From USA Today:

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As if a guy with temper issues, iron blades for fingernails and a penchant for cage fighting needed it, Wolverine is about to get even surlier.”I know it seems odd given, you know, the guy is already half animal,” says Hugh Jackman, who revives the character in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, due in theaters May 1, 2009. “But with all the success of the X-Men, you feel the pressure to keep pushing it further.” Read more »

 

From Comics2Film:

Australian actor Christian Clark told a local news outlet in Mt. Gamble that he has been cast in the upcoming ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ movie.

The paper reports that the actor “was momentarily caught off-guard when asked about ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’, and inadvertently confirms his involvement, before realising the gag order in his contract prevents him from doing so or talking about it any further. But one thing is certain – Clark has a big future planned.”

Filming begins any day now so hopefully we’ll get some photos and the press train for Australia should be on the move soon.

From Aussie Bodies:

Filming of the upcoming movie Wolverine begins soon, with star Hugh Jackman working out in preparation for his role. Personal trainer Michael Ryan has been helping Hugh achieve greater muscle mass and significantly lower body fat, in order to transform himself into the beastly character he’ll portray.

Widely known as trainer to the stars, Michael often calls upon Aussie Bodies support in finding high quality products to accompany his training programs. He reports on the changing physique of his client and long-term mate. “Hugh’s weight has actually dropped over 4 kilograms since we began training for Wolverine. However we use a body scanning machine that has proven we have only lost .3 of a kilogram of muscle through that weight loss period so it is predominantly body fat that has gone. Initially we concentrated on building muscle and there was a significant increase in muscle mass so we’re happy with the results”.

In terms of training, Michael has given Hugh a high intensity weight training regimen with constant evolution; mixing the program up enough to shock the body into change. Medium amounts of cardio have also been used at the end of their workouts and in the early evening to encourage fat loss. To help them attain these goals the dynamic duo are using Aussie Bodies Mega Weight Gainer with other products including branch-chain amino acids, L-Carnitine, Arginine, and a slow release protein formula.

We asked Michael if he has any other dietary or training tips for people who need to bulk up in a certain time period. “There is no doubt the 6 meal per day theory works together with high protein to help reduce the potential to lose muscle mass. And it is important to use whey protein isolate and not some of the inferior products out there” he said.

Hugh and his wife Deborah Lee Furness are associate producers for Wolverine (of Marvel Comics and X-Men movie fame), which will be directed by Gavin Hood. Filming is expected to take 3-4 months in New Zealand and Sydney, during which time Hugh will continue training.

I’ve added a few more photos from behind the scenes of Hugh’s upcoming movie, Australia, with Nicole Kidman. You can see previews of those and of Hugh’s appearance at The Motion Picture & Television Benefit in October 2007 too.

 

It’s been sitting on my test server for two months so I decided it was finally time to give h-j.com a new layout. In addition, all the pages are now presented by Wordpress to make updating easier but there may have been a few errors made in the change over so please let me know by comment or e-mail if you spot any!

I went through the affiliates (when I first took over, so it probably needs doing again by now) and linked the sites in the same way that they linked h-j.com (e.g. if you link us from your sidebar, I’ve returned the favour or if you only link from an affiliates page, I’ve done the same). Feel free to comment or e-mail if I’ve missed you out.