Friday, May 26, 2006

Hugh Jackman's Shot to Break Free to New Genres


Before X-men Hugh Jackman certainly wasn't a name most people recognized. But now that Hugh Jackman has had the chance to get the attention of audiences as Wolverine, the question seems to be that with X-Men: The Last Stand ending the three film series, can Jackman burst free from the franchise and image that comes with the Logan and Van Helsing image?

2006 could be Jackman's year to break free if he wants to.

Hugh Jackman gets a shot in Woody Allen's non-New York film Scoop costaring Jackman and Scarlett Johansson (who got some attention in Woody Allen's 2005 film Match Point).

Hugh Jackman gets a shot in Christopher Nolan's (Memento, Batman Begins) new film The Prestige. This film about competing magicians (Jackson and Christian Bale). This film is also set in London and Scarlett Johansson also has a role in this film.

Hugh Jackman gets a shot in Darren Arenofsky's (Requim for a Dream, Pi) new film The Fountain. Rachel Weisz is Jackman's co-star.

And then Hugh Jackman gets to lend his voice talents in Happy Feet (Animated March of the Penguins with an Emperor Penguin who can't swim) and Flushed Away (It's Finding Nemo in reverse with Rats getting flushed to the sewers of...you guessed it, London).

And yet if being under the direction of greats like Woody Allen, Christopher Nolan and Darren Arenofsky...then maybe Jackman is wise to return to his X-Men success with a Wolverine spinoff (at this point named Wolverine)...but if there's any success with these films...come on Hugh...say peace out the x-men.

Related Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

8 comments:

Paula said...

Without the evil claws and the wicked side-burns, Hugh kinda looks like a wussy-man to me. I wouldn't seek him out in other movies.

Yih said...

I completely agree. He's too good of an actor to be stuck in the periphery while posing to be a main character in the mediocre xmen series.

thanks for your comment as well.

Wasp Jerky said...

Any idea when The Fountain is coming out? I've been waiting for a new Aronofsky film for a long time...

Magnus said...

The first two X-Men films were exceptional for their genre - a genre riddled with mediocrity and, apparently, difficult to translate from the page to the big screen. Jackman did a good job at making Logan seem a bit more rounded, his Wolverine was anything but a card board cut-out.
Haven't seen the third film and am not too keen to do so anytime soon. I just had see who was at the controls to know that it wasn't going to compare to Singer's work in the slightest. Marvel is slitting its own throat with these awful films. (F4, DD, Pun.)
As for Jackman, it is definitely time to step up to the plate, stop swinging at the garbage and really knock one out of the park. There's a lot of untapped potential there.

Anonymous said...

Are you sure about X-men ending? Considering the record breaking numbers earned this weekend and the ending of the movie...the boy from oz might be sporting claws a little longer.

Anonymous said...

man am i dumb...i can even spell my own name. i meant andrea

Magnus said...

Actually, given Marvel's penchant for unintentional box-office masochism, you might be right Andrea. To me, it seems that Marvel focuses too hard on the bottom end (merchandising, profits, etc.) than actually putting out quality genre films, such as what DC decided to do with Batman Begins.
Not that BB was done solely for artistic purposes, but I think people at the associated companies wanted to avoid the kind of crap they had put out with the Schumaker Batmans. (I'd include Burton's as well, but people seem to like those ones as well for some odd reason) As for Marvel I can think of three solid films they have been tied to: X-Men,X2 and Spidey 2. (Hated the first one) Anything else has been cheaply made or over-produced, ineptly written and directed, shoddy and seem aimed at the idiot market. (DD, new and old Punisher, F4, Electra and early 90's Captain America)

Javier Aldabalde said...

Aronofsky said something like Jackman is better than he's ever been before, or something like that. So he may really break out this year with "The Fountain".