David Benioff is not just a screenwriter – he’s one of my favorite modern literary types, and that’s just after one novel and one collection of short stories. While I would like to see him hitting the word processor to get another novel out there, it’s tough to deny that it’s good to know that he’s one a Wolverine spin-off movie. And it’s even better after reading about his thoughts on the film in an exclusive Newsarama interview.
“I’m going to stay away from the ‘Four Riders’ kind of stories and the science fiction stories where he was battling aliens or demons”, says Benioff. “I’m sticking with something more realistic. Of course it is kind of hard to talk realism when you’re speaking about a guy who has adamantium claws popping out of this hands. But my concept of him for this movie is the one I grew up with: He’s a gritty character, a tough, working-class Canadian guy who was born with certain special powers and granted more through a series of brutal experiments – for more that’s my Wolverine reality. I’m not going too far from that.”
Of course I hope that his Wolverine reality includes ninjas.
Benioff also says that he’s writing this film to be R-rated. Which is nice in theory and all, but come on. Like Fox is going to let their PG-13 box office bonanza be spun off into a movie that excludes most of the audience? The ironic thing is that the majority of Wolverine comic fans are way old enough to get into an R-rated film, thanks to the ever aging comic book fanbase. Which, of course, is like 1% of the X-Men movie audience.