20th Century Fox’s “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” has had the shittiest luck of any major studio film this year and aside from a plague of locusts hitting this weekend across all of the continental United States, it probably can’t get any worse.
First the unfinished workprint leaked and it was rife with comical-looking unfinished effects and well, unfinished or not, it looked laughable. Then a gossipy Fox reporter reviewed the film and was fired for doing so (wait, that wasn’t so inopportune).
The contretemps were then exacerbated when Fox exec Tom Rothman assured fans that the final cut was much different from the leaked cut, and then was promptly proven to be a big fat liar when bloggers who had seen both versions with their own two eyes said otherwise. Then it seemed like Fox and star Hugh Jackman scrambled to shoot last-minute multiple new endings so fans would have some teaser reason to show up in theaters this weekend. All the while during this period director Gavin Hood (“Tsotsi”) was grilled about his apparently contentious, not-so-contentious (depending on who you believe) relationship with Rothman (but it appears there was some butting of heads; and Hood confirmed that ‘Superman I & II,’/”Lethal Weapon” franchise director Richard Donner did visit the set to consult the action sequences; many thought the first-time tentpole filmmaker might have been inept at action).
And now of course the swine flu that has hit Mexico is affecting the film. Jackman was scheduled to travel to the south of the border country to promote the film, but has now had to cancel his trip and the film’s premiere. “Wolverine” is still expected to do decent at the box-office this weekend and will probably lead unless the swine flu rash becomes a pandemic of Biblical proportions and, for all our sakes, let’s hope that doesn’t occur. But it’s only Wednesday and there’s still almost three full days for something larger to go wrong. [Reuters/Vulture]