Hugh Jackman Took A Paycut So ‘Logan’ Could Get An R-Rating

Hugh Jackman is set to bid farewell to the character of Wolverine in Logan, which will mark the ninth X-Men film that he’s portrayed the beloved mutant in.

To make Logan a different cinematic experience to these previous films the decision was made for the blockbuster to be much more violent and gory, something that was easy to see in its first red-band trailer when it was released earlier this year.

Clearly, 20th Century Fox was a little nervous about Logan’s R-rating, because it has now been revealed that Hugh Jackman had to take a pay cut so that it could get it. Director James Mangold made this admission at the 2016 Butt-Numb-A-Thon, where one of its attendees was Eric Vespe of Ain’t It Cool News. Vespe wrote on Twitter, “Mangold said that Hugh Jackman took a salary cut because he wanted to do an R-rated movie.”

James Mangold attended the 2016 Butt-Numb-A-Thon in Austin, Texas, to present the first 40 minutes of Logan to the fervent audience. According to Vespe they were rather taken with the footage, too, because when it came to an end, he explained that those in attendance were “kinda pi**** the movie stopped,” before adding, “Refreshing after a couple of cartoony Singer X-films.”

Preview footage for Logan was also presented in New York City last Thursday, where viewers were quick to praise James Mangold’s vision and the content for the blockbuster, all of which has immediately increased the anticipation surrounding Logan. 20th Century Fox will be hoping that this anticipation surrounding Logan ultimately manifests in a huge box office return for the film, especially following the success of Deadpool earlier this year.

Like Logan, Deadpool pursued and was ultimately given an R-rating. However, 20th Century Fox was very nervous about whether Deadpool could recoup a big enough box office as an R-rated film, which was why its budget was trimmed down to just $58 million. This meant that director Tim Miller, producers Simon Kinberg, Ryan Reynolds, and Lauren Shuler Donner, and writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick had to create a superhero blockbuster that rivalled the likes of Avengers: Age Of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, and Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice, but at a fraction of the price.

It’s safe to say that Deadpool managed to do that rather well, too, because it ultimately went on to gross $782.6 million at the box office during its run in cinemas, becoming the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time and the highest grossing X-Men film in the franchise’s history.

The chatter and reaction to Logan’s first footage suggests that the Hugh Jackman-led film could actually rival Deadpool’s gross. 20th Century Fox has been a little more generous with the the budget for Logan compared to Deadpool, providing $127 million for director James Mangold to work his cinematic magic.

Inspired by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven’s Old Man Logan comic book series, Logan is set decades in the future and sees Hugh Jackman’s mutant struggling to deal with his age, while his healing factor is also beginning to fail. Logan is actually one of the last mutants alive, and alongside Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and a young girl named Laura (Dafne Keen), who possesses similar abilities to Logan, they have to fend off the sinister company, Transigen, that’s trying to bring an end to all Mutants.

We’ve not got very long to wait until Logan is finally released into cinemas, too, as the blockbuster will hit on March 3, 2017, and it will see Hugh Jackman star alongside Patrick Stewart, Richard E. Grant, Boyd Holbrook, Stephen Merchant, and Dafne Keen.

[Featured Image by 20th Century Fox]