Lauren Shuler Donner on Wolverine 2

Empire magazine recently got a chance to talk to X-Men producer Lauren Shuler Donner (X-Men, X-Men Origins : Wolverine) at a press do for the just-released ‘Wolverine’ DVD & Blu-Ray about a few upcoming Marvel films including Wolverine 2, X-Men: First Class, Deadpool, and Magneto.

On Wolverine 2:

That’s the furthest along of all the X-Men projects on the boil. It’s actually the story we wanted to use for the first Wolverine film, but [Fox head honcho] Tom Rothman preferred to set the character up with an origin story first. This movie will really focus on the relationship between Wolverine and Mariko, the daughter of a Japanese crime lord, and what happens to him in Japan. We’re very fortunate to have a story mostly outlined for us [from the comic book arc co-written by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller]. And we wanted an A+ writer, so we want to Chris McQuarrie (Valkyrie, The Usual Suspects). He came in and has tightened the story and got really immersed in the whole thing – he’s in Japan in his head!

We want to make it authentic so I think it’s very likely we’ll be shooting in Japan. Also, by the way, we are looking to have the Japanese Fox executives involved in helping and counselling us, because it’s a different culture and we don’t want to portray the way they speak, dress and act in an inaccurate way. I think it’s likely the characters will speak English rather than Japanese with subtitles.

What’s cool about this part of the saga is that Wolverine will be fighting in a different style to what we’ve seen before. Mariko’s father has this stick-like weapon, so Wolverine will have to fight against that. There’ll be samurai, ninja, katana blades, different forms of martial arts – mano-a-mano, extreme fighting. We’re going to come up with a new style of fighting. It’s going to be awesome.

For more on what Donner had to say about the above projects head over to Empire.