up adding to the fan base, the real winner would clearly be Marvel. A bit of a big gamble though.
@ Seb G
Totally agree. Just because you take the money and run doesn’t mean you can’t be blamed for it stinking.
Your right about the Marvel comment I made. If it sucks the fans will turn on Marvel and if its good Marvel wins the game. But if they did have a hand putting this movie together I am pretty sure it would be what the character Wolverine deserves. I think Marvel gave up any room the had when they sold off the rights of X-Men to FOX.
I would hope that a blog with “geek” in the title would be written by someone who understands the difference between “your” and “you’re”. The American education system fails again!
Grammar Nazi your understanding of what a “geek” is is way off. You see a “nerd” would know the difference between “your” and “you’re”. Not a “geek” though I could care less myself. A “geek” is pretty much a person that has a lot of knowledge on certain subjects that are pretty much useless to the average human. Like movies, comic books, and video games. “Nerds” are the people with the book smarts. Every now and then you might come across a nerdgeek, but its rare it like spotting the bigfoot.