Crawling out of the sewers over at Chud is the news that Liev Schreiber will grow a mane and fangs to play the villain Sabertooth in the upcoming X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The intense Scream 3 actor had been pegged earlier for the role of William Stryker, a minor character in the canon and previously depicted by Brian Cox in X2 as a mutant hating colonel (a variation from the comics).
The first X-Men spinoff film will explore the cloaked Weapon X program that gave Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) his famous claws and indestructible adamantium skeleton, though to what extent this figures in is debated. The alias of Schreiber’s character is Victor Creed, a mutant who shares Wolvie’s healing power, penchant for gruff violence, and woodland musk. Director Gavin Hood (Tsotsi, Rendition) takes his first stab at genre fare with the high budgeted summer blockbuster, due in theaters on May 1, 2009.
Schreiber can turn on the rampage when needed, but to me he’s better suited to play a smart and dubious plotter than a towering brute. That’s probably part of the role’s appeal to him, though. When Sabertooth appeared in the original X-Men, he was played by the fittingly named Tyler Mane aka Michael Myers in Zombievision. As Chud mentioned, Sabertooth is a rather one-note howl, and he always struck me as overcompensating and lacking ambition. When I was a kid I thought he was related to Monkian from Thundercats, and under heavy psycho analysis probably still do, so forgive me if I’m discriminating.
January 11th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
rumor is that Micheal C Hall (dexter, 6 feet under) is now up for Stryker. Anything to get Hall’s name out there is fine with me. He is one of our best and least used actors around.
Dexter for president!
January 11th, 2008 at 11:57 pm
in the article it says “he first X-Men spinoff film will explore the cloaked Weapon X program that gave Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) his famous claws.” The Weapon X project DID not “give” Wolverine his claws. He already had the claws (his claws were simply raw bone), they were just coated with adamantium.
January 12th, 2008 at 12:19 am
@southsidefridge,
Example: A rock musician plays rock but is not famous. The rock musician sells his soul to the big red guy, deal being to make his rock music famous. Musician’s music becomes famous after the deal. The devil didn’t give that musician the music per se, but he gave him the music that became famous. Weapon X didn’t give Wolverine his claws, but it gave him the claws we all think of when we think of Wolverine. The sentence works, and I’ve read the Weapon X comics.
January 12th, 2008 at 12:27 am
Im not trying to wax intellectual, all I was saying was that the context suggest that Wolverine did not have claws before the Weapon X project. That is a point that is made in Civil War by wolverine himself when he has a collar on that, while being worn, has a degenerative effect on mutated genes. I agree with the overall tone of your diatribe and the subsequent rebuttal, I was merely pointing out a misleading statement.
January 12th, 2008 at 12:35 am
@southsidefridge,
It’s casual. And by all means, please wax intellectual in the comments if you want. That’s why they’re here.