Ever since director Darren Aronofsky left The Wolverine in March, 20th Century Fox has been in search of a new director for the flick. Now Variety reports that the search has been narrowed down to eight directors – José Padilha (Elite Squad), Doug Liman (Mr & Mrs Smith), Antoine Fuqua (Training Day), Mark Romanek (Never Le Me Go), Justin Lin (Fast & Furious), Gavin O’Connor (Miracle), James Mangold (Knight & Day), and commercials director Gary Shore.
The candidates all have a wide variety of backgrounds and style, but all of the directors except for Mark Romanek and Gary Shore have directed at least one action vehicle before (with varying success). It’s not known how far down the road Fox has gotten with any of these directors, but it is known that some already other projects up their sleeve, such as Justin Lin planning Terminator 5, which could get in the way. Hugh Jackman also has director approval, so he’ll have to sign off on whoever Fox wants.
Shortly after Aronofsky left The Wolverine, 20th Century Fox said they were in no rush to find a replacement director, with many reports saying that while it was going to shoot this year when Aronofsky was involved, the studio now doesn’t expect the film to get in front of the lens until summer 2012.
It isn’t known when 20th Century Fox will make a final decision on The Wolverine director, but hopefully it’ll be soon, and that at some point we will actually get to see Wolverine’s adventures in Japan, loosely based on the Frank Miller mini-series that took the character there.