Doesn’t look like a leaked copy of the film sans special effects had any impact, unless it was to increase anticipation for the finished product. Bringing in that kind of cash, it’s almost a certainty we’ll see more X-films. As a matter of fact, as long as these things keep making money, X-Men Origins:That Mutant That Was In One Scene in X-Men 2 is not out of the realm of possibility.

Heroes star Ali Larter is turning heads in Obsessed, a thriller that paints her as a psychopath trying to steal Beyonce Knowles’ man.  Ali Larter or Beyonce? Only in the movies are men faced with such decisions. Obsessed cost only $20 million but has already pulled in nearly $50 million.

As for our favorite mutant, he will likely only have a one week reign at the top as a little Star Trek movie opens next week. It is a great time to be alive, SFUniverse faithful.

Image: Bauer-Griffin

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We learn more about the history between Wolverine and Sabretooth, the Weapon X program and there are a few cameos from other mutants such as Cyclops, Deadpool and Gambit.

The commercials say that “summer begins here” and in terms of the summer box office, that is probably not an untrue statement. It’s certainly anticipated to be the summer’s first blockbuster. As journalists, we’re watching to see what impact the leak of an unfinished cut will have on the box office, if any. Readers, do you plan to spend at least part of your weekend with some X-Men?

Images: X-Men Origins: Wolverine, TM and Copyright 20th Century Fox Film Corp.

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For the ladies, it’s probably a little something about Hugh “Sexiest Man Alive” Jackman going feral in fight scenes. It makes perfect sense that ol’ Logan, the reputed best there is at what he does, would be the first X-Man to get a solo film.

I have to say I’m pumped, as much for the event as I am for the film itself. This one is chock full of cameos from numerous mutants including Gambit, who can blow things up by touching them. He’s also one of a handful of heroes from Louisiana. The other notable one being Swamp Thing, who’s kind of a tree.

X-Men Origins:Wolverine will also show us fanboy favorite Emma Frost, who can transform herself into diamond and read minds. There’s The Blob, who can summon and harness gravitational fields and – oh heck, he’s really fat. The Blob got royally screwed on the mutant power scale. Readers, what are your thoughts about Wolverine? We’re assuming, of course, none of our readers would have downloaded that leaked copy we’re not supposed to know anything about.

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As I’m betting you’ve heard by now, an unfinished cut of the film leaked online and now millions have downloaded it a month before its scheduled release.
This would be the point where Serenity’s Mr. Universe would say, “They can’t stop the signal.”

Photo Credit: Michael Muller / TM and © Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved

It gets better. Fox News, another component of the company trying to save its summer tentpole, fired a columnist that reviewed the unfinished product. Even more baffling is that Roger Friedman gave the leaked copy a good review.

Your average screenwriter couldn’t conceive anything this wild. At the core of it are some fascinating issues the entertainment industry has to face sooner rather than later. It’s becoming easier to download movies from the Web and harder for the companies making those movies to plug the leaks.

One of the reasons Fox believes this leak has to be an inside job is the quality  of it. This isn’t one of those grainy, I’m-not-even-sure-that’s Hugh-Jackman-on-screen jobs here. If they can’t find the leak to unleash the full force of Fox’s fury, the only person who’s going to get punished here is Friedman.

I think all of us who write about entertainment for a living should be a little nervous here. This guy got fired for breaking news, which I kind of thought was the point of our job. It’s not as if he pirated the thing himself, or talked about anything that’s a secret. Wolverine’s been downloaded more times than the Paris Hilton tape . He did the right thing giving his take on something that millions of people are viewing now, legal or not. It would have been insulting to readers just to keep spitting out previews and “won’t this be cool” features as if nobody had seen this thing.

There are a lot of fascinating questions that we won’t have the answers to for a month. Will this hurt Wolverine’s box office? How much?

There are also questions that right now no one may have the answers to. What will studios do to prevent this from happening again? Will we see a day in the next 15-20 years where most movies debut online and not in theaters?

X-Men Origins:Wolverine isn’t just a movie anymore. It’s one of the movie industry’s biggest news stories and will continue to be. This is no longer just a summer popcorn movie in a successful film franchise. It’s going to be the litmus test for whether an event movie is still an event if it got leaked. We know the system can be compromised and it will happen to someone else. It may not happen at 20th Century Fox, where they will now probably start hiring Secret Service to guard these projects. But somebody will get hacked and some other movie will hit the Net weeks before its actual release.

If I had to hazard a guess regarding the question that 20th Century Fox is most concerned with, I bet this movie will still make tons of money. Now even the people that have seen the pirated copy will want to see the finished product. 20th Century Fox has also gotten publicity they couldn’t have bought. The infamous leak has taken the story from the entertainment pages to the technology pages and front pages of many sites and print publications. Or to put it in comic book context, nothing can kill Wolverine.

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The Academy is hoping X-Men star Hugh Jackman, like the big screen superhero he plays, is the “best there is at what he does.” The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced the somewhat unconventional pick of Jackman to host the 81st Academy Awards.

The Oscars usually go for a standup comic like Robin Williams or Whoopi Goldberg. Daily Show host Jon Stewart did the honors last year. Jackman is not without hosting experience as he has won an Emmy for hosting the Tony Awards. Jackman is an accomplished Broadway star but to legions upon legions of comic book fans, he’ll always be best known as Wolverine.

The wise cracking, cigar-chomping mutant has always been a breakout character and Marvel Comics has taken notice. The first thing the company did with the X-franchise after finishing the first three films was greenlight a Wolverine spinoff movie. X-Men Origins:Wolverine hits cinemas in May.

Wolverine will also take his show to Nickelodeon January 23 in the new cartoon Wolverine and the X-Men. In the comic books, the character has been very much a loner who likes to fight his own battles. But this cartoon is selling him as a team leader. Marvel sees a chance to catapult Wolverine to the same status of recognition as Spider-Man or Superman. Obviously, Marvel didn’t have anything to do with the Oscar hosting decision. But with a new Wolverine movie coming out in summer 09, you better believe they’ll take the publicity.

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He won’t be the only superhero joining the fold, as Wolverine himself Hugh Jackman will be immortalized as well. If this were a Marvel comic, two superheroes showing up at the same place unexpectedly would totally be cause for them to fight. And we’d have a perfect director in place to film the conflict as Batman director Tim Burton is getting his star in this group. That pretty much settles it. I demand that these three sit down and hash out Batman vs. Wolverine vs. Iron Man.

Yes, I realize that Batman is a DC character guaranteeing zero chance of this ever happening. It’s a shame. After all, that movie would be a definite billion-dollar blockbuster. But Ben Kingsley is also going onto the walk. Batman vs. Wolverine vs. Gandhi and his powers of peaceful resistance. Don’t try to tell me Kingsley wouldn’t do it. He’s in The Love Guru, it’s become blatantly obvious there’s no check he won’t take.

Image courtesy of Newscom.

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If you’ve got any ideas for what to call the fourth installment of the Terminator film series, Warner Bros. is listening. The latest release talking about the film refers to it as “Untitled Terminator Project.”

The fourth film in the hit franchise will star Christian Bale as John Connor. Great, here come the could Batman beat John Connor questions. The movie with no name is expected to release May 22 next year in a crowded month for blockbusters. The Wolverine and Star Trek prequels are coming in May 09 as well. Looks like somebody at Warner didn’t get the “Prequels Are In For 2009″ memo.

But back to the naming dilemma. Machines are cold, impersonal and not very creative! (Cameron on Sarah Connor Chronicles’ ballet and one-liners notwithstanding) Just call it “Untitled Terminator Project!” No? Well, Warner has already shot down my suggestion of “Terminator 4: Running The Franchise Completely Into The Ground.”

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Monaghan has signed on for a role in Fox’s Wolverine based X-Men prequel which focuses on the origins of Marvel Comics’ most popular mutant. The Lord of the Rings and Lost star will play Barnell, a miltary ally of Wolverine’s with the power to harness energy.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine goes onto just about every screen in the country in May 2009, a week before J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek revamp hits cinemas. I’ve taken to calling the week-long stretch in between these two blockbusters “The Most Important Week in the History of the Human Evolutionary Process,” but I may be understating things a touch.

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Star Trek lovers, we just got a lump of coal stuck in our warp drives. Variety is reporting Paramount has pushed J.J. Abrams‘ long-awaited take on the film franchise from Dec. 25 to May 9, 2009. The studio believes Star Trek will have more success as an early summer event film than as a Christmas holiday offering.

But there’s a ray of sci-fi sunshine here. The new release date puts Trek in cineplexes just one week after the release of X-Men Origins:Wolverine.  That film attempts to capitalize on Wolverine’s eternal popularity and it has to because they killed all the other important characters in X3. Anyone up for a Wolverine vs. Capt. Kirk fight? Now if we could only get Darth Vader to special guest referee.

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