I know you're probably groaning at seeing yet another X-Men Origins: Wolverine post, but I can't help it! There's new pictures! And the photos are always so cool -- and yes, I am easily pleased when it comes to the admantium one ... and yes, at this point the movie could be Wolverine reading a phone book for 2 hours and I would probably count my money well spent.

Anyway, 20th Century Fox has released five new images from Wolverine -- if you saw the bootleg ComicCon trailer, you'll recognize the image above. I like that Wolverine and Sabretooth appear to be bickering moments before being "executed." Hate runs deep. My favorite of the bunch, though, is the Weapon X photo ... not because it shows off a lot of Hugh Jackman, but because I'm hoping its an indication we see the whole nasty bonding procedure. If it's another blink-and-you-miss it sequence, well, they just missed the point of doing a Wolverine origin story!

Check out all the photos in the gallery below, accompanied by the two that hit the web last week -- and don't be surprised if there's more before the trailer hits on December 12th because, come on ... where the heck is Deadpool?! Where's Beak? We want to see them, too! Even I need a break from Jackman sometimes.




[via Superhero Hype]

The first photo of Taylor Kitsch as the card-charging mutant Gambit has leaked online, scanned from the pages of Empire's upcoming Wolverine themed issue. He's quite dapper, isn't he? You can get away with wearing silky purple shirts and velvet vests when you're a mutant who can charge everyday objects with lethal kinetic energy. Anyone who mocks your taste in colors and fabrics is going to end up fried by a card, a bowl of pretzels, whatever he can grab first.

Cheesy clothing aside, I think Kitsch embodies Gambit quite well. He's got the right amount of scruff, the right hair, and he flings his cards with a casual machismo. This character is one of my biggest stumbling blocks for the movie, because I just don't get where he fits into a Wolverine origin story. He was a buddy to Wolverine in many of the comics, but was usually relegated to being a French Captain Obvious. "Mon ami, you are going to use them adamantium claws, no?" Fans love him though, and after being left out of three X-Men movies, I suspect they've used any excuse they can to work him in. But I know Gambit fans are psyched -- and the fact that he's probably being groomed for a spin-off should make up for his lack of X-Men screentime.

The Avengers won't be the only Marvel superteam on the big screen -- the X-Men are returning! According to Variety, 20th Century Fox is kicking X-Men: First Class into gear by hiring Josh Schwartz to pen the screenplay. Schwartz was also offered the director's chair, but he declined, leaving the job open for now. Schwartz's specialty is teen fare -- he's the man behind Gossip Girl, The OC, and Chuck. Happily, Lauren Shuler Donner will be producing, so it should stay on the right track, and not stray too far into silly teen fare.

The studio is keeping quiet on the finer points, but it's unlikely that it will revolve around the teenage versions of Cyclops & Co, as the series X-Men: First Class actually does. Instead, they'll be using the young X-wannabes introduced in the previous three films, like Iceman, Angel, Rogue, Kitty Pryde, Jubilee (if you can call her cameo an introduction), and Colossus. I'd love it if they kept it current to the comics by mixing some of the Astonishing students, like Blindfold and Armor in -- especially if Armor replaced Jubilee.

Well, that was cleared up quickly! Just the other day, I reported on rumors flying about the ending of Australia, and claims that Fox had pressured its director, Baz Luhrmann, to change it. Luhrmann quickly informed The Sydney Morning Herald that the film's ending was entirely in his hands, bristling at the suggestion that it wasn't. "It's really simple: on a Baz Luhrmann film, I decide."

I'll fill in the spoilery blanks for you now -- rumors were that test audiences were quite appalled that Hugh Jackman's character, The Drover, died at the end of the film. Fox was certain that Jackman's tragic end spelled doom for the box office, but Luhrmann brushes off the rumors, calling them "naive" and "profoundly misinformed." He also points out that Fox would hardly have taken issue with The Drover's death, since they happily froze Leonardo DiCaprio in Titanic, and we all know how that box office turned out.

It turns out, he filmed three different endings and tested two -- one where Jackman lived, and one where he died. Audience reactions were the same for both endings, but he decided to choose the third, which remains a mystery to all but him and his cast. "There was always a struggle within me," he said. "There's the way Titanic ends and there's the way Gone With The Wind ends. It's neither of those. It's an ending specific to this moment and it's what I want the film to give out and what I need in my own life. It's what I want to feel. On that level, it's completely personal."

So, now you have it -- Luhrmann is firmly in control, we'll be delightfully surprised by the ending, and I may not have to watch The Drover die. Good news all around! (We won't talk about the fact that its reportedly still not done ...)