X-Men: Days of Future Past is getting the feel of Bryan Singer putting the band back together. The Hollywood Report brings us an exclusive that another member of Singer’s original X-Men cast might be appearing in the X-Men: First Class sequel.

The magazines Heat Vision blog is quoting sources stating that Hugh Jackman is in negotiations to reprise his Wolverine character for Singer in the film.

One would think that negotiations will go well, as Jackman played Wolverine in First Class,  and his cameo was one of the main reasons why the film got a PG-13 rating.

With Jackman, Patrick Stewart, and Ian McKellen in the cast, Singer has reunited the three most vital parts of the original trilogy. The question now is who, if anybody, will be next? Will Rebecca Romijn expand HER First Class cameo for the sequel? Will Kelsey Grammer return to play the future Beast now that Nicholas Hoult is back as young Beast? What about Halle Berry and Anna Paquin? Do they have a snowball’s chance in hell of getting Ellen Page to return?

The situation, as they say, is developing.

So when is that second Wolverine film 20th Century Fox has been wanting to make actually going to get in front of cameras? The studio had been looking at getting the project into production sometime during the fall, though they never had a firm start date. Now, Deadline is reporting that the studio may push that start back to next spring.

The problem with getting a firm production start date set lies in the fact that the film is set mostly in Japan and Fox is having some problem locking down filming locations in that country “because of weather-related considerations.” Reportedly the studio is now looking at splitting production between locations in Japan and Canada. However, it is also being reported that Wolverine will have to wait until Jackman is done with his work on Les Miserable.

It must be frustrating for Fox that it is taking so long to get this film into production. The first X-Men Origins: Wolverine grossed$373 million at the worldwide box office despite, or perhaps because, of a well publicized online leak of the film just a few weeks before its theatrical release. Just this summer the most recent X-Men franchise installment First Class drew $350 million, so there is definitely still an appetite for the films among moviegoers. The film is set to be directed by James Mangold, who stepped into the position after Darren Aronofsky dropped out of the project.

If you were a movie pirate looking to steal a print of the latest Harry Potter movie when it was shipped to movie theaters a few weeks ago, you were probably out of luck if you were looking for film canisters with Half-Blood Prince on their side. Of course, you may have noticed a number of prints being shipped out from Warner Brothers of a film called Candle Light. Never heard of it? That’s because there is no film with that title, it’s just a ruse  used by the studio when they shipped their copies of Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince to theaters to prevent theft.

Shipping prints of new releases to movie theaters under phony names is nothing new. Studios have been doing it for years. (See below for a random sampling.) We know that the studios and the Motion Picture Association of America have inflated the impact that piracy has had on their bottom line. But has there ever been a real problem with film prints being stolen by either pirates or over-zealous film collectors? And while it is reportedly a problem in the Indian film market, the only time that I can recall reading a newspaper story about a print of a film being stolen was back in the summer of 1983 when a gunman had a copy of Return Of The Jedi taken out of a Midwest theater’s projection room and placed in his car’s trunk. (Ironically enough, the capstone to the Star Wars prequel trilogy, Revenge Of The Sith, would also be the victim of piracy, though the copies of the film that circulated the weeks before its official release were thought to have stemmed from a disgruntled insider at Lucasfilm.)

A search of Variety reveals only a scant few more such instances. The first dates back to 1994, when a copy of the indie film Cultivating Charlie was stolen out of the trunk of the filmmakers’ rental car in Hollywood. A second news item is on the brisk sale on eBay of 35mm copies of the trailer for Star Wars: The Phantom Menace two months before the full-length film’s release. I think we can all agree that neither instance probably had much, if any, impact on their respective film’s business. (Though I will grant that the producers of Cultivating Charlie were probably out about $3,5000, the cost of the print.) A third story mentions a bootleg of the 1999 comedy Detroit Rock City being circulated among fans of the rock group Kiss, who appear in the film, two months before the film’s release, but it is unclear as to whether the bootleg video tapes originated with a stolen print or not.

Yet despite this extremely low level of print theft activity as reported by Variety, the trade paper still reported statements at least twice from industry reps that stolen prints of films contribute to the losses that the industry claims are due to piracy. A 2001 story even placed that loss at $2.5 billion. But it is clear that the MPAA’s stressing of print theft as a problem doesn’t seem to jibe with Variety‘s own reporting on actual incidences of stolen prints. Of course, since Variety is largely supported by ad revenue received from the major studios, it does have an interest in abandoning its journalistic integrity and just parroting what the people holding the purse strings say. With the MPAA having been caught back in January 2008 inflating the percentage of piracy caused by college students by 300%, I find it very easy to dismiss anything that the lobbying organization has to say. They are only interested in protecting their signatory studios’ bottom line.

Which brings us around to the following question- In this day when so much of production is carried on the digital world, isn’t the danger of digital piracy much greater than piracy involving a physical film print? Surely, the leak of the Wolverine work print at the beginning of this year’s summer blockbuster season, amongst other films, taught us this. And even with the

And do they honestly believe that they are fooling anyone by changing the film titles on their shipping canisters? Perhaps they think that some film pirate is going to think, “Well gee, I don’t see any copies of the new Harry Potter film… Just four copies of some film I’ve never heard of or seen advertised called Candle Light being shipped to this one theater. What funny coincidence, cuz there’s lots of candles in those Harry Potter movies… Oh well, I’m sure it’s not related…”

They’re really not fooling anyone.

And just for fun, here’s some films from the past few years that have shipped under false titles. Not a whole lot of imagination showing here on many of these.

• The Brave One- Sweet Revenge
• Casino Royale- Rough Skins
• The Dark Knight- Oliver’s Army*
• GI Joe- Silver King
• Hancock- Hidden From Earth
• Harry Potter And the Goblet Of Fire- Happy Days
• Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkahban- Radiator Blues
• Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix- The Raven
• Julie & Julia- Twice The Risk
• King Kong (2005)- Tiny Dancer
• My Sister’s Keeper- Family Life
• The Orphan- Infant Terror
• Star Trek- Code 53
• Sweeney Todd- Skunk
• Transformers 2- Altar

*Director Christopher Nolan must really like the name Oliver, as his new film Inception is current;y shooting LA under the name Oliver’s Arrow.

Special thanks to the various theater projectionists who helped compile the list of fake film shipping titles.

In the opinion of many, it would be hard for a Wolverine sequel to not get better. But few could expect that an Oscar-winning screenwriter would be tapped to write the follow up, and his involvement might bring an acclaimed director back to the X-Men franchise.

The Hollywood Reporter has announced that Christopher McQuarrie, who won an Academy Award for his work on The Usual Suspects, will be taking over writing chores on the sequel to this year’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

The sequel is rumored to be an ipso facto adaptation to the character-defining Chris Claremont and Frank Miller Wolverine comic book miniseries. If that is the case, the story will take place in Japan and deal with Logan’s run in with crime boss and his star-crossed romance with the gangster’s daughter.

McQuarrie’s involvement has caused MTV’s Splash Page to theorize that it might also mean director Bryan Singer’s return to the X-Men franchise. McQuarrie is a frequent collaborator of Singer’s. In addition to The Usual Suspects, the screenwriter also worked with the director on Public Access and Valkyrie, worked an uncredited contribution on the first X-Men film, and received an “special thanks” on Apt Pupil.

Singer has recently gone on record expressing interest in returning to the X-Men film universe. His involvement in rebooting Warner’s Superman franchise with Superman Returns took him out of the running for second X-Men sequel, X-Men: The Last Stand, which was directed instead by Brett Ratner.

Singer’s involvement is only in the wishful thinking stage, but is interesting to contemplate.

When an unfinished version of the upcoming X-Men Origins: Wolverine leaked online late last month, Twentieth Century Fox studio honco Tom Rothman quickly sprung into damage control mode, claiming-

The version that went out is unfinished. It’s about 10 minutes shorter, doesn’t have key scenes, it wasn’t edited, and none of the effects shots were in any remotely final form. It’s a complete misrepresentation of the film and is deeply unfair to the people who have worked on it for years.

Now, however, it is beginning to look like the length of the leaked “rough cut” is the exact same length of the final, released version. Further more, some early internet chatter is stating that bar the unfinished effects and other technical items, Rothman’s exhortations were wrong and, for story telling purposes, the leaked version and the release version are exactly the same movie.

Those who have followed the business side of Hollywood know that the relationship between Rothman’s view of the world and the more commonly held perception of reality is often a contentious one. Genre fans have been dismayed at how comic book and science-fiction franchises have been  treated at Fox during Rothman’s tenure. Ongoing rumors state that Rothman returns that disdain, only seeing fans as nothing but cattle who will turn out for any genre movie, no matter the quality. (And to a certain extant, I will grant that he probably is right.) There’s no love lost between the two here.

Rothman has also not done his best to endear himself to the talent he employs. Dark City director Alex Proyas has stated that after making I, Robot for 20th Century Fox, he would never work for the studio again because of interference from Rothman and his “evil minions.” Babylon A.D. director Mathieu Kassovitz complained that severe corporate interefernce turned a movie that he hoped would “teach us that the education of our children will mean the future of our planet” into “pure violence and stupidity.” The Planet Of The Apes, the two Fantastic Four films, Hitman and Alien Vs. Predator are just a few films that have also suffered from Rothman’s heavy-handed approach.

The question is not so much “Did Rothman lie?” as it is “Is anyone surprised that Rothman lied?”

It certainly would be in his interest to try and put a spin on what was rapidly turning into a public relations fiasco for the studio who was already concerned whether the film could turn a decent profit. Many fans were already turned off by the rushed and lackluster X-Men 3. Wolverine star Hugh Jackman’s last film, Australia, died a horrible, but well deserved, death at the box office. Any hoped for anticipation for the movie to be gained by having Jackman hosting the Oscars was quickly trampled under the dancing feet of too many musical numbers that evening.

I have a feeling, however, that deep down Fox maybe feels that it may have been in their best interests that the film did leak. If it flops at the box office, they can point to the leak as the reason why, never mind that maybe people stayed away out of disinterest, a poorly handled marketing campaign or bad word-of-mouth from critics. Wolverine will be sacrificed on the same alter already stained with the blood of A Man Apart, Hostel 2, Rob Zombie’s Halloween remake and Ang Lee’s Hulk. All of these were films whose poor box office receipts were blamed on internet leaks, regardless of the quality of said movies.

All poor box office receipts will do in this case will be to give Big Media lobbyists more ammunition when they start making noises for even stricter copyright legislation than the already draconian and massively flawed Digital Millenium Copyright Act. As such, we’ll see yet another round of grandmothers thrown in jail and further erroding of the concept of Fair Use.

Of course, the argument that piracy negatively impacts box office flies in the face of a movie like Taken. Having been available online since the fall of 2008 thanks to an early European release, the movie – which opened January 30 here in the States – has still pulled in just north of $218 million, according to Box Office Mojo. But as I have pointed out before, Rothman and reality aren’t always the best of friends. The last thing I expect to see from the studios is a sudden rethink about the actual quality of what it turns out and perhaps leaving the artistic side of film to those who didn’t graduate college with a degree in business.

Perhaps I am being a bit alarmist. In fact, I hope I am. I am also hoping that Wolverine is a good film. But based on an early draft of the script I’ve read and some of the early buzz, I’m not so sure that it will be. We’ll all find out next Friday at the theater. See you there.

This year has been a very good one for fans of comic book movies. The genre seemed unstoppable at the box office and destined to be a force to recon with for the foreseeable future. Then December came around and a lot of comic movie fans started scratching Lionsgate off of their Christmas lists. Because two comic adaptations from the studio might just kill the comic book genre altogether.

Punisher: War Zone and The Spirit share more in common than just a studio. Both are films based on iconic comic book characters, characters that changed the medium when they were introduced. Both movies offer the characters returning to celluloid (The Punisher starred in two previous motion pictures, and the Spirit was the focus of a TV movie in the late 1980s). Both films were released within weeks of one another, and both have the makings of being two of the biggest flops in cinematic history.

Punisher: War Zone was released on December 5th and only ranked a 22% fresh over at Rotten Tomatoes. It opened in a paltry 8th position, grossing only $4,271,451 in its opening weekend. It was out of theaters 3 weeks later, with only $8,816,788 in tickets sales, earning back only a quarter of its $35 Million estimated production budget.

Punisher: War Zone left theaters just as The Spirit was entering them. Frank Miller’s adaptation of the classic Will Eisner hero fared even worse with the critics over at Rotten Tomatoes, earning only a 16% fresh ranking.

The film opened on Christmas day, and, like War Zone,it opened in the lower part of the top 10, at number 9,  in its opening weekend. It earned $6,510,000 for the the post-holiday weekend and $10.352,000 for the five-day period. Budget estimates for the film are not available, but logic dictates that it has to be close to Sin City‘s $40 Million budget. Earning 25% of your production costs back in one weekend is as good as what Punisher: War Zone did in its entire run, but The Spirit  is still unlikely to make a profit.

There is one thing that is certain. Two high-profile comic book films tanking at the box office in such quick succession could be damaging to the genre’s future.

This might seem outrageous to some. After all, films adapting or inspired by comic books made close to $3 Billion dollars worldwide up to this point. But Hollywood is very much a “what have you done for me lately” kind of town. The Dark Knight came out months ago, it’s ancient history. The studios might look at the performance of Punisher: War Zone and The Spirit and think it indicates a change in the tastes of the moviegoing audience.

Comic fans might say there are mitigating factors. War Zone was the third time to the well for the Punisher character. It could have been three strikes and you’re out. And The Spirit was released the same day as four other highly anticipated films–Marley and Me, Bedtime Stories, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Valkyrie. Some movie had to lose in that scenario.

On top of that, both films were directed by relatively unknown and inexperience directors and neither had a big-name star in the lead. Add that to the bad reviews, and there are valid reasons why people stayed away other than they were just tired of comic book movies.

The effect these flops have on the genre will not be seen right away. Watchmen, barring any legal injunction, will be hitting screens in March. X-Men Origins: Wolverine will arrive two months later. Pre-production has begun on a sequel to Iron Man and you know Warner Brothers will have one for The Dark Knight as well. So there will be comic movies coming for the next couple years at least.

But it will be interesting to see if studios are willing to take a chance on lesser known comic properties. There is also a chance that some of the comic films in development might be sent into turnaround. In a perfect world, you’d have the studios look at Punisher: War Zone and The Spirit and figure out their mistakes to make a better comic book movie. But it is far more likely that they could move away from the genre entirely.

Five new photos from next summer’s superhero flick X-Men Origins: Wolverine have shown up on line. You’ll find them in the gallery below. I hate to say it, but they look absolutely pedestrian, nothing too exciting about the poses or composition. I haven’t had a good feeling about this film, which will star Hugh Jackman and Liev Schreiber, for quite some time, and this is not doing anything to allay any of my misgivings. Between this and Australia, I’m starting lose faith that Hugh Jackman knows how to pick good projects.

Since Bryan Singer started work on the first X-Men films, fans of the Marvel Comics numerous comic book series have been clamoring for their various favorite mutant hero to appear on the big screen. While some of had their wish granted, one fan favorite never made the transition to the big screen- the card-throwing cajun hero Gambit. That’s about to change, though, when the character will appear in next summer’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The kinetic energy manipulating mutant will have a small role in the feature and from the first picture released of actor Taylor Kitsch, it looks like he might not be sporting Gambit’s trademark long, duster coat.