Wolverine might be the best at what he does but what he does best is obviously not starring in a solo movie. I’m still trying to wash the taint of ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ from my mind. I thought that the long-in-production ‘The Wolverine’ might be the film to help me do that. First the producers line up Darren Aronofsky (‘Requiem for a Dream’, ‘Black Swan’) to direct. Then they get a screenplay written by Christopher McQuarrie (‘The Usual Suspects’) and based on the 1982 ‘Wolverine’ mini-series by legendary ‘X-Men’ writer Chris Claremont and uber-artist Frank Miller (‘Sin City’). Every thing was shaping up to be the perfect ‘Wolverine’ film adaptation… then things started sliding backwards.

First Aronofsky pulled out of the project citing that the on-location filming in Japan would keep him away from his family for too long. Then the earthquakes and tsunamis in Japan forced a location change. The film is now set to film in Canada with possibly a few scenes in Japan if the recovering country can support it. Now the screenplay, which Aronofsky praised as “a terrific script” is being rewritten. Mark Bomback, who penned ‘Race to Witch Mountain’, ‘Live Free or Die Hard, and the upcoming ‘Total Recall’ remake has been tapped to do the rewrites.

I expect that the rewrites have something to do with the location change. However, I’m hearing word that the plot has already been slightly altered from the original Claremont/Miller tale. That’s not a good sign and I sincerely hope that Marvel and Fox can pull this film out of the downhill slide and give us the ‘Wolverine’ movie that comic fans have been clamoring for ever since Hugh Jackman first appeared as the cigar-chomping badass in the original ‘X-Men’ movie.

Snikt!