X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a 2009 superhero film based on the Marvel Comics’ fictional character Wolverine. It was released on April 28, 2009 in the Netherlands and worldwide up to May 1 2009. The film is directed by Gavin Hood and stars Hugh Jackman as the title character, along with Liev Schreiber, Danny Huston, will.i.am, Lynn Collins, Taylor Kitsch and Ryan Reynolds. It is a prequel to the X-Men film trilogy and is primarily set roughly ten to seventeen years before the film X-Men. The film focuses on the violent past of the mutant Wolverine and his relationship with his half-brother Victor Creed. The plot also details Wolverine’s early encounters with Colonel William Stryker, his time with Team X and the bonding of Wolverine’s skeleton with the indestructible metal adamantium during the Weapon X program. The film was mostly shot in Australia and New Zealand; conflicts arose between director Hood and Fox’s executives during production.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine was released to mixed reviews; critics praised Hugh Jackman’s performance, but considered the film and its screenplay uninspired. It opened at the top of the box office, grossing $85 million domestically on the opening weekend, and has grossed over $300 million worldwide.

Development

David Benioff, a comic book fan, pursued the project for almost three years before he was hired to write the script in October 2004. In preparing to write the script, he reread Barry Windsor-Smith’s “Weapon X” story, as well as Chris Claremont and Frank Miller’s 1982 limited series on the character (his favorite storyline). Also serving as inspiration was the 2001 limited series Origins, which reveals Wolverine’s life before Weapon X. Jackman collaborated on the script, which he wanted to be more of a character piece compared with the previous X-Men films. Benioff aimed for a “darker and a bit more brutal” story, writing it with an R rating in mind, although he acknowledged the film’s final tone would rest with the producers and director. Jackman did not see the need to make the film R.

Deadpool had been developed for his own film by Reynolds and David S. Goyer at New Line Cinema in 2003, but the project fell apart as they focused on Blade: Trinity and an aborted spin-off. Benioff wrote the character into the script in a manner Jackman described as fun, but would also deviate from some of his traits. Similarly, Gambit was a character who the filmmakers had tried to put in the previous X-Men films. Jackman liked Gambit because he is a “loose cannon” like Wolverine, stating their relationship echoes that of Wolverine and Pyro in the original trilogy. David Ayer contributed to the script. Benioff finished his draft in October 2006, and Jackman stated there would be a year before shooting, as he was scheduled to start filming Australia (2008) during 2007. Before the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike began, James Vanderbilt and Scott Silver were hired for a last-minute rewrite.

Gavin Hood was announced as director of the project in July 2007 for a 2008 release. Previously, X-Men and X2 director Bryan Singer and X-Men: The Last Stand director Brett Ratner were interested in returning to the franchise, while Alexandre Aja and Len Wiseman also wanted the job. Zack Snyder, who was approached for The Last Stand, turned down this film because he was directing Watchmen. Jackman saw parallels between Logan and the main character in Tsotsi. Hood explained that while he was not a comic book fan, he “realized that the character of Wolverine, I think his great appeal lies in the fact that he’s someone who in some ways, is filled with a great deal of self-loathing by his own nature and he’s constantly at war with his own nature”. The director described the film’s themes as focusing on Wolverine’s inner struggle between his animalistic savagery and noble human qualities. Hood enjoyed the previous films, but set out to give the spin-off a different feel. In October, Fox announced a May 1, 2009 release date and the X-Men Origins prefix.

Effects

More than 1000 shots of Wolverine have visual effects in them, which caused three effects supervisors and 17 different companies to work in the film. The most proeminent was Hydraulx, who had also worked in the X-Men trilogy and was responsible for the battle in Three Mile Island and Gambit’s powers. Many elements were totally generated through computer-generated imagery, such as the adamantium injection machine, the scene with Gambit’s plane and Wolverine tearing through a door with his newly-enhanced claws. CG bone claws also were created for some scenes because the props did not look well in close-ups. Extensive usage of matte paintings was also made, with Matte World Digital creating five different mattes for the final scene of the movie – a pullback depicting the destroyed Three Mile Island – and Gavin Hood handing company Hatch Productions pictures of favelas as reference for the Africa scenes.