Movies

Hugh Jackman Agreed To A Pay Cut So 'Logan' Could Be Rated R

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By Angie Han

Deadpool definitively proved that an R-rated superhero can make money. But just because the Merc managed to somersault over box office records doesn't mean there's no risk involved. Apparently 20th Century Fox was still a little apprehensive about the notion of making Logan an R-rated feature. So Hugh Jackman decided to make things a little easier for them. According to Logan director James Mangold, the actor agreed to a pay cut in exchange for the opportunity to make an R-rated Wolverine movie. Uproxx learned about Jackman's Logan pay cut during a screening of the first 40 minutes at Butt-Numb-A-Thon.

Although Logan is the first R-rated Wolverine movie, it's not the first attempt at an R-rated Wolverine movie. Originally, Mangold shot R and PG-13 versions of The Wolverine, but the studio nixed the idea of releasing it as an R-rated film. So when it came time to make Logan, Mangold and Jackman apparently did what they had to do to ensure an R rating. In an earlier interview, Mangold talked about the freedom of that R rating.

[This represents] to me the kind of aggressive, classical Wolverine action that we want in the movie – more of something that fans have been asking for, for a really long time. We've been limited in one way or another from giving it to them, but I think we've got the go-ahead to really go for it on this picture. So we're really trying to deliver what folks have always imagined those kind of battles would look like. There is a lot of high-octane action in the movie. We're just trying to do it very differently and very viscerally.

As for whether that R rating is worth it, I recently saw the same Logan footage but am under embargo so I can't really talk about it. I was, however, allowed to tweet about it, as were other journalists who recently saw the first third of the film. Here's a roundup of some of our reactions.

Logan is out March 3, 2017.

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