Wolverine Sharpens his Claws for May 2009

By Katey Rich

Clear out your schedule: Twentieth Century Fox has jumped on the bandwagon of setting release dates absurdly early into the process, and has staked out May 1, 2009 for the release of X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The Hugh Jackman-starring origin film, spun off from the X-Men trilogy, hasn't even started shooting yet, but you can bet the toy stores are already marking down the day they get inundated with Wolverine merchandise.

Schreiber

Variety is also reporting news I hadn't heard yet, which is that Liev Schreiber is in talks to play Wolverine's nemesis William Stryker, an older version of whom was played in X2 by Brian Cox. There's possibilities of other villains showing up�the location shooting in New Orleans indicates that Gambit might make an appearance, while the commenters over at Harry Knowles' Ain't It Cool are excited/up in arms about Knowles' revelation that Sabretooth may make an appearance as well.

Full disclosure: I saw X2 and only X2, and I've never read a comic book in my life. BUT: I love that good actors are being cast in comic book movies. This trend has obviously been going on forever�from Jack Nicholson as The Joker to Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor�but with Heath Ledger turning up in The Dark Knight, Robert Downey, Jr. as Iron Man and even Will Smith as an existential superhero in Hancock, the caliber of talent keeps getting better and better. Schreiber is no marquee name�Jackman barely is, for that matter�but it's wonderful to imagine the kind of fast-talking bravado he could bring to a supervillain.