A little over five years ago Warner Brothers made the decision to reboot the Batman film franchise. Several names of filmmakers were mentioned as candidates to helm this reboot. One of them was director Darren Aronofsky. He has made a name for himself helming very dark (and for some very depressing) films about very damaged personalities and their struggles. The Batman/Bruce Wayne duality was perfect for Aronofsky and he had begun to do early treatments to adapt Frank Miller’s classic Batman origin tale, Batman: Year One. In the end, this Aronofsky project fell through and the reboot ended up being handled by Christopher Nolan (not a slouch of a filmmaker himself).
Aronofsky has made a couple of original and very personal films since then (The Fountain, The Wrestler, Black Swan), but with 20th Century Fox scrambling to put another one of their Marvel-licensed properties into production in order to keep the rights to them, they’ve decided to give the reins of the next Wolverine film to Aronofsky. Rumors of Aronofsky close to signing the deal to helm this Logan sequel was finally confirmed by none other than Hugh Jackman himself aka Wolverine in an interview for Vulture.
The first film in this character’s franchise was lackluster at best and horrible to most. The fact that a sequel has been greenlit even after the less-than-stellar box office returns of the first film was headscratching to many. Will Aronofsky’s involvement in this sequel actually erase the bad taste that Wolverine: Origins left in fans’ mouths. If there was anyone who can actually get a handle in the troubled and damaged psyche of one of Marvel’s most iconic characters it would be Darren Aronofsky.
There’s still little details as to what sort of storyline this Aronofsky sequel will take or will he just decide to reboot the franchise and start fresh. The reaction I’ve been reading has been mostly tepid with some guarded excitement from those who thinks Aronofsky will end up working his dark magic on this character on the big-screen. We’ll learn more once filming starts in early 2011.
Here’s to hoping that Aronofsky can do for Wolverine what Nolan was able to do for Batman.
Source: Vulture
Through the Shattered Lens 
Quite honestly, I am abhorred by Darren taking on such a lowly project, although admittedly, now in his 40s, he is probably ready to make some capital. Still, I was more excited about him rebooting the Robocop franchise which I don’t doubt would have been great. But where Nolan succeeded with the Batman franchise, I lack faith in believing Aronofsky can do the same with the X-men material because it lacks the dark undertones and ambiguous story that Wayne’s life exudes. I am hard-pressed to even believe that Quarrie can write a good script about the adamantium-filled character. You just know that it’s going to be grounds for bad CG and a schlocky plot. While this doesn’t bum me as much as the horrible, overrated Zack Snyder helming The Man of Steel, it still comes as a surprise from a director who has only been committed to personal, passionate projects, and Wolverine is anything, but passionate. I mean Jackman clearly doesn’t want to do another Wolverine film unless he has confidence in his director, and he knows through his experience in The Fountain how dedicated Darren can be to a project. Money has never been a driving force for him. Admittedly, I would still see it solely because Aronofsky, along with Nolan, is one of the best directors of our generation.
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I wouldn’t discount Aronofsky pulling out a very good Wolverine film once he’s done. I also think that Aronofsky only has been doing very personal films because studios are very reluctant to hand over major budgeted production on a filmmaker who makes very dark and, at times, nihilistic films (barring the very lovely and sentimental one he made in The Fountain) which are hits with critics and a niche corner of the film going public, but never one that crosses over to all types of filmgoers.
If Warner was a bit more courageous about how they were rebooting the Batman franchise we’d be talking about Aronofsky in the geek throne Nolan currently occupies while Nolan is probably still doing nothing but personal projects. Its just how the film industry works. Nolan did films that were dark as well, but not to the level Aronofsky made his. From what I’ve been hearing about Black Swan it may be just as polarizing with theatergoers as The Fountain was.
As for Wolverine not as rich in Batman/Wayne in terms of darkness and a damaged persona it will depend on whether one looks at the character the way he’s written now to when he finally came to his very own during the Miller/Claremont days of the 80’s and early 90’s. From some of the talks I’ve heard since this announcement was made the one story-arc which may just be used to show Wolverine outside his X-Men foundation and stand on his own will be his time in Japan and takes much from the Miller story-arcs. I think this is a good choice if it is the case. Logan has always been the lone wolf samurai of the X-Men universe, but we never really saw on the screen that particular side of his personality just hints of it.
Plus, Marvel never truly had a character like Batman. While I consider him one of my favorite fictional characters ever the deep backstory on the character was never dark as most people seem to think him to be. Only until Miller came along that Batman finally became the anti-hero we all know and love. What we’ve seen of Wolvering on the screen only scratches the surface of who the character really is. If McQuarrie can understand what Aronofsky wants out of this character I believe Wolverine will not end up being the bad CGI-fest the first film was (I blame that on the WGA strike and Fox rushing the project along), but something closer to Batman Begins with more character interplay.
In the end, if Aronosky works his dark magic on this sequel he’ll end up doing the Nolan and get to do more personal projects in-between studio work where studios now won’t hesitate to do what he needs and want done on their mainstream projects.
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