There are rumors flying around that director Gavin Hood and FOX suit Tom Rothman are battling over the dark "mood" of the movie. Sounds like another bean counter trying to change an established character to fit the widest possible audience.
What the hell? Why are the execs always dicking around with material and telling true creatives to dumb down their vision? Especially such hardcore fan favorite characters as Wolverine. Here's the latest rumor sent in by Jakkar88...
"This is a second-hand but reliably sourced story about the currently-shooting Wolverine movie, the upcoming 20th Century Fox tentpoler being shot by Gavin Hood (Rendition, Tsotsi) and an issue that begs the question "who's really in charge here?" In one corner is the director Hood, and in the other is FOX co-chairman and CEO Tom Rothman, who's widely known for being a very willful and meticulous micro-manager."
"There was/is a huge Wolverine set being recently used. I'm not even sure which lot it was built on, but the look or mood of the set is, according to a source who was told Hood's view of things, supposed to be on the dark, dinghy and somber side. I only know what I was told, but the basics are that Hood was away from the set for whatever reason (shooting something else, taking a day or two off), and when he returned to the big somber set he was shocked to find that it had been repainted top to bottom on Rothman's orders. The murky-scuzzy vibe was gone, and a brighter and less downish look had taken its place."
"...it suggests that a creative tug-of-war is going on, and that Rothman feels a certain managerial-slash-territorial investment in the X-Men franchise and is more or less entitled to make his own Wolverine calls, whether or not Hood fully concurs."
"...I do know that Hood was utterly surprised when he got back to the set and saw what had been done."