Duncan Jones has recently been the recipient of well earned praise for his new s-f flick Source Code but its his future projects that are getting people excited now. Can we give the guy a break? He’s just made one of the best movies of 2011 so far. That’s a good point, no we shouldn’t! Get him back on that chair!
After the abdication of Darren Aronofsky from the sequel of X-men Origins: Wolverine titled just The Wolverine fans and critics have been keen to pass the mantle onto another equally talented director. Perhaps merely in the vain attempt to peer pressure its definite creation and thus to ensure the last legacy in the wolf’s cinematic history isn’t the toe-curling last outing.
The rumour mill has been spinning like crazy and no one likes to speculate and dream more than that ever growing fanboy niche. Principally, one name has emerged time and again, Duncan Jones. Indeed, the Moon and Source Code director could be heading up a new Wolverine project. After the box office success of Source Code he has said that he is going “to take a few meetings about some of the more studio films.”
As we know there is nothing big studios like more nowadays than a comic conversion to the big screen but with the last Wolverine taking a serious nose dive into the ever growing graveyard of Hugh Jackman movies (jokes! I actually love him a fair bit) it’s scary to think of another big studio adaptation. What we can hope for is Jones being given autonomy and the creative room to go crazy with a character that he’s attested is great to watch. Jones said “he’s got a sense of humour and he’s gruff and he’s kind of pissed off at everyone. I like that.” Well I think it’s safe to say that we like that Duncan Jones likes the Wolverine character. It’s true he is a great character but as we’ve seen is a difficult one to build a successful narrative around.
The first two X-men films actually did a very good job of laying the groundwork for future sequels and prequels whether by accident or design. Moments such as the one in Professor X’s lab were we where introduced to the idea that Logan could be very well older than the Professor himself and cor blimey what is that weird metal and were is it from? These issues I think could flourish though it necessitates recovering from the last films shoddy combination of romance, bromance, origin and redemption. It all really was a little bit too much to handle as well as I think real fanboys not appreciating the blatant set up of another character at the end of the film.
A Jones adaptation, we can assume, would have the focus shifted centrally on his leading wolf and I think this really is the key to success. The issues that the director has already proved adapt with over his last two movies especially identity and isolation are perfect ones that need to be alluded to in a new Wolverine picture. Jones might fear himself being labelled as a one trick pony bringing these issues to the fore again but it will surely net him the fanboy love that the last film was missing. I mean they went wrong from the off, ‘X-men Origins’? The audience wants to learn about the most evocative character in the X-men saga not have him as one facet of a new money making franchise. The film community isn’t dumb and until you give us what we want then we aren’t going to buy it, especially not the DVD release, even if you did trick us into going to the cinema (twice…)
An another note does anyone else think Duncan Jones could act and direct in the new movie…?
