LOGAN : Publicity and Promotion

[jo]

And the recent Twitter"confrontation" has raised expectations once again...and even drawn an exasperated ( jk) reply from bloggers

www.themarysue.com/give-the-people-what-they-want-a-hugh-jackman-ryan-reynolds-movie/


And another Twitter avalanche from fans

[njr]

Dec 13, 2018 16:23:31 GMT -5 jo said:

Yes, I know fully well that it is a throwback photo.

But what is interesting is why Hugh chooses to put that up now, knowing how much Ryan and the fans are pursuing him to return to his Wolverine persona onscreen...and given how he has been rebuffing all overtures


Quite intriguing to me


Jo

To each his/her own. Doesn’t intrigue me at all.

[jo]

Remember this photo? It was one of the original images teased to fans when the movie was about to be released... it told volumes... but it was never shown in the movie ( nor did we have a hint on what it was supposed to convey). Very intriguing!

[jo]

Nice artwork --

[jo]

This is more to do with Patrick Stewart who has recently won high praise for his return to the Star Trek TV series. However, within the article, there is mention of the poignant and tearful moments shared by Hugh and Patrick during the Berlinale premiere of LOGAN.

squaremile.com/features/patrick-stewart-interview/?fbclid=IwAR3B2uJQxFwFQWv8rJTi60Ce3cvvYsAEZX8E7oH8pzN-sA83BBO2DpdM7TM

Excerpts --

Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart holding hands in a cinema in Berlin watching their own movie!

Stewart’s life has been laced with synchronicities – everything seemingly interconnected in some way. For example, the decision to revisit Star Trek mirrors his return to Xavier in the 2017 film, Logan, something he had never planned on doing, having appeared in seven X-Men instalments.

“But it was brilliantly written and irresistible. Charles Xavier was unrecognisable from the cool, compassionate, sensitive intellectual everyone knew. Instead there was this ranting dangerous buffoon, staggering about singing jingles in his wheelchair.”

Hugh Jackman’s Logan meanwhile, “was driving a shitty old limo to earn money to keep Xavier in medication,” Stewart grins at the unlikely prospect. The film is close to the actor’s heart. He tells me about a screening he attended with his co-star.

“I found myself getting very emotional as I watched Xavier die and I thought, ‘Come on, Patrick, it’s a movie, pull yourself together.’ Then I looked over and saw Hugh wipe his eye and I thought, ‘if Hugh Jackman can weep at a movie, I can.’ Then Hugh reached over and took my hand, and that finished me off…

“Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart holding hands in a cinema in Berlin watching their own movie! Hugh is a prince among men,” continues Stewart. “I can’t go into any details, but I am pushing a project that I hope will bring us together again.”

Is this last part a currently-dated portion of the article … or was it simply lifted from old accounts of how the Berlinale premiere of LOGAN went? It sounds almost identical to those reports in 2017.

At that time, the project mentioned was SWEENEY TODD (in a likely stage revival). However, while it may be of interest to both Hugh and Patrick, it is doubtful that it is still a foreseeable project now.

*Hugh will soon be involved for reportedly a yearlong run in The Music Man. It is not likely he will consider another stage vehicle soon. He needs to go back to making movies!

*Also, there is already an iconic original casting of the original 1979 production ( with Angela Lansbury and Len Cariou, who played the role of the priest in PRISONERS). There have been several revivals of note both on Broadway ( with Michael Cerveris and Patti Lupone) and in the West End ( Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton). Why would there be another revival work again?

*There is already a film adaptation, with Johnny Depp, who won an Oscar nomination for the role. However, its box office performance registered only a worldwide total of about $ 153 million. That doesn't seem to call for a likely remake?

*Maybe Patrick is considering a limited engagement play, maybe even a Shakespeare ( both have worked with Trevor Nunn, a noted Shakespeare director)? But would Hugh want to do a stage play in London? I remember that he turned down the role of Denny in A STEADY RAIN initially when it was planned for a London staging ( as it would take him away from home for a prolonged period, unlike filming movies where he can take short breaks to visit his family). He only agreed when the production was moved to Broadway.

*Maybe farfetched - but it could also be another movie project?


We'll see...

Jo

[jo]

We might have seen the interview back then --

but we did not likely know that the interviewer/fan was an old mate from WAAPA days!


ryanintheus.com/the-real-hugh-jackman-from-waapa-to-logan/

[jo]

[jo]

[njr]

Aug 4, 2020 9:28:17 GMT -5 jo said:

I’m kind of confused. For Logan in the last movie he wore a wig, didn’t he? So he could have had the buzz cut all along.

[jo]

That was what I thought at first. I thought he had a buzz cut to make wearing a wig more comfortable.

As it turned out --the buzz cut was for X-24, the metaphorical character for Wolverine's dark side.


Jo

[njr]

Aug 5, 2020 8:15:51 GMT -5 jo said:

That was what I thought at first. I thought he had a buzz cut to make wearing a wig more comfortable.

As it turned out --the buzz cut was for X-24, the metaphorical character for Wolverine's dark side.


Jo

Okay, but the point is, he wore a wig but actually had a buzz cut.

[jo]

LOL - not debating that at all.

We were kept in the dark about the twin character ( X-24) which was the secret concept that Mangold and Hugh kept away from the public. There were many speculations as to who would be the villain he would be in competition with:

*Initial script had Sabertooth as returning ( which was why Liev Schreiber was initially in the mix).
*Then news about the mad scientist ( forgot the supposed name) was rumored ( which eventually came out to be the character played by Richard Grant)
*The character of Boyd Holbrook was also rumored as the main villain, but he turned out to be just the leaders of the Reavers.

I was in touch with someone on IMDB who saw an initial screening. Upon my persistence, he divulged that Wolverine ( no one knew that he would be called "lOGAN" all the time) would die in the movie...but nothing on who the ultimate villain would be.

That was the beauty of it - that it was his metaphorical dark side, X-24, who would be in his final confrontation!

And I happened to have stumbled on Hugh's photo having breakfast somewhere with that buzz cut

He has worn wigs in other movies (The Fountain as Tomas, Les Miserables and eventually Greatest Showman) but he never cut his hair that short simply for comfort ( under a wig)


Jo

[jo]

To be honest -

Hugh's hair has been part of his acting craft

*He permed it ( Oklahoma!)

*He wore it with an overload of spraynet ( XMen original trilogy)

*He wore it long ( with extensions) - Van Helsing

*He got rid of it completely ( The Fountain & Pan)

*He put a wig on top of it ( The Fountain, as Tomas...Les Miserables & The Greatest Showman)

*He slicked it back unflaterringly ( Bad Education)

*He wore a wig but had a buzz cut underneath for a second role ( Logan)

*He looked... and intentionally ...cartoonish with a wig ( Gaston in Beauty And The Beast)

Psst - he even wore it BLONDE when he was little


Jo

[jo]

[jo]

"The gem from the cold" ( with apologies to THE SPY FROM THE COLD movie) -

an extensive and in-depth discussion on the motivation and ambition of the movie LOGAN, per this transcript of the post-show discussions after the screening of LOGAN NOIR at ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE --


www.filminquiry.com/mangold-jackman-parker-logan-noir/

This transcript came out in May 2017.

FEATURES
,
INTERVIEWS
James Mangold, Hugh Jackman & Hutch Parker Discuss The Making Of LOGAN NOIR
MAY 23, 2017
James Mangold, Hugh Jackman & Hutch Parker Discuss The Making Of LOGAN Noir

ALEX ARABIAN



For one night only, Logan Noir, the black and white version of Logan, was released theatrically in the US on May 16, followed by the a press conference moderated by MTV’s Josh Horowitz. Taking place at the Alamo Drafthouse in Brooklyn and streamed live in Drafthouse theaters in major cities across the country, it marked that last of Logan’s legendary press tour that began on February 12 at the Berlin International Film Festival (The Berlinale). Attending the press junket was Logan writer and director James Mangold, star Hugh Jackman, and producer Hutch Parker.

Having had time to look back on Logan in retrospect, over the 30-minute Q and A, the three shared their final thoughts on the film and its massive success over the course of its theatrical run, including reservations, reception, making Stephen Colbert cry three times, getting emotional with Sir Patrick Stewart at the Berlinale premiere, the paradox of violence depiction in film, Dafne Keen’s powerhouse performance and the very high possibility of future X-23 films, and where Jackman sees his next move in the X-Men universe.

Finally, the three industry powerhouses discussed the labor of love that was the post-production transition to Logan Noir as an ode to fans of Logan’s marketing process who craved to see the whole film in black and white. Eventually, it got the better of Mangold’s curiosity, and Logan Noir does not disappoint for fans of the genre, cinephiles, and casual filmgoers alike. Before the film, Horowitz made sure to remind lucky viewers of the privilege of such a unique experience:

“Brooklyn, you’re really lucky, and theaters around the country, you are also lucky because you get to be part of this very cool event. Are you ready to the part of a very cool elite club as the only people would see Logan Noir on the big screen. Shall we? Okay guys, enjoy the film and [see you] on the other side!”

I won’t speak too much about the magnificence of the crisp black and white masterpiece that ensued, but check out my review of Logan Noir here!

Horowitz: I want to say hello to the theaters around the country, some 30 theaters that are watching us live. Thank you for joining us. This is gonna be a lot of fun. Without any further ado, let’s get into some conversation about Logan and Logan Noir. Give it up for this amazing panel, producer, Hutch Parker, writer, director, James Mangold, and a man that we all know and love, there would be no Wolverine, no Logan without him, Mr. Hugh Jackman!

James Mangold, Hugh Jackman & Hutch Parker Discuss The Making Of LOGAN Noir
photo credit: Alex Arabian
[audience clapping, laughing, and howling]
Jackman: The claws are out! I like it.

Horowitz: Congratulations again, guys.

Jackman: Thanks, Josh.

Mangold: Thank you so much.

Jackman: Thank you guys for coming. We really appreciate it.

Horowitz: So, first up, I do want to ask a little bit about the presentation that this privileged audience got to see in theaters around the country of Logan Noir. How did this idea happen? How did we get here? Was this something you always kind of intended to present in some form?

Mangold: It very much came from fans. Those of you who follow us on Twitter and whatever other social media you might [have], I’ve got a lot of blank and white photos that myself and some other photographers took during production. And early on, I started releasing some of the photos, and they were in black and white, and the fans’ response was huge.

And I thought our lighting, and Hugh, and all the characters look fabulous in black and white. And it just struck us that we should [do it]. It first occurred to us that we should do it on home video and produce a black and white version, and as we were working on it, it looked so good, we said ‘we want to see this on big screen.’ I think people might show up and see it.

Audience: It was great!

Mangold: Thank you! And one of the biggest reasons to do it is because I think there is something changing out there. People are looking for things. There’s a lot of film fans out there and people are looking for things that connect to the past, things that look different, things that are new, but also old again. And I think that for a long time, studios have had an assumption that you guys need bright colors at all times to stay amused, and loud sounds at all times to stay amused. And I would think that’s true.




James Mangold, Hugh Jackman & Hutch Parker Discuss The Making Of LOGAN Noir
source: 20th Century Fox
I think audiences are getting more sophisticated and more interested in seeing creativity, exploring all different sorts of different ways, and even just one night, seeing this movie this way, helps people see that there’s audiences out there for a monochrome movie, for a different kind of movie in any way – that’s great.

Jackman: I want to give a shout out to two people that are here staying at the back, Chris Aronson and Steve Asbell. Names you may not have heard of. The PR people are here, guys, the people from the studio, high up at the studio. I think a lot of people assume that studios are just very risk averse, but actually, the fostering of this idea really grew from seeds within, as Jim explained, from his photography, but really took route with those two at the studios so, thank you guys!

Mangold: Thank you!

Jackman: We couldn’t have done it without you.




Horowitz: Can you gentlemen let us in on the initial conversations that led to the film we saw here and [the one] we saw back in March in terms of what were the first things that all three of you kind of wanted to see in this film? And were you kind of on the same page from the start? How difficult was it to kind of get on the same page among the three and with the studio?

Jackman: I’ve come to a new formula after 20 years in this business, that it actually takes fewer people who fight harder to make a movie you’re proud of. Hutch and I worked together for 20 years, but I knew I wouldn’t have anything if Jim wasn’t on board. I’m trying to remember, I think I mentioned The Wrestler.

Mangold: We were talking about The Wrestler, we were going through westerns. But the funny thing is, we know what we want and we both know what we didn’t want. That was the first thing we were coming from, We were both coming from a pretty negative place of going, ‘we don’t want to make it another one of those movies.’ Meaning just another one of the assembly line.

Even though there are lots of people that show up for them, we wanted to make something more human, more different. I think, that’s why [Hugh] references The Wrestler or movies like Unforgiven. There were a lot of different movies in our heads, but they all were united by one thing. They were personal films, not corporate. There was some level where we really didn’t want to do that. We really wanted to do a film that somehow was a film first, and happened to feature superheroes, as opposed to being a superhero film. And that difference kind of informed everything we did in every decision we made.

Horowitz: I don’t know, maybe this is something that difference Hutch could illuminate, but I’m curious, I mean, I think for context like, we can think about Deadpool now, this R-rated film that made so much money and was so successful with critics and fans. But you guys were in development, this was going to be R before Deadpool came out. You didn’t know there would be that audience. Was the studio always on board a 110%? Was there a massive fight in any way on any of the story points that we eventually saw that landed on the big screen?

Parker: There really wasn’t. The key catalyst in this, honestly, in my opinion, was Jim. We had conversations in different iterations that, even going back long before The Wolverine about more grounded story-telling within the universe. But, candidly, I don’t think we were equipped yet. We, and I’ll say it on behalf of the studio and even the various people involved, Jim was sort of a catalyst in so many different ways and in galvanizing the studio’s confidence about doing something bold in the conviction that he had about the tone that it required, and the kind of amazing instinct and navigational skill he had about where we needed to go with the story.

He really was in the best sense of what I think of as a filmmaker, the captain of this journey. And that was obviously in conjunction with Hugh, unquestionably, from the beginning. We often says this about actors, and its certainly true of Hugh in this role, but I cannot picture another filmmaker doing anything even close to what was accomplished with this film other than Jim. And I think that’s how significant change occurs in storytelling, in filmmaking, when somebody comes along that has the combination of talent and passion and instinct and conviction and skill. And that’s a rare thing.

James Mangold, Hugh Jackman & Hutch Parker Discuss The Making Of LOGAN Noir
source: 20th Century Fox
Jackman: And [he has] guts, and [he’s] always so excited. It’s my third film with Jim, and we always talked about doing something along the 17 years that we worked together, but to have a blank canvass for Jim – I mean, unfortunately, you had to inherit an actor, but apart from that, it was a blank canvass in terms of script, of what we did with it. Steve Asbell and Emma Watts [of 20th Century Fox] and I had a meeting at a hotel in Los Angeles early on, and I thought that [meeting] would be tough. I said to Jim, ‘I’m just going to have a meeting so that they know that I’m really in and it’s not just you.’ And that was about a three-minute meeting. It was literally like ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’ I’m like, ‘No, I’m really serious, like this is what we wanna make.’ ‘Yeah, great, let’s go!’




Mangold: We kept bracing for people to be opposed to us. And certain things conspired, I think, in our favor. One was that Deadpool eventually came out. It was a massive success, so that defanged our fears about rated R quite as much. Also, we promised to make the movie for less money so that we could be rated R. So that helps. But the last thing that I talked about when the movie came out is, one of the main reasons I wanted it to be R, wasn’t, per se, blue language or violence, while all those things, in some way, particularly violence for this character was a value added for me, it was really because, when you make a movie of this scale, there’s a lot of pressure on the movie in the marketplace. And if the movie is rated R, frankly, it gets graded on the curve. Not everyone can go, it’s just that simple now. Not every 14-year-old or 11-year-old or 6-year-old, god-willing, is gonna be able to buy tickets in this movie. It reduces the box office.

Okay, so that’s a problem for the studio, that’s why we made it cheaper, but it does something else. It suddenly means you’re not making a movie for 6-year-olds and 9-year-olds and 11-year-olds, and the kind of story you can tell and the way you tell it when you’re not concerned with establishing cutesy sidekick characters that become something that they give away or someone makes action figures out of it or whether, or that you’re not worried about the attention span of a 7-year-old and whether they’re going to be looking up from their gummy bears or not.

You’re just telling a story for essentially grown-ups. You know, a huge part of the comic book world, of the world of the graphic novel, is adults who read them, not children, and that at some point, the marketing is skewed, when you make these movies, [they’re] all aimed at carrying really young children along. First of all, producers of movies of, frankly, even a PG-13 is too violent for kids in my opinion. But second of all, it also cheats grown-ups of having some part of their fantasy experience or their comic book experience honored with adult themes and ideas. And I think that by getting a rated R, it gave us a driver’s license to make, and I hope you agree, a more sophisticated movie, or movie that even took its time sometimes with the characters, as opposed to it having [to move] along so fast.





Horowitz: Let’s talk a little bit about the luxury of having a Q & A like this a couple of months after it’s been out, as we’ve all seen it, probably multiple times. So we can talk a little bit about the ending. Hugh, you’ve had a lot of time to kind of think about how you wanted to go out specifically, I think, how the ending would look to you, what your last moments on screen would be as this character. Did you have thoughts that you shared with James and Hutch in terms of what the final moments of Logan should be, what the last words should be? Were there alternates to the last scenes of the film?

Jackman: I’m gonna be honest, I was a pain in the ass for Jim, and I was wrong 95% of the time. But there was a lot of things that I was like ‘Jim, no,’ and fight it, and he would listen to me. And when I saw the movie, it was a literally, ‘yeah, you were right, you were right, you were right, you were right.’ Even before that, we were pretty open about whether it would be [does a symbolic finger slice to the throat] for Logan or not. Because Unforgiven was a huge influence for me, and actually the film was more devastating for me, the fact that he just rides out of town, unforgiven and somehow damned in his heroism, and I thought it was such a beautiful, poetic finish. And I said whatever we finish with, it has to be earned. So, when we went into it, forgive me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think we decided whether he would die or not.

Mangold: It was about, I think, earning the right ending. But I think we wanted it to feel over. Meaning, we wanted, in a sense, a real curtain coming down at the end. I don’t want to speak for you, but I certainly did not want people speculating that we left a hole open from more money making and milking and doing. I wanted it to be like, the curtains come down. We told the story. And it’s just a like a regular movie. We’re not leaving something out there, the story is over.

Jackman: But the highlight for me, and I’m saying this because so many people ask me, ‘who came up with that ending with the cross turning into the X?’, and that was Jim Mangold. So, he wrote it, and when I read it, I thought, that’s beautiful, you know, and seemed very poetic on the page, but when I saw it, I cried. And I sat next to Patrick Stewart, we saw it for the first time, and both of us wept. Stephen Colbert, I hope he doesn’t mind me saying this, but I just saw him the other night, he said ‘I’ve seen it three times in the theater, in the cinema, and I cried every single time at that final image.’ There were something so patient and courageous, as a filmmaker, to allow everything to culminate in at that one moment. And so it’s a privilege to be under the ground while that moment happens.





[audience laughing and clapping]
James Mangold, Hugh Jackman & Hutch Parker Discuss The Making Of LOGAN Noir
source: 20th Century Fox
Horowitz: We got some Twitter questions for you guys that everyone is submitting. Here’s the first one, James, how many kids did you have to audition until you found Dafne? And Hugh, can you talk a little bit of what it’s like working with her?

Mangold: There were thousands of kids – looked at around the world. I mean, we were very specific in the screenplay about what we needed, which was a Spanish-speaking young woman between 10 and 12. I didn’t want her to be too old. I didn’t want it to be kind of, CW kind of post-pubescent young. I wanted a kid. I wanted it to be a kid. And, Dafne, to be honest – I got this iPhone video of her from Madrid that her dad, who’s a wonderful actor and her mom, who’s a wonderful actor, recorded with her doing these scenes.

And, on the Blu-Ray, you might see these scenes that have been on the internet now for auditioning, this was before that. It’s something very raw, but also, like that, very magnificent. I just knew it was her. I mean, I remember pulling Hugh in and Hutch in and Patrick and everyone I could find and say, this is the kid. She is amazing, and she had never been in a movie before. I think you’ll agree with me, she is an amazing kid [audience clapping]. What was it like working with her, Hugh?

Jackman: She’s astonishing. I mean, I have an 11-year-old daughter, so I was watching the two of them play on set. Literally, sometimes, looking like 7 or 8-year-olds, very sort of innocent and sweet and then literally just whacking on the claws and slicing humans in half. She’s so very normal and extraordinary at the same time. Incredibly intense, loved the set, hated being dragged from set, wanted to work longer, really wanted to watch and would listen. But she wouldn’t just say yes to anything, right? She really had a kind of conviction within herself.

Mangold: She’s a real actress. She didn’t want to be told ‘Look here. Smile here. Blink here.’ She wanted to know. She wanted me to describe what the scene is about or what would be the vibe in the scene and she’d actually get disconcerted if I started to kind of give her what I call ‘results notes.’ Like just, ‘do this, feel this.’ She is a real actress.

Jackman: Super cool. Very relaxed. Although when we were at the MTV Awards last Sunday, she came up to me and she seemed very sort of, all of a sudden quite shy and a little starstruck. I said ‘You okay?’, she goes ‘I really want a photo with Emma Watson. Can I get a photo with Emma Watson?’ and all of a sudden she turned into an 11-year-old. It was very sweet.

Horowitz: Is that the last we’ve seen X-23? Have you talked to the studios? Is there potentially more for her?

Mangold: Anything’s possible, but I’ve certainly talked to them about it. I even talked to them before we made the movie. I thought she is a great character. But with what Dafne did, I think certainly that’s possible.

Horowitz: Tantalizing, okay. Next question from our audience, Hugh, has there been anything you’ve been able to learn about yourself through growing with and playing the character of Logan over the years?

Jackman: Yeah, this was my first film in America so, 17, 18 years ago. I’ve learned so much and continue to learn, but in the end, I was left with this incredible feeling of confidence. I suppose that if you are lucky enough to surround yourself with the right people, you can bring the best out in yourself. And one of the reasons I wanted Jim to direct me, first off, very selfishly, is he gets the best performances out of anybody. So when it comes to The Wolverine, I was like ‘It’s already my 8th or 7th movie or something’ and I was like ‘I’ve got to dig deeper,’ and Jim was one of those people.

And he was a writer and developer as well, [and] we knew each other. Hutch is the same. When you have people around you that are honest, that are not afraid to push you, but that, underneath all that, believe in you, then as an actor, you feel free. Because I used to find it, particularly when I began, a quite daunting thing. Really, I was more at home on a stage than a sound stage. A sound stage at all, I feel very disjointed.

When I first began, I realized that I do love the feeling of theater, the feeling of family where it’s not perfect. People will argue, people will yell but underneath, there is a belief in each other that you will get the job done. And that you will be honest with each other when you are letting each other down and that’s what I wanted. It is the most important thing to have, that faith in the people around you, and I have been very, very lucky to have that.





Horowitz: Another question actually about the Logan Noir version we just saw for you, James. Is black and white now your preferred version? If so, we kind of addressed this a little bit, [but] was it ever discussed for the initial release?

James Mangold, Hugh Jackman & Hutch Parker Discuss The Making Of LOGAN Noir
source: 20th Century Fox

Mangold: I have to be honest and say no, I made the movie as a color film. So, I would be kind of lying if I said that. I wanted to see the film as a black and white film, but if I were making a black and white film and saying it’s the preferred version, we’d be planning from the ground up in the very beginning, which in this world right now is highly unlikely because it’s very hard to get anybody to watch a production, particularly a mega-budget black and white film that’s never going to be in color.

I have friends who even made black and white films, and they still have to produce a colored version just for some territories that absolutely refuse to distribute the black and white. So, just the world marketplace of film hasn’t involved to that place yet. I love this version of the movie but it would be like picking among my children, and my production side over there would literally faint if I said all the work we went to with color, and my DP, and all of the work that went to with the costume designer and the work we went to was out the window because I suddenly prefer this one. Let’s say I love all my children.

[audience laughing]
Horowitz: You finally got to do your black and white western. It happened. Another question from the fans out there: Hugh, how emotional were you on your last day of shooting?

Jackman: It took me a bit by surprise. I think I remember the last day. It was sort of a bits and piece-y kind of day. As often happens, you know. I have a friend who always says, ‘not with a bang but a whip,’ often films finish like that, you know. The end scenes were not the last scenes we shot, and I was so involved with these guys, even when we shot I knew we still have a long way to go. We finished last August, right? So, we still had seven or eight months.

Honestly, I don’t think it sunk in until I sat in Berlin with Patrick Stewart and that cross turned into an X and that’s when I feel I really let it go. I think I was a pain in the ass because it meant so much to me. 17 years, and I’d felt – Hutch and I, we talked about this 11 years ago, a version of this film. I really believe in them, and I’m so grateful to the studio that they backed Jim’s vision and that we worked together and it meant so much to me. I couldn’t really relax until I saw it. And, when I did, I was just so grateful. I remember saying to Jim, I will never, ever, in a million years be able to tell you how grateful I am because delivered something way beyond what I could have.

Mangold: It was not possible without these people. Honestly, they have been very kind to me. It’s really nice to have an idea, and to want to pursue that idea, but it’s hard to get somewhere without a lot of people behind you and on the sides of you and helping, and it’s very kind. But also, he’s a phenomenal actor, Hugh Jackman, and yeah [audience clapping]. It is a point of pride for me that I think that I got to co-write and direct him in this movie because I think he is fucking fabulous in this movie, and unlike many on their final trip around the bases, reached deeper and hit it further than he ever had, and I think that’s really amazing.




Horowitz: As I let you gentlemen go, we talked many times the last couple of years leading into this. The retirement door is still firmly shutting? You’ve had a couple of months to think about it. Perhaps you went out in the way you wanted, as you just said. You couldn’t have ended this any better.

Jackman: I see this movie, and I think, ‘people want a musical?’ [laughter] That’s what I’m thinking!

Horowitz: There’s hope!

[laughter]
Jackman: Maybe something like a circusy-kind of feel. I don’t know.

Mangold: With claws.

[laughter]
Jackman: Yeah, with claws!

Horowitz: This is one of your last interviews, probably, about this franchise, about these characters, so it’s been a privilege to talk to you about it, and thank you so much for your time today. Congratulations on the film, guys. Thank you for being here today.

Jackman: Thank you!

Parker: Thank you!

Mangold: Thank you for coming out tonight. Really appreciate it!

Jackman: And all audiences around the country, thank you!

Did you enjoy Logan in theaters? Are you excited to see Logan Noir? Will you be purchasing the Blu-Ray next week for all of the behind-the-scenes extras? Which version is better, Logan or Logan Noir?

Logan is available for purchase on Blu-Ray on May 23, which will include the Logan Noir version!

Doncha love how Hugh pitched the movie which followed the release of LOGAN - a musical which unconventionally follows a superhero movie release - something "circusy" ? And Mangold adds "with claws"? I wonder if Jim knew by that time that he would be helping out in the new movie's post production


Jo

[jo]

Hugh in an ADR session for the soundtrack of LOGAN.

It is how he breaks into a smile, after the session, that is very disconcerting after a seemingly tough session

Hugh's smile is very heartwarming! He was once asked what his best feature would be. He replied that people say it is his smile


Jo



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[jo]

Disney has announced that there will be another sequel to the Indiana Jones franchise, with Harrison Ford still portraying film's favorite adventurer. New director is James Mangold ( who is also writing the script). Filming is expected in the spring.

[jo]

Found this among Hugh Jackman LIKEs on Twitter --

DiscussingFilm
Home Film James Mangold on ‘Logan’ and the Art of Adapting Stories – Exclusive Interview
James Mangold on ‘Logan’ and the Art of Adapting Stories – Exclusive Interview
written by Michael Slavin May 27, 2020 || 1:45 pm

The first part of the interview is about Mangold's journey with Ford Vs Ferrari --

Following our previous conversation with James Mangold on the state of the film industry post-pandemic, he also took some time to reflect on his journey with Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine. The visionary director lead two of 20th Century Fox’s most well regarded comic book films, The Wolverine and Logan. Many consider Logan as the final wave goodbye to Fox’s run with Marvel’s X-Men property. Even though Mangold has directed a handful of Oscar-winning films such as Walk the Line and Girl, Interrupted – Logan bestowed the first nomination to his name for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Three years and one more nomination later (Ford v Ferrari for Best Picture), looking back at Mangold’s methods of adapting stories could not be more insightful. Whether if the story originates from fictional or historical canon, Mangold sees not much of a difference. His journey with the Wolverine actually stems back to Ford v Ferrari. Mangold recalls these origins and reflects on the connective themes of his entire filmography. He also breaks down his “dos and don’ts” of adapting comics to film. The goal of telling the best story is the same regardless if your lead is an aging mutant or hot head race driver.

At what stage did you get involved with Ford v Ferrari? Was it throughout the entirety or were you brought on at a certain point?

JM: I was tracking it for almost a decade. I read the script, I think initially as a writing sample and was like, “Who’s making this movie? This is great”! At the time it was Michael Mann and that shut me up because I’m a huge fan. Then I came back two years later, before making The Wolverine. In fact, it was the meeting when Emma Watts (President of Fox) handed me the script for The Wolverine and told me Darren (Aronofsky) had left the project. I asked about what was going on with Ford v Ferrari. Again, it was still with Michael although they had apparently hit some kind of roadblock. The movie was costing too much apparently.

So onward I went and worked on The Wolverine. After that, I came back again to discover that Ford v Ferrari now had a new director and new stars attached. Somehow it changed hands while I was busy. I was frustrated and moved on. But again, that version never happened. Apparently, this new team could not get the numbers down either. The script had become quite sprawling during this process and featured Ferrari in much greater depth with many more races. I was told no one could quite get the cost far south of $200 million. After Logan was wrapped, I asked one more time about where this movie was and, lo and behold, it was finally free.


I talked to the most current writers on the film, John Henry and Jez Butterworth, about what I was thinking about the script. And they set to work with me. We got it down to where you could do it for under 100 million. Christian (Bale) is a friend, I sent him the script and he was very curious about the part. I’ve known Matt since the Cop Land days and we had remained friendly. And I sent it to him. And suddenly, we were off to the races. A large part of the movie was me trying to boil it down into less of an epic about the entirety of the automotive world of that period. Trying to trace these two unique characters and their quixotic battle to find their own holy grail in the complex high stakes world of racing.

Discussion re Logan/Wolverine --

As well as doing adaptations of real-life figures, you’ve done adaptations with Marvel’s The Wolverine. Did you find any similarities or differences between adapting real-life figures and comic book characters, both of whom people have sort of preconceived notions of?

JM: You’re walking the same tight rope, whether they’re real-life people or giant trademark characters with huge fan bases. It might as well be that the Wolverine is a true-life story. What people feel is true to canon, true to what “really happened”, or true to how they imagined it happening – is just as much of a mine field. I just set off trying to make the best movie I can with these elements. That’s the simple challenge I’m always facing. Whether it is about well-known characters, or completely original ones. I’m just trying to make the best version of the thing I can. Of course I keep in mind how fans already see the character – you need to take them into account. But you also have to deal with the fact that for many in your audience, you may be introducing them to this character. More than anything, I feel a duty to bring a point a view. If you try to satisfy everyone, you run the risk of pleasing no one. In the end, I have to focus on pleasing myself and hope that other’s share my tastes.

In regard to Wolverine, I loved Hugh’s performances in previous films. I loved elements of things, but I felt like I hadn’t seen the character truly blossom yet. I felt like fans, out of sheer enthusiasm, were reading more into his character than they had been delivering. Particularly in the case of Logan, because I had more control, it was an opportunity to do go out on a limb and make a movie more in my style. The danger with franchises is that you can find yourself making what is just essentially another episode of the world’s most expensive TV show. That is, the movies have less stand-alone integrity and are more part of a greater tapestry. That was not interesting to me on Wolverine or Logan. I am less interested in making something that can’t stand alone, on its own two feet.


If I were directing Hamlet, I’m not going to make a Hamlet like the last Hamlet. The whole rationale behind the effort would be that we have something new to say. I’m going to set off and try and find my own Hamlet. When directing Wolverine, I’m trying to find my own language that’s fresh. That is more important to me than picking up on cues and Easter eggs that other filmmakers have left behind. That’s not very important to me and feels more like a marketing exercise. Often the priority to make a narrative into a continuous “universe” can run counter to telling the best story.

When you’re trying to make a part of a universe, you’re beholden to a litany of preordained decisions. Casting, story, design, and character relationship decisions that may not really work for the particular narrative you’re trying to tell. To me, the misconception that exists about comic books, having been a huge fan all my life – is that the comic book artists and writers didn’t change things, reinvent things. Of course they did. Including the creation of golden ages, alternate and parallel worlds where they could lay off the narrative burdens they could no longer carry. They defined and modernized the characters with new looks or ones that more appropriately representing the point of view of that particular artist.




What pressure did you feel on wrapping up with Logan? Not only Hugh Jackman’s role, but Patrick Stewart’s as well. Was it almost like finishing a beloved TV series?

JM: Well, as I said, I didn’t feel that way. I abandoned that burden of a TV series. You’re talking to someone who has no sense of duty to connect it to everything else. I didn’t see myself as making the last episode of the TV show. I saw myself as someone trying to make the best movie I could about this beloved character. Of course, to a degree, we referenced where he’s come from or what’s happened. We did it when it worked for us, but we also skipped or frog leaped over other stuff that didn’t work for us. The priority was the most heartfelt and personal movie – not the best movie that wired into everything else. That’s how I imagine you design the best car. If you have to make the same model of the car last year with some cosmetic changes, that does not produce the best car. What produces the best car is giving a designer the freedom to play, to use a different engine, different gear assembly, different crankshaft, different tires, different body shape, dramatically alter the form.


You mentioned Hugh Jackman being very involved in the creative process and how much difference there is when directing mega stars. Christian Bale and Matt Damon in Ford v Ferrari for instance, versus directing smaller actors. Is there more input when you’re working with a bigger star or is it more of the same?

JM: It really depends on the actor. Certainly in the case of Hugh and Logan, the relationship had existed between me and him for so many years making several movies. We are good friends. I knew dissatisfactions he had with films and his yearnings, what he wanted to do or hoped to have happen with the character. Things that he hadn’t had a chance to explore most of the time because Logan was existing in film with so many other characters and plot. The amount of screen time each character was accorded was minimal if you think about it. When you’re making these round robin, “task-force” movies, each character gets an arc of about 8 to 10 minutes, once the two hours is divided up among the five or six principles and villains and action sequences. For Hugh and I, we just agreed on our mission statement – which was to make a more personal film, a less polished and corporate feeling film, if you will.

Changing the rating helped. Also pushing the movie’s timeline a bit into the future, so that I was not encumbered by all the plot established in previous films. As I said, I took what was useful to me from the previous movies and even comic books, and where it wasn’t useful – I didn’t. Here’s the thing: you can be true to the facts, both of a true-life story or in a famous fictional literary work, but you can at the same time, be untrue to the essence of the original material, which would be a crime. I set off to be true to the essence of Wolverine.


The dramatic question of any Wolverine story is, to me, always about rage and regret. If we are programmed with rage, do we have the ability to earn forgiveness or forgive ourselves for what we’ve done? This theme, the quest to control the monster within us, is not all that different from the Johnny Cash story. Johnny Cash told me that the character he most identified with in movies was when at 11 years old he saw the original James Whale Frankenstein with Karloff. John said he identified with the monster, and the idea of being made up of all bad parts, evil parts, the parts of criminals. Even at that young age, John saw himself as broken – corrupted by darkness. Well, Wolverine isn’t all that different. When people talk about the eclecticism of my career, the changing genre I explore, I sometimes feel they ignore the huge connections between the characters I’m drawn to. Both Logan and Johnny Cash had pained childhoods, suffered from loss, depression, rage, and had a shadow of doom chasing them in their effort to find their best selves.



You talked about the vibe you wanted to create. Elements many saw similar to Old Man Logan. How much influence did you take from that and how much did you kind of discard if you dared at all?

JM: I really admired Old Man Logan. I loved the vibe, the tone. Millar jettisoned a lot of canon and it felt like an artist playing in his own vision of a dystopian Marvel universe. He took the elements he wanted, forgot others, and had fun. That was really liberating. Now, the plot that they came up with in Old Man Logan was not workable for me. For one reason I didn’t find it moving. It felt like nihilistic journey through different spheres and worlds. But I wanted to feel Logan. his pain, and his journey in a way that I didn’t think I could get at through that plot, which was incredibly imaginative and picaresque. There was also a logistical level I couldn’t do that plot. I had no right to use many of the characters in Old Man Logan. But nonetheless, it was a large influence. It gave me permission to make a Clint Eastwood movie about Wolverine.

I don’t think Logan would exist without Old Man Logan. I also took liberally from X-23 lore, movie lore, and then my own imagination. I mean, the idea that Charles had brain disease was just my own confection, as a dramatic conceit – which to me seemed to be really provocative, given that his brain was the most powerful thing in the world. At the time we were working on Logan, it was also topical. So many people found themselves caring for parents who were losing their memory, or their grip. It seemed like such a potent thing to weave into a story.

We were wondering, If you were given the opportunity at another comic book character, whether that’s out of Marvel, DC or otherwise – would there be anyone else that you want to adapt?

JM: It’s no secret that I was trying to pull together a version of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman. I pitched it to HBO years ago and they bought the pitch as a long form series and then it got undone by a political turf war at WB. Regardless, now it’s happening and I am so happy for Neil who I think is a marvellous person as well as a supremely brilliant artist. His unique vision weaves the psychological, psychedelic, romantic, sexual and fantastical in a way that is both personal and epic. Anyway, in regard to other projects of the future, I couldn’t possibly speak about conjecture because anything I say in the realm of comic books becomes instant nitro-glycerine ready to haunt me for the next 10 years on Twitter.

Let's hope Hugh and James can work on another project again. Maybe a movie musical, even? James helped in the post-production of THE GREATEST SHOWMAN and he has mentioned in another interview how he would like to do a film musical. He did direct WALK THE LINE, which was a sort of biopic of Johnny Cash, if I am not mistaken?


Jo

[njr]

^ Yes, he did.

[jo]

When you see him like this --

you begin to realize more and more what a great actor he is --

because his real life persona is so different!

It starts with his trademark smile


Jo

[jo]

[jo]

[jo]

There is something very poignant and heartbreaking everytime one is reminded of the Logan/Wolverine finale story --

So sad!!!!

[jo]

March 3, 2023 marks the 6th year anniversary of the release of LOGAN in the USA!

Still as acclaimed as it was 6 years ago!

[jo]

Logan, the father!