Black Swan director leaves ‘Wolverine’ sequel. Fox and Hugh Jackman remain fully committed.
It was revealed today, via Deadline and THR, that Oscar-nominated Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky has removed himself from the comic book sequel ‘The Wolverine.’ While the movie has no official start date yet, there was intention to start in the spring, but the situation in Japan and Hugh Jackman’s promotional schedule for ‘Real Steel’ changed that. All but two weeks of the film were to be shot in Japan (a few scenes to be shot in Canada).
The director issued the following 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.”
Not long after the announcement, Fox confirmed the development and issued their own 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.”