Bryan Singer : Best Director Take 3

 


In X-Men (2000) Bryan Singer cast Hugh Jackman as Wolverine/ Logan, landing him the breakthrough role of his career, and his Hollywood debut, a move that earned him the Guinness World Record for “longest career as a live-action Marvel superhero”.

The role of Wolverine had a long list of actors in consideration, Singer’s initial thought was Russell Crowe for the part and it was Crowe that recommended Jackman. Prior to X-Men, Jackman was working in the theatre industry and not particularly known in Hollywood. It was a gamble casting Jackman due to his lack of experience in film, but it paid off big time for his career and the film franchise.

X-men wasn’t the biggest success at the box office compared to today’s superhero films, but it started an entire new era of superhero movies which would grow from this point forward. But for Jackman, he was made into an instant star. He went on to star in two immediate sequels- X2 (2003) and X-men: The Last Stand (2006). His portrayal of Wolverine was so iconic that he got to star in two spinoff solo movies. Jackman’s nearly two decade tenure with the marvel franchise came to an end with Logan (2017) making a total of 8 movies [plus a cameo in X-Men: First Class (2011)] with the franchise.

Jackman has been by Singer’s side since the beginning in 1999, even his first Saturn Award was won for Singer’s X-men (2000) for Best Actor. As he prepared to retire the role of Wolverine in Logan (2017), he offered Singer a parting gift of commissioned prints from X-Men comic book artist Joe Quesada. Jackman signed one of the prints with a message to Singer that read: “Dear Bryan, It all started with you, Bub! 1999-2016! From the bottom of my heart, thank you.” Jackman has since starred in a number of major Hollywood productions and is regarded as one of the most versatile actors of today, thanks to his instinct to accept the role of Wolverine back in 1999.

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