Hugh Jackman Talks About Darren Aronofsky's 'The Wolverine'

We've heard a bit from Darren Aronofsky about what to expect from The Wolverine, his upcoming 'not a sequel' film that stars Hugh Jackman in the role that made him a star beginning with X-Men in 2000. The director's comments have been encouraging. Taking his own filmography into account, as well as his previous interest in making a Lone Wolf and Cub movie, anticipation has started to build about the film.

Now Hugh Jackman has gone on the record about the project. He doesn't offer much, but here are a few tidbits from which you can speculate about what we'll see in The Wolverine in 2012.

EW talked to Mr. Jackman, who couldn't be more positive about his director on The Fountain:

He's a visionary. I've been trying to get Darren since X-Men 3, really. We've been talking about this and Wolverine for so long.

All things considered, I'm much happier that Darren Aronofsky is working with Wolverine now, rather than biting on X3 several years ago. The experience of The Wrestler and Black Swan has given him more clout and made him a stronger filmmaker.

Hugh Jackman also says that he's been asked to pack on 25 pounds of muscle, ""which is more than I ever have for the role," and that he asked The Rock for advice about a workout regimine. (So, does a jacked Jackman mean lots of a shirtless Wolverine shot against a snowy Japanese backdrop? Possibly.)

And Jackman says the ideas for the film are great, though he's not actually going into any detail (obviously):

...we had a meeting about three weeks ago, catching up as friends more than anything, and he just ran a few ideas by me and my eyes just lit up, because already I think this is like a whole new ballgame – just the ideas, the level of depth, and intelligence, and creativity. I think he's been waiting so long to do a movie in this genre. When he found the script, he said this is it. It's really exciting.