Ready to see Hugh Jackman don the Wolverine claws again? Well, get ready because the much anticipated “Wolverine” sequel is being set for July 23, 2013 by Fox Studios.

The sequel has recently found its director in James Mangold, who puts the story in Japan this time around. 2009′s “Wolverine Origins” was directed by Gavin Hood. The sequel has seen its problems early on in the pre production stages with the production pushed back several times, but now it’s said that Fox is making this particular project a top priority for the studio.

This isn’t the first time this particular franchise has faced some drama. In 2009 a firestorm of chaos hit when the bootleg of Wolverine Origins hit the Internet, which saw the Fox Chairman step forward to protect the film’s integrity and boost sales that it inevitably lost from the leaked bootleg. “The version that went out is unfinished. It’s about 10 minutes shorter, doesn’t have key scenes, it wasn’t edited, and none of the effects shots were in any remotely final form,” Rothman said at a conference in 2009. “It’s a complete misrepresentation of the film and is deeply unfair to the people who have worked on it for years.”

In 2010 Gilberto Sanchez a 49 year-old father was nabbed as the bootlegger and sentenced to a year in federal prison. We’re betting that the studio will be extra careful about who has their hands on the sequel.

As far as the cast goes with the Wolverine sequel, the only one that’s confirmed is Hugh Jackman as the title character Wolverine. We’re sure he will be donning the retractable claws too.

The release date sets the film up against Lionsgate with Kenny Ortega’s much anticipated remake of “Dirty Dancing”, and Disney’s sure hit with “Phineas and Ferb”.

Wolverine Sequel Slated For Release is a post from: The Inquisitr

Jackman told the Daily Mail,

“While I never met Kristian, like everyone else I feel like I know him. He was an inspiration, and a reminder to treasure what really matters in life.”

In the tribute video, after an introduction from Key, Anderson holds up a series of cards in which he tells his wife how much he loves her and how much she means to him.

Jackman then makes a cameo shouting “He loves you Rachel, He really really loves you”

At one point Anderson held up a card that said “I need you like I need a cure for cancer’ and ‘As long as I live, my heart belongs to you.”

While she was visiting Australia, Oprah Winfrey dropped in to see the family also.

The video has served as an inspiration to the millions of people who have watched it on YouTube.  It is truly an example of how when you are fighting for your life, all that matters to you are the people you love.

Anderson is survived by his wife and two children.

Hugh Jackman: Kristian Anderson Was An Inspiration [Video] is a post from: The Inquisitr

After appearing on the Broadway stage in a rather boring cop drama alongside Daniel Craig actor Hugh Jackman has returned with a new act titled “Hugh Jackman Back on Broadway.”

Currently playing at the Broadhurst Theater the X-Men star sings various tunes including “Between the Moon and New York City” and I Go to Rio” which Bloomberg says left audience members in a state of between ecstasy and delirium

The show also includes half-a-dozen back-up singers and is backed up by movie clips along with photos of Hugh as a little boy.

In it’s most basic of terms the show is a Las Vegas revue taking place in New York City with an 18-piece orchestra. As Bloomberg points out it teeters between  “On Broadway” to “Lullabye of Broadway” to “Over the Rainbow.”

The play features Jackman banter which crowds seem to love along with personal tales and various musicians from Hugh Jackman’s homeland of Australia.

The show is two hours and if you’re a Hugh Jackman fan all signs point to “buy a ticket” for this review while it’s still playing.

I have a feeling this show will follow the typical Broadway crowd of women and gay men.  Are you willing to pay for a review show hosted by Jackman?

[Image via Christopher Halloran / Shutterstock.com]

Hugh Jackman Returns To Broadway In “Hugh Jackman Back On Broadway” is a post from: The Inquisitr

Would you rather pee all over yourself on stage in front of hundreds or thousands of theatergoers or have to listen to Rachael Ray for any particular amount of time?

Poor Hugh Jackman had to go through both. Jackman- who is known for his work on stage as well as in films- experienced a flub-up no actor would want to suffer as he performed as Gaston in the play Beauty and the Beast. Gaston, as you know, is the arrogant and scheming romantic rival of the cursed beast, hopelessly in love with his own reflection first and heroine Belle second.

Jackman wowed as Gaston on stage, and it wasn’t just his well-appreciated pipes. The actor also recounts the embarrassing tale of how and why he came to urinate all over himself while in the midst of a performance of Beauty and the Beast in Melbourne, Australia. Jackman tells Rachael Ray:

“The first show I ever did, singing and dancing, was Beauty and the Beast. I was playing Gaston… Gaston has red tights, knee high boots, and it’s very physical. I had headaches everyday for two months. I went to an astropath [psychic] and he said ‘Well, you’re dehydrated.’ So of course [following his advice] I had four liters of water…”

The X-Men actor continues:

“I go down to the stage, getting ready for my first number… and I’m like I really need to go again. [The routine is] the most cardiovascular song I’ve ever done: literally I’m picking up Belle and as I pick her up, I stopped singing and right in that moment I realized the muscles you need to release in order to sing are the ones you do not want to release if you need to go… I’m carrying her [over one shoulder] not singing, and she’s going ‘What’s going on? What’s going on?’ So finally, it’s embarrassing at this point. I’ve not sung an entire verse.”

Thankfully for Jackman, the actor went on to stardom in the aforementioned X-Men saga as well as winning Tony Awards for Broadway performances. The interview on the Rachael Ray show airs Friday.

Hugh Jackman Peed All Over Himself On-Stage, Tells Rachael Ray is a post from: The Inquisitr

According to Jackman, boxing is in the blood.

“My old man was a boxer actually. He was the army champ,” Jackman told reporters. “So he was here and that’s about as close as it gets.”

Set in the year 2020, when remote-controlled robots have taken over for boxers in the WRB (World Robot Boxing) League, the film stars Jackman as a would-be champ turned small-time promoter who teams up with his genius son to build the ultimate mechanical fighter.

Throughout the movie, the Jackman is seen sparring in the ring and, in preparation for these fight scenes, the-42-year-old X-men Origins star trained with one of the best of the best.

During production, Jackman received on-the-set instruction from Sugar Ray Leonard, one of the world’s most celebrated boxing champions.

“I knocked [Sugar Ray] out three times,” Jackman joked with CBS News’ Sandra Hughes, “But, I can’t talk about it because, you know, he’s the champ of the world and all.”

Sugar Ray Leonard himself pointed out that his Jackman’s training wasn’t merely centered on strengthening blows.

“… my main goal, when we were done, was to make sure that what Hugh was doing with his hands was reflected on his face. I wanted him to show that in his expression. But Hugh is not only a great actor, but a great athlete. He’s a perfectionist and a great student.”" Leonard told RingTV in a recent interview.

Leonard went on to say that he put styles from all different boxers into the ‘life’ of these robots and when all was said and done, it “all came together.”

“I took my young kids, and my wife and my mother-in-law,” explained Leonard. “My wife and my mother-in-law were crying, and my kids were going crazy because the action was off the hook.”

Audiences can see whether Leonard’s training with Jackman actually paid off this weekend as “Real Steel” opens nationwide in both traditional and IMAX theaters.

Check out Hugh and Sugar Ray in the Real Steel Featurette below:
via CBS News

Hugh Jackman Talks ‘Real Steel,’ Training with Sugar Ray is a post from: The Inquisitr

Russell Crowe will be joining fellow Aussie actor and Tony-award winner Hugh Jackman in the upcoming film adaptation of the play Les Miserables.

Jackman had been confirmed for the role of lead Jean Valjean in the musical drama, and Crowe has signed on to play his foil, Inspector Javert. The play and film are based on the French classic novel Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, and chronicle the life of a man who spent 19 years in prison for the crime of stealing bread to feed his starving family. The man, Valjean, struggles with being perceived as a marked criminal as he reforms his situation, and is pursued by the ever-vigilant Javert, who is never convinced Valjean has turned his life around.

Original producer of Les Miserables, Cameron Mackintosh, was thrilled the pair have both signed on to play the two leads in the film. Mackintosh enthuses:

“Even though I have dreamt about making the film of Les Misérables for over 25 years, I could never have imagined that we would end up with the dream director Tom Hooper, and the dream cast of Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe as the two great protagonists Jean Valjean and Javert. Not only were they born to play these roles vocally, but they thrillingly inhabit this great score.”

Mackintosh added that making the film a reality was “indeed a dream come true” and that he “can’t wait to hear the people sing at [his] local cineplex.” In addition to Crowe and Jackman, the film will also star Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter, and is due out in December of 2012.

Russell Crowe Confirmed For ‘Les Mis’ With Hugh Jackman is a post from: The Inquisitr

Hugh Jackman was performing in “A Steady Rain” with Daniel Craig on Wednesday when an someone in the audience’s cell phone started to ring. He wasn’t pleased. Video below:

Hugh Jackman tells cell phone user to STFU during performance is a post from: The Inquisitr

The $10,000 scholarship will allow one emerging Australian actor to pursue a career in the United States. Australians in Film board vice president Paula Paizes stated that “[AIF] received a staggering number of applications, and the caliber of applicants is extremely high. My fellow judges and I have our work cut out for us over the coming month.” 

Michelle Williams is also a benefactor of the fund, which was conceived to honor the memory of Heath Ledger. In addition to this notable dedication supported by colleagues and friends, Christian Bale honored Ledger while on the podium of the People’s Choice Awards just yesterday, saying “On behalf of all of the cast from the movie, thank you very much to the fans. Here’s to Heath.” The Dark Knight scooped up all five awards for which it was nominated, including Favorite Superhero, Favorite Onscreen Match-Up (Bale and Ledger), Favorite Cast, Favorite Movie, and Favorite Action Movie.

Heath Ledger Scholarship Backed by Star-Studded Group is a post from: The Inquisitr

The Academy has announced its 2009 host for the 81st annual Academy Awards will be none other, than People Magazine’s sexist man of the year. Hugh Jackman

Academy telecast producers said “He also has style, elegance and a sense of occasion.”

“Hugh is the ideal choice to host a celebration of the year’s movies and to have fun doing it.”

The Academy is going completely fresh in 2009, with a new music director, new producers, a new set director and now a new host, who isn’t a comedian.

Jackman joins an elite group including Jon Stewart who hosted the ceremony in 2008 and 2006; Ellen DeGeneres the 2007 host. Chris Rock, Steve Martin, Billy Crystal and Whoopi Goldberg have also hosted the show in recent years.

Showing what a great sense of humor Jackman actually has, he has promised he won’t be doing Bilyl Crystal impersonations. Thank Goodness.

With these sorts of thing you always feel they could go really well, or train wreck bad. Good luck Hugh.

Hugh Jackman to host Oscars 2009 is a post from: The Inquisitr

Australian actor Hugh Jackman has been named the sexiest man alive by People Magazine, but interestingly it’s Jackman’s wife Deborra-Lee Furness that has been getting a lot of the attention.

Australian actress Deborra-Lee Furness is either 48 or 53 depending on which version of her date of birth you read (and oddly the exact date is usually not mentioned), making her significantly older than Jackman. Her history doesn’t narrow down the date either: according to some reports, she graduated from Methodist Ladies’ College in Melbourne in 1973, so either she left school at a very young age, or she was born in 1955, meaning she would have been 18 when she graduated (which is the usual age for Year 12 in Australia). She trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts New York and graduated in 1981, although her first television appearance was in 1975, and she appeared on the Australian series Prisoner (Cell Block H in the UK) in 1979.

Deborra-Lee Furness met Jackman on the set of the Australian series Correlli in 1995, and the couple married in February 1996. But here’s what makes her special, at least according to my wife, who I’m going to paraphrase

“Deborra-Lee Furness makes Hugh Jackman great, because he picked her for love, not looks. It shows that he’s not just another Hollywood star obsessed with the superficial. It proves that ordinary people have a chance.”

Do you agree?

Does Deborra-Lee Furness make Hugh Jackman great? is a post from: The Inquisitr