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Scratch the Warner Bros period crime drama Gangster Squad from Darren Aronofsky’s Things To Do List. That Will Beall-scripted picture momentarily seemed to be the only thing in the way of the Black Swan helmer reuniting with his Fountain star Hugh Jackman in the Christopher McQuarrie-scripted X-Men Origins: Wolverine 2 at 20th Century Fox. The festival acclaim for Black Swan has put the filmmaker in hot demand (there was also a reported flirtation with Superman) and now it’s a matter of dealmaking isn’t easy. Word is that Aronofsky–who worked for next to nothing upfront to get Black Swan made is in the throes of landing a healthy payday in the vicinity of $5 million against 5% of gross. Fox hasn’t closed a deal yet with the filmmaker’s CAA reps, but clearly Fox sees the filmmaker as ready to make that leap from modest grossing prestige fare like The Wrestler to the high gross stratosphere, the kind of leap made by filmmakers like Bryan Singer and Chris Nolan.
No ‘Gangster Squad’ For Darren Aronofsky As He Nears Deal On ‘Wolverine 2′
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“the kind of leap made by filmmakers like Bryan Singer and Chris Nolan.”
Nolan – good for his career. Singer, bad. SUPERMAN RETURNS, VALKYRIE – both awful turds that continually show he’s become a hack director with no vision or talent (or at least has lost it from USUAL SUSPECTS and his decent follow up APT PUPIL).
Please don’t let that happen to you Aronofsky. WOLVERINE’s such a crappy franchise to want to make the jump to big budget films. Please think twice and go for the gangster film!!! CAA’s gonna ruin your so far prestigious career.
Before Singer went on to make Superman Returns, he made 2 very successful X-Men movies.
Successful, sure. Big blockbuster hack jobs that basically anyone could have directed, yes. Bringing it back to Nolan, anything close to DARK KNIGHT? Nope.
Personally I almost fell asleep in the first X-MEN and didn’t even bother with the 2nd. I felt if you weren’t into the comic books, which I wasn’t, it was difficult to get into. Whereas the SPIDERMAN and BATMAN reboots had a vision and were easy to get into.
How can you dismiss X-2 as a blockbuster hack job if you haven’t seen it? It is much better than the first X-Men film (thanks to a budget that is actually big enough for the project) and if you liked Spiderman and Batman I assure you that you will enjoy it.
Agreed – X2 is one of the finest comic book movies of this generation. By all means criticise Superman Returns and Valkyrie for their shortcomings but don’t dismiss X2, especially when you have haven’t even seen it!!
As for Aronofsky I am very excited by this and hope he directs, though I have to say directing the sequel to an underwhelming spin off seems like an odd move from someone on an upward trajectory. He should have kicked of Fox’s Daredevil reboot and made that his own.
I agree with frug — X2 is actually a terrific film. But keep talking out of your ass and then a few sentences later admitting you’re talking out of your ass.
Up up and away makes the sort of typically stupid comment you’d expect from a Nolan fanboy. They are always trying to force their deification of Nolan down everyone’s throat at the expense of other equally talented filmmakers. Singer’s X2 is one of the best written, best directed comic book movies anyone has made. It’s in my top three with Batman Begins and Spiderman 2. I loved Batman Begins but didn’t think much of Dark Knight’s ponderous pretentiousness, sloppy structure and pitiful character development (besides Harvey Dent and the Joker, what other characters are remotely interesting in that movie — the mayor? Eric Roberts gangster? Rachel Dawes? No one!). Yes, Nolan has talent but he’s not the second coming so get real fanboys.
Jackman/Aronofsky first work, The Fountain, was an amazing movie and with the right script (which should be, written by an Oscar-writer), this could be great! I hope it will be true.
I just watched The Fountain (netflix), and have to agree. Yes, many would say its difficult to follow, but its beautifully shot and the story, in its entirety, is worth watching.
It wasn’t difficult to follow but it was disappointing.
You know, it could work. Wolverine 2 takes place after X3, right? So it’s practically a reboot of the franchise anyway. If it can be done, the team up of Aronofsky, McQuarrie, and Jackman doesn’t sound too bad. Fox obviously cares about this franchise, otherwise they wouldn’t have gone out of their way to get such high caliber filmmakers.
Maybe, just MAYBE they learned from the success of Avatar and the (relative) failure of Wolverine 1 and are aiming higher this time. By the looks of things, much higher.
I was under the impression that Wolverine 2 took place in Japan, after the first one and before the original X-Men.
in every veriant of the marvel universe so far wolvie doesnt hook up with Mereko and her brother the silver samerie until after Jean grays death when he travils to Japan to excape from all the things that remind him of her.
to place this movie befor the first x-men could prove desasteriose.
Isn’t $5m against 5% low for someone with Aronofsky’s track record? Shouldn’t he be closer to the $10m against 5 or 10% mark?
What track record? Aronofsky makes good films, but they aren’t blockbuster.
Great to see someone like Aronofsky finally getting a nice paycheck.
Uhh…”X-Men Origins: Wolverine” made $374,825,760 worldwide, plus $75 mil for home market sales. And that’s for a BAD movie. 5% of worldwide gross is almost $19 million. Directors like Aronofsky have NEVER seen that kind of cash for one film, so that ain’t bad. I’d take that deal. If he makes a great movie and gets Iron Man type buzz, he’ll see a lot more than that.
The Fountain is probably the number one reason studios have any hesitation about hiring Darren in the first place. Kf that movie were made today it would go straight to video–it’s an incredibly dull and indulgent piece that only the worst type of Aronofsky sycophant would praise. And while I’m sure Black Swan is a more worthwhile film, I have real questions about its box office potential.
‘The Fountain’ is a masterpiece, period.
I agree with you. “The Fountain” was garbage. Anyone that says differently is among the very small, very isolated minority. The movie BOMBED in the box office. While I agree it was visually stunning, the story was stupid and very unsatisying. I don’t know the full story, but Brad Pitt had major reservations about the story and Aronofsky just wouldn’t compromise. Aronofsky eventually got the greenlight to make “his version” and look where that got him. I don’t think Wolverine will be any type of masterpiece.
Well after Pitt dropped out and the project lost funding, Aronofsky completely rewrote the script to make it shorter and possible on a massively-scaled-back budget. So “his version” is still not even close to his original version. Would the Pitt version have been better? Who knows.
it’s sad that so many of our best young directors are wasting their time on superhero movies, though I guess the payday affords them each a big nice house in the hills.
The big problem is that most of these directors would clearly rather be doing something else; the only one of these films made by someone who actually grew up loving the source material is Sam Raimi’s SPIDERMAN films. (Singer obviously loved the Donner films- but I got the distinct impression he’s never read a Superman comic in his LIFE, because he clearly had no idea of what to do besides copy Donner).
It doesn’t matter how talented you are- if you really don’t understand the appeal of the original, you can’t do a good adaptation. And yes, that goes for Nolan, too: like Burton before him, he’s more interested in material that’s LIKE the comic (For Nolan, crime and action films; for Burton, gothic horror and old cartoons), and can’t see that the comic gets it’s flavour from blending all the disparate elements into a stew.
And,let’s be honest, it’s not like Wolverine has much substance, anyway. (In fact, I understand Aronofsky tried to get an adaptation of the comic LONE WOLF AND CUB off the ground; with this film supposedly being set in Japan, I imagine he’s already reworking the script in his head to try and fit in everything he wanted to do for that…)
For those keeping track, ready? Then: PI, REQUIEM and then big, bloated studio movie. Now: WRESTLER, SWAN, big, bloated studio movie. It’s like a pretty graph Hollywood cherishes such. How long before the return to “modest grossing fare”?
Aronofsky is so desperate to do one of these superhero films he would have done it for a song. Fox, you overpaid. I would have offered him low upfront and a high percentage. He’s so desperate to do one of these films… let him take the risk.
“festival acclaim” for Black Swan? If I recall correctly, this movie got bupkes at Venice except for Mila Kunis as breakout star.
I sure hope Darren Aronofosky knows what he’s getting into. We’re talking about 20th Century Fox here. Unless he gets total creative freedom, this movie is doomed once Tom Rothman and his flunkies start to meddle.