When Darren Aronofsky almost made ‘The Wolverine’
Whatever you think about the divisive American filmmaker Darren Aronofsky, it’s hard to deny that the unique director makes totally unmissable cinematic experiences. Truly, no film that comes from the idiosyncratic mind of Aronofsky, with the filmmaker going from the epic drama The Fountain to his latest human drama, The Whale, telling the story of an obese father trying to reconnect with his daughter
Often with large brushstrokes of religious undertones, the filmography of Darren Aronofsky seems surprisingly thin, considering his time in the industry. From his debut feature film Pi in 1998 to his most recent metaphorical pillage of planet earth in 2017’s Mother!, he is a director transfixed with stories of personal obsession and epic grandeur.
The most significant stars of modern cinema recognise this too, with the likes of Jennifer Lawrence, Jared Leto, Rachel Weisz, Mickey Rourke, Natalie Portman, Winona Ryder, Emma Watson and Brendan Fraser each having been magnetised to his movies. Though, back in 2006, his collaboration with Hugh Jackman for The Fountain almost led him to another incredible addition to his filmography.
Appearing to have been given the chance to work with Jackman again, Aronofsky was hired by 20th Century Fox to helm the Marvel superhero movie The Wolverine in 2010, only for extended conversations with the studio to force him to depart from the project.
Releasing a statement at the time, Aronofsky stated, “As I talked more about the film with my collaborators at Fox, it became clear that the production of The Wolverine would keep me out of the country for almost a year…“I was not comfortable being away from my family for that length of time. I am sad that I won’t be able to see the project through, as it is a terrific script, and I was very much looking forward to working with my friend, Hugh Jackman, again”.
Having never helmed a mainstream blockbuster of conventional form, it would have been exciting to see Aronofsky’s vision for the vicious member of the X-Men. The vision of Aronofsky has been unearthed and revealed by several Reddit posts who claim to know how the movie would have shaped out, describing an R-rated flick that would have been even darker than James Mangold’s celebrated 2017 movie, Logan.
Aronofsky wasn’t just circling the project either, the indie director was firmly onboard with the Marvel superhero movie, with the Japanese-set movie certainly instilled with a similar strain of originality.
As the filmmaker said in a video interview at the time, “It’s a standalone piece that has nothing to do with the whole franchise or anything in that universe”. In addition, when discussing the involvement of Hugh Jackman, the director added, “He doesn’t even know how gutsy it is,” suggesting that the movie would have been full of blood, guts, violence and a good dose of cinematic magic.
Once Aronofsky jumped ship, James Mangold took over for the release of the standalone Wolverine movie, hiring a cast that included the likes of Will Yun Lee, Famke Janssen, Svetlana Khodchenkova, Hiroyuki Sanada and Tao Okamoto.
