LOGAN ( Spoiler Alert)

[jo]

Hugh Jackman revealed Dafne had punched him during her first audition. But that worked in her favour as that’s when he thought she was the perfect one to play X-23 in Logan. He shared, “When @mang0ld came up w the character of Laura, and that the movie was in essence about family we were worried about finding the right fit. Until we met @dafnekeen. The first day we auditioned her … she punched me in the arm so hard, I was literally bruised the next day. Hired.”

[jo]

[jo]

How can anyone replicate artistically and dramatically the LEGEND OF LOGAN --

as told by Mangold and Jackman



It would be very difficult for any filmmaker to tell the story that will not be influenced by the vision, the thought processes and the actual filmmaking execution which created the finale film LOGAN!

[jo]

X-24 is the misunderstood villain. Just as some of us suspected, he was meant to represent the dark side of Wolverine and his killing past. X-24 was a metaphor for the killing machine also called Wolverine. His appearance in LOGAN ( albeit via a supposed lab procedure extracted from Logan's DNA) was meant to give Logan a chance to finish the eternal battle within himself -- a battle of good and evil. James Mangold confirmed that!

May 27, 2020 21:28:37 GMT -5 jo said:

[jo]

http://instagram.com/p/CAu59UIjx64

[jo]

[jo]

[jo]

Unbelievable! A major trade paper does not do this for a film that was released 3 years ago... but whose fans's love for it has not dampened at all!

The Hollywood Reporter gives a full coverage of the Quarantine Watch Party for LOGAN!

www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/james-mangold-reveals-secrets-behind-logan-1296231ima


Jo's Note : Please check the link for Photos and images tweeted by Mangold.

The Hollywood Reporter

James Mangold Reveals Secrets Behind 'Logan'
May 28, 2020 10:18am by Richard Newby


'Logan' | Ben Rothstein/Twentieth Century Fox

During a quarantine watch party, the filmmaker addressed his complicated relationship with comic book movies and the final moments of Hugh Jackman's character.

Wednesday night, director James Mangold popped his claws and took his own stab at the #QuarantineWatchParty phenomena that’s become a weekly event during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hosted by Comicbook.com, Mangold covered the ins and outs of Logan (2017), giving the inside scoop on Wolverine’s (Hugh Jackman) bloody last ride, and sharing behind the scenes photos and stories from the production on his Twitter account.


An Early Start
Before he launched into the watch-party, Mangold shared some photos of the cast he took during prep, which present a clear picture for the look and tone the filmmaker entered production with.


He’d Kill Us if He Got the Chance
Marco Beltrami’s score is one of the highlights of the film. Mangold shared that the opening theme music was inspired by David Shire’s score for Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation (1974).


Hiding Out
Mangold shared early concept art of Logan’s hideout with Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and Caliban (Stephen Merchant). He also revealed that the original plan was for their hideout to be in an abandoned distillery in Kentucky and Xavier was going to be kept in a giant tank. This was changed to Mexico in order to service Logan’s trek North. The abandoned water tower where Xavier is kept was built for the film, while the surrounding buildings were redressed during production.


Ex-X-Men
Logan dispatches with a lot of preconceived notions about the X-Men and their place in the world. Mangold said he never thought he’d get away with Xavier having accidently killed the X-Men, but felt that a “profound tragedy” was important to characters’ past. He also said that making these comic book films was, for him, a tightrope of honoring the characters, but also delivering something new and disorienting the audiences a bit so that the films don’t exist as a cash grab.


X-23 Revealed
Mangold revealed that the decision to handle the exposition of Laura’s (Dafne Keen) backstory through iPhone footage was co-writer’s Scott Frank’s. The footage on that phone, set at Alkali-Transigen, was a separate production shot with high8 cameras and iPhones. Mangold also commended Keen for carrying so much of the film on her shoulders.


Storyboarding
When it comes to storyboarding, not just for Logan, but his films in general, Mangold said that he needs an artist who understands, “I am interested in the shots themselves telling a story beyond the words.”

*Mangold later corrected that these storyboards were actually drawn by Marc Vena.


Going Up
It’s common knowledge that films are very rarely shot in sequential order of the script. True to this, Mangold revealed that the first scene shot for the movie was Logan, Xavier, and Laura in the elevator in the casino.


Unbalanced
Mangold shared a previz video of Xavier’s psionic seizure in the casino, providing a cool glimpse at how the sequence came together. The VFX was achieved with a limited budget by shaking the camera and then using a shake-reduction app in order to created the smeared look of the image.


Family Dinner
The dinner scene where Xavier talks about being a teacher and Logan as a poor student was improvised by Jackman and Stewart. In terms of improvisation in his films, Mangold said, “It's my job to be open to new ideas at all times. The viz & the script is a map, a draft. The shooting is another draft. My greatest asset is my great actors. If they cannot play, I only get half what they offer.” The improvisation also provided a nice moment of levity before the following gruesome scenes and the introduction of X-24 (Hugh Jackman).

Mangold said that the day he and co-writer Scott Frank solved the story of the movie was the day they came up with the idea to have X-Men comics exist in the world of the movie as exaggerated stories that Logan hated. He said, “In a way, this idea encapsulates my love /hate relationship with ‘super hero’ films. I love the mythic values of them. They're morality tales of a modern age. But I hate they often reaffirm an idea that God will save us. That we as mortals bear no responsibility for our lives.”

Mangold went on to drop the truth bomb about the rationale behind Logan, “I tried to make a film that put us in the shoes of Gods. Frail Gods. So we could feel their disappointment in us. And also their exhaustion. The movie is, for me, undeniably political. About an age when we hide in consumerism, distracted in fantasy, as our real world burns.”


The Duds
In a deleted scene at the end of The Wolverine (2013), Mangold revealed a comics accurate, brown and yellow Wolverine outfit. When asked if he’d ever considered using the costume in Logan, and if Jackman had ever done fittings for it, the director responded, “He never put it on. We never even made a version of the outfit. Everything about his character as I understand it, would keep him from donning a self- promoting ‘uniform.’ I'm sure the next incarnation of the Wolverine will go there.”


Dying Act
Mangold addressed the decision to have Laura kill X-24 rather than having Logan have a rematch against his clone in a lengthy battle. “I wanted the Logan that felt love to be essentially weaker than the version who did not feel anything. Also, I wanted his daughter to have the final word as the world was her's now. Logan was essentially trying to kill his own past in the end, the dark legacy of Weapon X and all the pain he had caused when he was a killing machine. I felt it had to be the best of himself that crushed this demon. And the best of himself was in the form of his daughter.”

Mangold followed that by saying, “In the end, I felt that the greatest tribute we could offer this great character created by this great actor (@realhughjackman) was to allow him to leave this world after 200+ years of pain in a moment of love and tenderness."

The next morning, Jackman responded in kind, writing, "The final line of Logan’s - 'So this is what it feels like.' was one of the master strokes of the script. The right words to ending a nine movie character arc."

I have a feeling that in an eventual final tally of Hugh Jackman's film portfolio, LOGAN will likely be Top 2 for the filmmaking artistry and for the kind of universal love showered upon it by film fans! Maybe even the Top Choice!


Jo

[jo]

Hugh actually tweeted about the audition surprise --

[mamaleh]

I wonder if the Hollywood Reporter routinely reviews or features quarantine watch parties for most films? I’m thinking no.

Ellen

[mamaleh]

I wonder if the Hollywood Reporter routinely reviews or features quarantine watch parties for most films? I’m thinking no.

Ellen

[mamaleh]

Sorry for the double.

E

[jo]

Interesting comment --

Mangold went on to drop the truth bomb about the rationale behind Logan, “I tried to make a film that put us in the shoes of Gods. Frail Gods. So we could feel their disappointment in us. And also their exhaustion. The movie is, for me, undeniably political. About an age when we hide in consumerism, distracted in fantasy, as our real world burns.”

From his other tweets --

Thanks, Nick. & you get at the essential tightrope we have to walk when we make these films. Because we must of course honor the characters. But we must also do something new (& disorient you a bit) or the film's nothing but a cash grab

What is he referring to? Is it partly society's fascination with superhero tentpoles? That the young people are sometimes pre-occupied with this kind of entertainment...and not in movies that are social commentaries, behind the surface? And the support of consumerism?

If you have once and while followed Mangold's Twitter account -- he never minces his words!

Jo

[jo]

This is @mang0ld --

[jo]

[jo]

[jo]

Hugh was part of a VARIETY series called ACTORS ON ACTORS - with Anne Hathaway paired with him for the conversation on the subject of acting. Anne asks him about the finale scene in LOGAN.

Jun 29, 2020 10:26:07 GMT -5 jo said:

It looks like that the most memorable part of the interview is being cited on social and mass media is the finale/dying scene in LOGAN.


monkeyviral.com/hugh-jackman-recalls-emotional-last-moments-as-wolverine/

Hugh Jackman recalls emotional last moments as Wolverine
June 29, 202017

Hugh Jackman played Wolverine in nine movies, starting with 2000’s “X-Men.” So, when it came time to hang up his claws as the Marvel superhero, he knew that it would be an emotional farewell.

In an interview for Variety‘s Actors on Actors issue, Jackman talked to Anne Hathaway about shooting his final scene as Wolverine in 2017’s “Logan,” directed by James Mangold.



“There were so many crossovers by the end, because I’d played it for so long,” Jackman said. “I knew it was going to be my last one way before we wrote it. I made that decision. There was a weight of expectation that I’d been carrying. I was super invested.”

In the R-rated superhero drama, a departure from the other “X-Men” movies, Jackman’s last scene shows Wolverine sacrificing himself for his adopted daughter Laura (Dafne Keen).

“I felt so in it,” Jackman said. “I was working with a director that I worked with three times before, who I trust implicitly, Jim Mangold. I remember when we shot that scene, we were shooting very high altitude, and there were thunderstorms going off everywhere, and we had to shut down. He just said, ‘We can’t do this big stunt scene. But we’re just going to do the death scene.’ I’m like, ‘Like, now?’ He goes, ‘I’m just going to have you and Dafne, and if you could just do that.’ I’m like, ‘All right.’ He knew that’s best for me.”


The meaning of the scene wasn’t lost on Mangold — or Jackman. “We got there and we’re shooting the scene,” Jackman said. “Dafne was 11. She was fantastic. We shot Dafne, and she turned around in two takes and he goes, ‘Let’s just kick out. Let’s do another.’ I said, ‘You sure? I feel like –‘ and he goes, ‘Man, let’s just stop the clocks. Let’s not worry about everything. This is the end of 19 years. Sit it in for half an hour.’ ”

“He rolled the cameras,” Jackman recalled. “Him allowing me — not just as an actor, but as Hugh — to remember that moment. It was a luxury that I’ll never forget.”



Variety‘s Actors on Actors issue celebrates the best TV performances of the year. Jackman is receiving the best reviews of his career for playing a school superintendent in HBO’s “Bad Education,” while Anne Hathaway portrays a woman coming to terms with her bipolar disorder in the Amazon anthology series “Modern Love.”

[jo]

Some personal news (In real life) from the man who taught Logan --

[jo]

The Fox Exec who oversaw the production project of LOGAN (among other hits including The Greatest Showman), Emma Watts has now joined PARAMOUNT PICTURES as President for the Motion Picture Group, reporting to her former boss at Fox and now Paramount Chairman and CEO Jim Gianopulos.

deadline.com/2020/06/emma-watts-named-president-motion-picture-group-at-paramount-1202974374/

She left Disney after staying for less than a year after the merger with Fox.


Hope Jim and Emma will have chance to work with Hugh Jackman once again!

[jo]

[jo]

asapland.com/logan-james-mangold-reveals-why-he-killed-wolverine-and-hugh-jackman/50706/

Logan: James Mangold reveals why he killed Wolverine and Hugh Jackman
July 25, 2020

Lisa Durant


A few years after the release of Logan – The Wolverine which marked the last appearance of Hugh Jackman as the mutant of the X-Men also for the fate reserved for the character in the film, James Mangold is back to talk about the decision to eliminate such a beloved comic book character.


Mangold insisted that deciding to kill Wolverine was his best intuition for the film: "The decision did not come from a committee, but essentially it was an idea of ​​Hugh and mine at the beginning. It seemed logical, that since it should have been his last film he would have had to go to the horizon or die, there had to be a sort of definitive closure in his story. It seems to me a logical deduction, doesn't it? The choice was essentially dictated by this need to have a sense of closure. If you have to finish you must have a real ending. And if you are dealing with the legacy of Hugh's performances and his many films then you want to try to set the part in this film so that it's definitive"


There has also recently been talk of the choice not to include Magneto in Logan. The reasons could in fact be related not only to the need for plot and to the continuity of the X-Men timeline: in the past the director had admitted that he was not interested in giving a conclusion to no other character other than Logan Howlett and even the choice to insert Charles Xavier could be subordinated only to the plot.

[jo]

Oct 9, 2016 10:02:04 GMT -5 jo said:

Another one --

http://instagr.am/p/BLWG0HOj2c5

I am getting a film noir vibe

Lol - I was looking for something -- and this tweet appeared -- in 2016.

We did not know then...

that Mangold will eventually also release a LOGAN NOIR version.

Was he telegrahing the signals early on

[jo]

[jo]

[jo]

They were probably rehearsing how that scene showing Laura eating breakfast flakes should be played.