A spin off to the X-Men film franchise, Wolverine will be starting shooting in Australia and New Zealand this December. Over a six to eight week shooing period from December to January, the film will be shot in Queenstown and Central Otago in New Zealand was well as the Fox Studios in Sydney. Afterwards shooting will move up to New Orleans in America.

Originally, the film was going to be shot in Canada instead of Australia and New Zealand. However, this was changed to make things easier for lead actor Hugh Jackman (who reprises his role as the title character) in the event of a re-shoot. Presently, Hugh Jackman is filming on Baz Lurhmann’s war epic, Australia. There has been some fan concern that the switch from Canada will mean that the Weapon X Project won’t be a part of the films plot. The Weapon X Project was a storyline in the comics about the Canadian Government experimenting on people and turning them into living weapons; Wolverine was one of these people. The Weapon X Project is a staggeringly huge story within X-Men comic universe and fans can rest easy that Weapon X is confirmed to be a large part of the plot in the film.

The New Orleans location also hints that the card flinging mutant Gambit will be a part of the film as New Orleans’ was the characters hometown. Not to mention that Gambit sported a thick New Orleans’ accent in the animated cartoons. This is good news, as Gambit was sorely lacking in all three of the previous X-Men films.

On another note, director Gavin Hood and writer David Benioff are completely new to the X-Men series, so it will interesting to see what these people do with the film. Wolverine has a planned release date of May 1st in 2009 in America.

Liam’s Notes:

In other Wolverine news it has been announced that the full title of the film will be X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which probably means the upcoming Magneto film will follow suit with X-Men Origins: Magneto.

Also in a very mild spoiler it has been confirmed Weapon X creator William Stryker will be the baddie in the film. Previously the villain in X-Men 2 played by Brian Cox, this Stryker will be a much younger, Liev Schrieber.