The Wolverine Loses its Director

Weeks after Black Swan triumphed at the Oscars, its director Darren Aronofsky has pulled out of plans to direct the sequel to the first Wolverine movie. Entitled 'THE Wolverine' the film was due to start production later this year with Hugh jackman reprising the role he made famous, the adamantium-skeleton'd mutant from The X-Men.

Aronofsky has cited the reason as realising that he would be out of the US for around a whole year during production - a situation that the Deadline site also noted was probably complicated by possible pragmatic  visitation/custody issues after his recent split from wife Rachel Weisz with whom he has a son .  He said in a press statement:  “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.”

Though a firm day for shooting had not been officially set, it is believed that a majority of the film's story will see it shoot in Japan, likely to follow some of the aspects laid down for the character in Frank Miller's take on the character of Logan/Wolverine.  There had already been some scheduling delays, prior to recent dramatic events in the region, but it is not known when the production will finally go before the cameras.

Fox also added a press statement:  "While we are of course disappointed that Darren can’t do ‘The Wolverine’, we also understand and respect his reasons. Having done both ‘The Wrestler’ and ‘Black Swan’ with Darren, we know he is an extraordinary talent and we look forward to working with him on other projects in the future. Hugh Jackman and Fox both remain fully committed to making ‘The Wolverine’. We will regroup and move forward aggressively.”