X-men Origins: Wolverine

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is the first summer blockbuster of the year and it stars Hugh Jackman as the title character who gave him fame, fortune and world recognition. The movie is directed by blockbuster newcomer Gavin Hood, a South African director who won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Picture Tsotsi in 2005. Also starring in the movie are Liev Schreiber, of the Scream trilogy and most recently the director of Everything is Illuminated, as Sabretooth; Danny Huston, the vampire leader of 30 Days of Night, as Col. William Stryker; Lynn Collins as Wolverine’s love interest Silver Fox; Taylor Kitsch, of the TV series Friday Night Lights, as the famous card-yielding Gambit; and rapper Will.I.Am, frontman of the Black Eyed Peas, as John Wraith.

Even though the movie has tons of special effects, a huge budget, and cast, to portray the many mutants around the X-Universe, it is a prequel to the X-Men trilogy, which means that the story takes place before any of the three movies from 2000, 2003 and 2006. Hence the title X-Men: Origins before the name of the Ol’ Canucklehead himself, Wolverine. The movie will take the viewer through the life of Wolverine, A.K.A. Logan, from the day he was born to his involvement with the Weapon X program, which gave him his famous adamantium claws and skeleton. As moviegoers saw in the X-Men movies, especially X-Men and X2, Logan doesn’t remember his life before his bones were laced with the indestructible metal. This movie is a chance to see what happened to him before we first saw him fighting some guy in a cage in Canada in X-Men. The plot of the movie is loosely based on two of the most acclaimed Wolverine limited series published: Origins, written by Paul Jenkins and penciled by Andy Kubert, from 2001 to 2002 and Weapon X, written and penciled by Barry Windsor-Smith, from 1990 to 1991. The first deals with the beginning of Logan’s life, from when he was a child to his early adulthood, finally showing his family and his real name. No, sorry to say, his real name isn’t Logan. The latter deals with how he was infused with the adamantium metal by a non-specified American government agency.

As we can see by the trailers below, he was probably born in the end of the 19th Century, because we can see him fighting in the American Civil War and what appears to be World War II. I’m not going to give any spoilers here, but suffice it to say that his claws are not what they appear to be. His involvement with Sabretooth, who was played in the first movie by actor/wrestler Tyler Mane, as well as other mutants, will also be shown.



About a month ago the studio and everyone involved with the movie took a huge blow, as the movie leaked on the Internet, much like Tropa de Elite in Brazil. Even though it was an unfinished version, with unfinished special effects and music, the movie was quickly shared through torrent sites everywhere in the world. And again, much like Tropa de Elite in Brazil, polls from sites such as www.comicbookresources.com and www.newsarama.com suggest that this will not stop people who downloaded the illegal copy from watching the movie at the cinemas.

If you are a fan of action, sci-fi movies or the X-Men trilogy, you cannot miss X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which opens on cinemas in Brazil on April 30th, next Thursday. So be sure to get your tickets in advance to see this chapter in the X-Universe at the cinema.

There! Hope you liked all the information and we're waiting for you guys to get back to us. Now I'd like to ask you something, for you to post your comments. Do you download movies? If so, how often? Have you downloaded Wolverine? If so, are still going to watch it at the cinema?

Cast Profiles

LIEV SCHREIBER’S PROFILE

Born Isaac Liev Schreiber on April 10, 1967 in San Francisco, CA, Schreiber’s father, Tell, was an actor and stage director, while his mother, Heather Milgram, was an artist. The family – which included his half-brother, actor Pablo Schreiber – moved to Canada when he was little, over one-year-old, but his parents separated a few years later and Schreiber moved with his mother and siblings to New York City. His mother was, by all accounts, a caring but eccentric woman who supported the family by driving a cab. She encouraged him to read but forbade him to watch color films, so Schreiber developed an affinity for silent films, especially those of Charlie Chaplin. The combination of influences led him to pursue acting as a career, leading him to train at several colleges and universities, including Hampshire College in Massachusetts and the Yale School of Drama, from which he graduated in 1992. He furthered his studies by attending the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and made his professional acting debut at the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland. Stage roles in America soon followed, as did his film debut in the charming indie comedy “Party Girl” (1994), in which he played a British bouncer who fancies Parker Posey’s offbeat librarian. He and Posey reunited the same year in “Mixed Nuts” (1994), Nora Ephron’s glum comedy about a suicide hotline’s callers on Christmas Eve, with Schreiber playing a drag queen opposite Steve Martin and a then-unknown Adam Sandler. Schreiber returned to Hollywood films in 1996 as a member of a team of kidnappers who steal Mel Gibson’s son in the intense Ron Howard thriller, “Ransom.” That same year, he gained even further exposure as Cotton Weary, the ex-mental patient and most likely suspect in a rash of killings in “Scream” (1996). Schreiber formed a small cottage industry as the husband/boyfriend left for greener pastures in films like “Kate and Leopold” (2001) and “Dial 9 for Love” (2001), but it was his tortured work opposite Lane in “Moon” which really put him on the mainstream radar. In 1999, Schreiber enjoyed top billing as Orson Welles in “RKO 281,” a compelling examination of the actor’s struggle to create and release the classic film loosely based on newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, “Citizen Kane” (1940). The standout performance, which rose far above the usual imitations of Welles, earned him Emmy and Golden Globe nominations in 2000, increasing his profile within the film industry considerably. Schreiber captured the attention of many critics with his dark comic turn as a mercenary in the actioner, “The Sum of All Fears,” co-starring Ben Affleck. In 2004, he surpassed the firestorm of negative publicity surrounding Jonathan Demme’s remake of “The Manchurian Candidate” to turn in a stellar performance as a vice-presidential candidate who has been reprogrammed by a large and sinister multinational corporation. Though the film fared poorly at the box office, it helped to bolster the idea of Schreiber as a viable leading man. He made his debut as a film director with “Everything Is Illuminated,” starring Elijah Wood as a young man seeking to better understand the history of his Ukrainian family. The film fared moderately at the box office – due in no small part to the challenging nature of the material – but several critics praised Schreiber for his efforts and the scope of his vision. In 2006, Schreiber did his best to survive an unnecessary remake of “The Omen” and did fine work as a doctor who carries on an affair with a married woman (Naomi Watts) in “The Painted Veil.” In real life, Schreiber and Watts became a couple, announcing they were pregnant with their first child in 2007. Schreiber made a rare jump to network television in late 2006 with an appearance on “CSI” as an investigator with a troubled past. His four-episode guest shot gave the veteran series a much-needed dose of solid acting. The following year, Schreiber scored a personal triumph in his stage career with a production of Eric Bogosian’s “Talk Radio;” his performance as an abrasive talk show jock earned him the Drama League Award and a Tony nomination, among many other laurels. Schreiber also provided the voice-overs for the Infiniti car company. Back on the big screen, he was one of three Jewish brothers who seek revenge on the Nazis after escaping a prison camp in “Defiance” (2008), which he followed by taking on the role of Victor Creed/Sabretooth in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” (2009).


HUGH JACKMAN’S PROFILE

Hugh Michael Jackman was born on Oct. 12, 1968, and raised in Sydney, Australia. The youngest of five children and always clowning around for attention, Jackman performed variety routines for his family and participated in school musical productions when he was young. After earning a journalism degree from the University of Technology in Sydney, he decided to pursue an acting career and trained at the Actors Centre Sydney before graduating from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in 1994. Fresh out of drama school, Jackman landed a role on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) prison drama "Corelli." He powerfully played the role of violent and manipulative but insidiously attractive prison inmate Kevin Jones opposite Deborra-Lee Furness, who starred as the title criminal psychologist. The couples budding romance on-screen led to a behind-the-scenes relationship and the actors' longtime marriage.
On stage, Jackman was hailed as one of the most promising newcomers in music theater when he was cast in a Melbourne production of "Walt Disney's Beauty and the Beast," essaying the supporting part of macho villain, Gaston. He followed up by playing hack screenwriter Joe Gillis in Trevor Nunn's Melbourne production of "Sunset Boulevard".
While Jackman technically made his film debut in the little-seen Australian production "Erskinville Kings" (1999), a drama examining failing relationships, he reached a much wider audience with his starring role in Antony J. Bowman's amiable comedy "Paperback Hero" (1999), where he portrayed an outback trucker who writes a sappy romance novel in his spare time and submits it to a publisher under a female pseudonym. But he truly went wide with his follow-up venture as Logan/Wolverine, a mutant superhero with quick-healing powers, unbreakable bones and razor-sharp metal claws, in Brian Singer's crowd-pleaser "X-Men" (2000). Jackman perfectly brought the comic-book character of Wolverine, a conflicted anti-hero, to vivid life, pleasing general moviegoers and fans of the comic book, alike. He stayed in the American spotlight with a supporting role of Ashley Judd's womanizing co-worker in the otherwise pallid "Someone Like You" (2001) and tackled the role of a computer hacker forced to participate in a major heist in the action film, "Swordfish" (2001) opposite John Travolta and his "X-Men" co-star Halle Berry.
Opting for a slight change of pace, Jackman delivered a charming leading man performance as Meg Ryan's time-traveling beau in the romantic comedy-drama "Kate & Leopold" (2001).The actor again donned the sideburns and claws of Wolverine for "X2" (2003), the sequel to "X-Men" in which Jackman's character stood out amidst the rest of the terrific ensemble cast as bits and pieces of Wolverine's mysterious origins were at last revealed.
Now an international movie star, Jackman returned his love of musical theater and debuted on Broadway in 2003 in "The Boy from Oz." He starred as Peter Allen, the flamboyant showman best known for pop songs like "Dont Cry Out Loud," who died of AIDS-related cancer in 1992. Jackman received a highly coveted Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical, among other accolades, and also hosted the 2004 Tony Awards ceremony. In another pulpy turn on the big screen, Jackman played Count Dracula's old nemesis Dr. Abraham Van Helsing in the disappointing Universal monster thriller, "Van Helsing" (2004), which pitted the good doctor against an unholy union of his old foe, Frankenstein's Monster and the Wolfman.
In 2006, Jackman revived Wolverine for the third installment of the series, X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), directed by Brett Ratner. In a further display of Jackman's versatility, he turned around to play a charming British playboy suspected of being an infamous killer terrorizing London in Scoop (2006), Woody Allen's comedy starring Scarlett Johansson as a journalist who poses as a wealthy American to snuff him out. In Christopher Nolan's thriller "The Prestige" (2006), he sparkled as a brash showman caught up in a deadly rival with a brilliant trickster (Christian Bale). He lightened the mood considerably with his next project, lending his voice to the hit animated children's adventure, Happy Feet (2006).
Jackman next starred in Darren Aronofsky's bizarre time travel picture, "The Fountain" (2006), playing both a 16th century Spanish conquistador looking for the fabled Fountain of Youth and a modern-day scientist desperately seeking a cure for the cancer killing his wife (Rachel Weisz). In contrast, "Deception" (2008), which marked Jackman's foray into producing, was deemed a dull mystery by critics and audiences who stayed away. He co-starred with Nicole Kidman in "Australia" (2008), Baz Luhrmans lush, about unlikely lovers who meet under the duress of World War II. Adding icing to the cake, the film release coincided with People magazine's annual declaration that for 2008, Jackman was the Sexiest Man Alive. Now Hugh Jackman's revisiting his character Wolverine in "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" (2009).

Wolverine Goodies

RELATED PRODUCTS

As we are living in a capitalist society, and the more money companies make, the better, here are some of the products that will be released along with the movie:

X-Men Origins: Wolverine Uncaged. This game will be available for every platform there is. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, check it out: XBox 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii, Playstation 2, PSP, Nintendo DS and even for PC. The game was voiced and motion-captured by Hugh Jackman and Liev Schreiber themselves, reprising their roles as Wolverine and Sabretooth respectively. As you can see below, the game is highly rendered and pretty violent, not for the faint at heart.




Panini Comics, house of Marvel and DC in Brazil, is going to release FIVE Wolverine special comics this week. All in Portuguese, unfortunately. They are:

Wolverine Annual 3 – Different stories of Logan with no real connection and no need to know the years of continuity to enjoy the stories.

Wolverine: Inimigo do Estado – This collection of published stories from the monthly Wolverine comic, from issues 20-32, puts Wolverine up against the world, basically. He’s being mind-controlled by some kind of enemy he made over the years. It’s great fun and the way he just finishes the Fantastic Four is amazing. Oh, he also fights all the X-Men and SHIELD.

Wolverine: Duro de Matar – I don’t really know the story here, but the writer is Warren Ellis and the artist is Lenil Yu. Apart from that, I know zilch. So try leafing through the comic before buying it.

Eu, Wolverine – This one is a must have, because it’s the first mini series of Wolverine published, waaaaay back before he even had a comic of his own. It’s written by Chris Claremont (who created the X-Men as most people know it) and penciled by Frank Miller (do I really have to say who this guy is???). The guys at Panini are reprinting it with some added bonus stories too. This is a MUST HAVE for any Wolverine fan.

Wolverine: Logan – All I know about this one is that it takes place in Hiroshima during World War II, so no adamantium skeleton, or claws, to help him. It’s written by Brian K. Vaughn, just one of the producers and writers from this series called LOST, and penciled by Eduardo Risso, and Argentinean artist who specializes in grim and gritty, right up Logan’s alley.

Cheers and see you at the movies on Friday for X-Men Origins: Wolverine!!!!!! Snikt!!

MORE MOVIE MOMS!

NOW IT'S YOUR TURN...IN WHICH DISNEY MOVIES DO THE FOLLOWING MOMS APPEAR? GUESS ALL OF THEM AND YOU MAY GET A PRIZE!
Don't forget to sign your answer with your name and the branch where you study!




posted by Giselle Santos

MOVIE MOMS!

“Biology is the least of what makes someone a mother”, says Oprah Winfrey . Mother’s day is a time when all mothers are celebrated and not only the nice ones. There is no better time in the year to pay tribute to those we have learned to love and to loathe, mothers who have been portrayed in the big screen have made us try to understand the enigmatic complexity that brings children and mums together.
Juggling parenting, career, love life and sanity is a job only to be performed by someone who can repair the kitchen sink with only her hands -- after Daddy spent a lot of time trying with tools and plenty of cuss words. Being a mother in the ‘silver screen’ is not much easier than in real life. Can you think of remarkable movie ‘moms’ ? Why don’t you help us complete our list, but remember this list is for all kinds of moms, the good and the bad, real or animation, beauties or those who are in need of improvement…so here we go!

Helen Parr (aka Elastigirl)
Appears in: The Incredibles (2004)Portrayed by: Holly Hunter
Moms perform superhuman feats every day. They dispense valuable advice. They're protective of their children, but know when to let go and allow them to forge their own paths. And they're always true to their own values. Thus, Elastigirl (voiced by Holly Hunter) in The Incredibles is the distillation of maternal excellence -- and she's great at crime-fighting to boot. (Alas, she probably shouldn't have left the poor babysitter alone with super-infant Jack Jack.)

Mrs. Gump
Appears in: Forrest Gump (1994)Portrayed by: Sally Field
Six years may not seem like a long time, but for Sally Field, they were the difference between playing Tom Hanks' friend (in 1988's Punchline) and playing his rock-solid, long-suffering mother (in 1994's Forrest Gump). From the film's first act, in which she does some implied horizontal boppin' with the dean of a private school to ensure her son's admission, you know you only wished your mom loved you as much as Mrs. Gump loved Forrest. For Field -- who is, for the record, only 10 years Hanks' senior -- the role capped a string of positively received roles that brought her back from the squishy rom-com territory she'd wandered into during the mid-'80s (1987's Surrender, anyone?).

Joan Crawford
Appears in: Mommie Dearest (1981)Portrayed by: Faye
If Christina Crawford is to be believed (and some claim she isn't), her adoptive mother Joan was a better actress than a parent. Much better. Frank Perry's camp classic Mommie Dearest shows Crawford hacking off Christina's hair, giving away her birthday presents, slapping her, using her (and her siblings) for public relations purposes, and tackling her with a force that would make Lawrence Taylor wince. (And let's not even start on those wire hangers.) In a scenery-chewing -- nay, gobbling -- performance, Faye Dunaway became one of cinema's most notorious examples of bad parenting.

Mama Bates
Appears in: Psycho (1960)
Poor Norman Bates. All he wants to do is listen to Beethoven and devote time to taxidermy. And yet his mom nags him all the time into maintaining his failing motel. (Spoiler Alert!) No wonder business is slow; Mrs. Bates demands that Norman take a Ginsu to anyone foolish enough to stop by. (At least she taught him how to do housework, since the shower in room #1 is clean as a whistle.) A lot of moms are possessive of their children, but most are at least kind enough not to take up residence in their sons' brains -- or badger them from beyond the grave


Bren MacGuff
Appears in: Juno (2007)
Portrayed by: Allison Janey
Okay, so her dialogue during the first third of the film drifts perilously close to the brink of the stilted, see-how-hip-we-are patois traditionally favored by screenwriters putting words in the mouth of "real" teens -- but Diablo Cody's script quickly redeems itself, giving Ellen Page the rare opportunity to play a pregnant teenager whose journey to delivery avoids all the stereotypical Afterschool Special plot devices that Hollywood can't seem to live without.� In fact, Juno's decision to give the baby up for adoption is one of the least dramatic decisions she makes during the course of the film; it takes her no time at all to decide that she is, in her own words, "ill-equipped" to give her progeny the life she wants for it. If that isn't motherly love, folks, what is?


Ok …Now it’s your turn! Tell us about your favorite or least favorite movie mom.
Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/

By Giselle Santos