'Wolverine 2' Director Debate, Talk of 'Indiana Jones 5' and Will Rodriguez Direct 'Deadpool'?

Plus pics from the set of Scorsese's 'Hugo Cabret'

By: Kevin Blumeyer
Published: Saturday, August 21st 2010 at 11:55 AM

Ryan Reynolds, Taylor Kitsch, Hugh Jackman, Liev Schrieber and Lily Collins in X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Photo: 20th Century Fox

The big news item of the day is the Vulture exclusive suggesting David Slade (The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, 30 Days of Night) is in line to direct Wolverine 2. Claude Brodesser-Akner reports Fox has narrowed the search down to Slade and Robert Schwentke (Flightplan, Red). The decision will ultimately come down to Hugh Jackman but an inside source is confident it's going to be Slade, which seems like an inspired choice to me.

I loved Slade's Hard Candy and 30 Days of Night, and from what I've heard he at least did a good job with the action scenes in the third Twilight installment. The plot for the Wolverine sequel picks up in Japan where the first one left off and sees Logan jump into a forbidden romance with a Japanese woman, promising all sorts of claw versus samurai sword combat.

Adding to the superhero intrigue is Hero Complex's Joe Horn, who caught up with Robert Rodriguez and asked him about his possible involvement with Deadpool, the spin-off featuring Ryan Reynolds's character from X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Rodriguez was reportedly enthusiastic about the "great script" from the Zombieland team of Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick and said he has been in meetings with Fox to direct the Wolverine spin-off, yet he said he's still debating between three projects for his next directing job, one of which is the long-delayed Sin City 2. With these guys writing the script, I'm hoping for all sorts of smartassery from Ryan Reynolds and Rodriguez's involvement would be the cherry on top… but I'm having trouble deciding if i'd rather see a Rodriguez-directed Deadpool or Sin City 2 finally taken off the back-burner.

The X-Men franchise news keeps flowing as Comic Book Movie reports Alice Eve requested to leave the cast of X-Men: First Class, following up on the news from earlier this week that she had been replaced by "Mad Men" actress January Jones. The story says Eve (She's Out of My League) and her management team petitioned for Fox to release her from her contract after becoming frustrated by some recent script changes. Strangely enough, Fox is still interested in fitting Eve into one of their upcoming films, with a role in Fantastic Four Reborn as the Sue Storm/Invisible Woman character being the likeliest of possibilities. And if that wasn't enough, Marvel is also looking to include her in The Avengers as a villain.

Coming back to more Robert Schwentke news, Heat Vision reports Schwentke will be in Louisiana this weekend with Bruce Willis and John Malkovich shooting a scene for Red, but there's no need to panic because this isn't any sort of last minute reshoot. The movie, set for release on October 15, has been testing very well and the scene in question is actually just a short comedic tag for the end of the movie which may or may not end up making the final cut.

Chloe Moretz and Asa Butterfield on the set of Hugo Cabret
Photo: Zimbio.com

Zimbio has a set of photos of everyone's favorite 13-year-old ass-kicker, Chloe Moretz (Kick-Ass, Let Me In), on the set of her new movie, Martin Scorsese's family adventure Hugo Cabret. You can click here to check out all eleven pics.

Deadline's Nikki Finke has the exclusive on Paramount reaching out to Art Marcum and Matt Holloway, two of the writers of the first Iron Man movie, to write a new live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes umbrella will produce the movie, which Paramount hopes will follow in the footsteps of Transformers and kick start its next huge franchise. The studio is hoping for a first draft by October, so they can immediately start recruiting a director and set a release date for sometime in 2012.

As if Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull didn't do enough to tarnish a once great trilogy, it looks like a fifth Indiana Jones movie is on the way. A report from ShowbizSpy quotes Shia LaBeouf as saying "they're script writing right now." The actor went on to say Steven Spielberg pulled him into his office and pitched him some "crazy" ideas so it's safe to assume LaBeouf will be back as Mutt Williams, the son of Indiana Jones. The last installment was good for nostalgia and little else, but I have a feeling there's not enough of that left for another successful go 'round.

Finally, Idris Elba (The Losers) has signed to play Dr. Alex Cross in a new installment of the James Patterson book franchise, a character previously portrayed by Morgan Freeman in 1997's Kiss the Girls and 2001's Along Came A Spider. Deadline reports the film will be based on "Cross," the 12th book in the series of detective novels, with David Twohy (Pitch Black, A Perfect Getaway set to direct. The novel follows the former FBI agent, now working for a private practice, as he works to stop a serial killer called The Butcher who may be connected to the murder of his wife. Great casting in my opinion, as I always thought Freeman was too old for the part and Elba is a good actor who deserves a chance to shine in a leading role.

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