Well, that ends that possibility. Fox has lost a director from an X-Men film for the second time as Darren Aronofsky follows in the footsteps of Matthew Vaughn who previously dropped out of directing X-Men: The Last Stand only to be replaced by Brett Ratner. This time it’s Aronofsky dropping out of directing The Wolverine which was expected to go into production in April for a Summer 2012 release.
In a statement Aronofsky says, “As I talked more about the film with my collaborators at Fox, it became clear that the production of The Wolverine would keep me out of the country for almost a year. I was not comfortable being away from my family for that length of time. I am sad that I won’t be able to see the project through, as it is a terrific script and I was very much looking forward to working with my friend, Hugh Jackman, again.”
Fox also issued a statement saying, “While we are of course disappointed that Darren can’t do The Wolverine, we also understand and respect his reasons. Having done both The Wrestler and Black Swan with Darren, we know he is an extraordinary talent and we look forward to working with him on other projects in the future. Hugh Jackman and Fox both remain fully committed to making The Wolverine. We will regroup and move forward aggressively.”
I’m sorry, but I can’t take any of this at face value. Aronofsky seemed legitimately excited to take on the film and I can only imagine Fox didn’t want to do things his way, a way in which he previously said, “I think I’m being hired because of who I am. I’m not being hired to turn into someone. I’m being hired to do what I do.”
So the last time this happened we ended up with the sub-par X-Men: The Last Stand, just who will replace Aronofsky to bring The Wolverine to the big screen and will Darren return to make an X-Men film down the road as Vaughn has as his X-Men: First Class will hit theaters on June 3?
