X-Men Reshoot: Good or Bad news?

In an announcement that caused great concern for X-Men fans, 20th Century Fox revealed on Friday that X-Men Origins: Wolverine is returning to the sets for "extensive reshooting." The film, due out in May, follows the beginnings of the mutant Wolverine in a prequel to the three already released X-Men movies. The report of the reshoot has sparked rumors that director Gavin Hood is having on-set battles with Richard Donner, of Superman: The Movie fame, who is supposedly trying to ghost-direct the film. Adding to speculation was an email actor Hugh Jackman sent to Aint It Cool News, claiming that these reshoots were always in the schedule due to scheduling conflicts and weather problems. To mollify fans in the meantime, Jackman attached a new publicity teaser photo that contained a good chunk of the cast.

Although Aint It Cool News suspects that Jackman's story is merely a cover-up for on-set conflict, he believes that the reshoot can only bode well for the film, calling it "very good news" and continuing that the success of The Dark Knight over at Warner Bros. has sparked Fox to put some serious effort into the film. Slash Film is also "hopeful" about the news, believing that director Hood will now be able to put together the film as he originally intended it. Back over at First Showing, however, Alex Billington is more doubtful, wondering if Fox was being too controlling of director Hood's project and is now backing off to try and save the film. If the film is a failure, he lays all blame at the studio's doorstep. Where does the Vault stand? If the rumors are to be believed over the official news, and this is really a desperate last-minute attempt to fix the film, then I am deeply worried. That Wolverine was seen as beeing in desperate enough trouble to warrant reshooting, especially given the economic climate, cannot be a good sign. True, the new sequences could turn the film around, but I hold my judgement for the final cut. Suffice it to say for now that my expectations for the movie have dropped a couple of notches.