According to previous reports, Fox was looking at a Fall 2011 start date for the Christopher McQuarrie script for Wolverine 2 starring Hugh Jackman and directed by James Mangold. It now looks like production will not begin until the Spring of 2012.

Even though the studio says it never gave an official production start date, there are many rumored factors that would push back the start date.   The bulk of the screenplay takes place in Japan, and most of the shooting would be on location. According to studio insiders, it’s currently very difficult to find suitable shoot locations in Japan due to all of the weather-related considerations and current rebuilding process. It is now being rumored that the shooting will take place in Canada in conjunction with a secondary filming location.

The other factor that is being rumored to affect the start date is that production will wait until after Jackman finishes making Les Miserables.

The production has already faced some set backs, when Darren Aronofsky bowed out as director in March. By June, 20th Century Fox found their director after one of the most highly anticipated announcements of the summer. That set up the studio thinking that it could begin production in the fall.

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With X-Men: First Class blowing people’s expectations out of the water, there has been some more movement in other X-Men film properties, because Fox just loves to strike while the iron is hot.

For a while, the Wolverine sequel was held up in pre-production hell because they couldn’t seem to lock in a director. Darren Aronofsky was originally set to direct, but he dropped out back in March. Now, Fox is announcing that 3:10 to Yuma and Walk The Line director James Mangold is a lock and the film will continue into production. From Deadline:

Negotiations are about to get underway, but I’m told that Mangold will take the helming job on the sequel to the X-Men spinoff film, a post that became vacant when Darren Aronofsky dropped out of the film in March. I’d heard that Mangold was on a very short list coming into this week, along with Warrior director Gavin O’Connor and Brooklyn’s Finest helmer Antoine Fuqua.

I’ve heard that Fox will look to start principal photography in the fall. Scripted by Christopher McQuarrie, The Wolverine takes place mostly in Japan.

The main problem that Aronofsky had when going into the film was that he’d have to leave his family and work it Japan for up to 6 months. It seems that Mangold is more into the idea. We hope to hear more and get a glimpse at the film’s look and feel as we enter production later this year.

I just saw Knight and Day and in a summer notably lacking in quality, this one stands out as being the worst film in terms of the script and editing. The 2 and a half minute trailer was better than the entire film. In the film a rogue FBI agent, Roy Millerand the FBi, steals a never-ending battery that looks like the generic D Energizer kind. June, a hapless bystander, gets caught up in the action. Together they must keep the battery safe while on the run from arms dealers and the FBI.

In editing class you’re taught that if a movie is well edited then you won’t question the loopholes until hours later when you’re at home, hence the term refrigerator moment. Quite apropos when you consider Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull. In Knight and Day, however, I started questioning the flick while it was still playing.

For starters, whenever characters would mention anything of importance, it was never once brought up again or answered in any kind of way. None of the characters had any semblance of a back story. There was no time limit set for the mission, no sense of urgency, and no one saved anything, much less the world. In essence the film lacked discernible goals. This film brings new meaning to the term, “We’ll fix it in post”.

What follows is a list of questions. I would say there are spoilers, but since there are absolutely zero twists, turns, or creativity in the script, there are no spoilers. Anyone who can answer these questions solely based on the film will receive a highly valued, Flickcast Certified No. Prize. Go ahead smarty pants, make my day.

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When your work spreads as far across the  digital range as mine does, it can occasionally provide a nice bit of synergy. Or repetition.  It depends on which word you want to use, I suppose. After watching Hombre last week, I resolved I would seek out as many of Elmore Leonard’s Western adaptations as I could. The first on my list was the original 3:10 t0 Yuma, which I’ve never managed to watch in its entirety.

And what happens? I joined Matt Raub on The Flickcast this week, and was called upon to recommend a movie. With Russell “Robin Hood” Crowe on the brain and Leonard queued up for Western Wednesday, only one came to my screen-burnt brain: James Mangold’s remake of 3:10 to Yuma.  I promptly kicked myself after. Talk about beating a dead horse, and using up your good material.

But it couldn’t have worked out better. Delmer Daves’ 3:10 To Yuma is an entirely different animal than Mangold’s, and neither of them have much in common with Leonard’s original short story. If you’re a film nerd (and especially if you’re an aspiring director or screenwriter), you couldn’t find an easier compare and contrast exercise than this.

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The very first trailer for Knight and Day, the Cameron Diaz, Tom Cruise action movie that we showed you the poster for the other day is now online. With James Mangold (Walk the Line) directing the film, it looks to be a great action-comedy with both Cruise and Diaz looking like they’re having a good time.

Seeing these two actors together for the first time since Vanilla Sky, I’m reminded of the chemistry they had on-screen; and it’s fully evident again here. The trailer’s funny moments seem to be a continuation of Cruise not taking himself so seriously, much like in Tropic Thunder – which really helped to lighten the atmosphere around him, after all the Scientology and “Katie-gate” snafus.

Of course, the comedy meeting the action scenes make this seem like a perfect match for everyone involved. Diaz is showing her comedic side, such as she did in her hits, There’s Something About Mary and My Best Friend’s Wedding - where she plays much better as the ‘straight-man’, rather than trying to actually be a comedian. Mangold also comes through, giving us the action that he’s proven to do so well in films like 3:10 to Yuma and Copland. Put it all together and it’s a bundle of fun.

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Instead of getting a trailer for Piranha 3D, as reported to be attached with this week’s release of Avatar, most people got the trailer for Cameron Diaz and Tom Cruise’s upcoming action-thriller, Knight and Day. Directed by James Mangold (Walk the Line, Cop Land) and written by Patrick O’Neill, in his first produced, feature screenplay, the film is centered around Diaz and Cruise’s characters being chased around the world where “no one and nothing is what it seems – even themselves.”

The trailer was pretty funny, and looked like the 20th Century Fox film is going to feature some fantastic action including Tom Cruise crash-landing a plane to jumping from a motorcycle onto the hood of Diaz’s car. The film also features Peter Sarsgaard (Orphan and An Education), Maggie Grace (LOST, Taken), Paul Dano (There Will Be Blood) and Viola Davis (Law Abiding Citizen and Doubt). Unfortunately, here isn’t much more to go on until the trailer gets released online.

However, Slashfilm recently got a photo of the poster – which I hadn’t seen, and actually don’t even remember hearing anything about this movie before now – so now I’m sharing it with you. It’s all text and stylized people (assuming it’s the lead characters), but is interesting – and better than the soon to come, I’m sure, photoshopped heads version.

Check out the full-size image below. Knight And Day is scheduled for release in July, 2010.

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