Warrior soul:
Jackman heads to Japan for The Wolverine. Picture: 20th Century Fox
News.com.au reports
The man with the claws is back.
The first official photo of The Wolverine made its debut today, with Hugh Jackman's ripped physique and pulsing veins front and centre.
The Wolverine is based on the celebrated Chris Claremont-Frank Miller comic series from 1980s and, according to the official synopsis, finds "Logan, the eternal warrior and outsider, in Japan. There, samurai steel will clash with adamantium claw, as Logan confronts a mysterious figure from his past in an epic battle that will leave him forever changed."
Beyond showing fans that Jackman's commitment to the role is total - the exercise regime behind that body must be frightening - the picture doesn't reveal any plot details.
What it does do is give the flagging Wolverine franchise a shot in the arm.
Reaction to Jackman's last outing as the clawed mutant, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, was mostly negative, and the film's box office was down on previous entries in the X-Men saga.
The Wolverine is set to be a stand-alone film and won't feature other characters from the X-Men films.
The photo is all attitude and has a real Bruce Lee/Enter the Dragon feel about it.
Jackman is a fan the Claremont-Miller comic series, which is widely praised for giving the character real depth.
"I love the idea of this kind of anarchic character, the outsider, being in this world full of honour and tradition and customs," Jackman said earlier this year.
"The idea of the samurai too, and the tradition there - it's really great. In the comic book he gets his ass kicked by a couple of samurai - not even mutants."
Claremont said that his comic series envisaged Wolverine as a failed samurai. "Frank (Miller) didn't want to do four issues of punching and hitting and neither did I," he told The Times when X-Men: Origins came out.
"I wanted to get into who he was. My idea of Wolverine was that if you walked into his room half of it would be a total trash heap, a sloppy couch and more beer cans than you can imagine, and half would be the quintessence of economy and grace - a stand for his sword and maybe a picture on a table. Wolverine is essentially at war with himself. There’s a part of him that wants to be this pure, pristine man of honour and there’s a part of him that wants to say, ‘F*** this’ and hit the bars."
Shooting on the superhero film is taking place at Sydney's Fox Studio.
The plan had been to film The Wolverine in Japan last year but the devastation from the tsunami and quake put those plans on hold, pushing back the production schedule.
The film also lost its original director, Darren Aronofsky, who pulled out because he didn't want to be away from his family for a long period of time.
The new director James Mangold, although not as creative as Aronofsky, is a safe set of hands. 20th Century Fox, which is producing the film, had major problems with the director of X-Men Origins.
Production on that film lagged behind schedule because of director Gavin Hood's inexperience with big budget movies and the producers had to bring in Superman director Richard Donner to help finish the movie.
The Wolverine comes out next year.
Spot the similarities: Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon.
Picture: 20th Century Fox
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