The Wolverine [2013] (1 disc)

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• Guillermo del Toro expressed interest in directing, being a fan of the Japanese saga in the "Wolverine" comics. He met with ^[?] James Gianopulos and Hugh Jackman about directing the film, but ultimately decided he did not wish to spend 2-3 years of his life working on the film.
• ^[?] Darren Aronofsky was originally set to direct and worked on the project for six months before departing, citing the long overseas shoot would prevent him from seeing his family (he had just separated from Rachel Weisz, the mother of his child). During his time attached to the film, he rewrote the screenplay by Christopher McQuarrie and it is speculated that the real reason for his departure was the studio's unwillingness to approve his draft - which aimed for a hard 'R' rating due to heavy sexual content and brutal violence.
• Jessica Biel was offered the role of Viper but a deal couldn't be reached and she dropped out.
• This is the second movie in the franchise without any opening credits, the title isn't shown until the end of the movie.
• Mariko recounts nightmares of a kuzuri. "Kuzuri" is Japanese for "wolverine."
• According to Hugh Jackman, Wolverine being surrounded by death while being unable to die due to his healing factor is a major theme in the film: "He realizes everyone he loves dies, and his whole life is full of pain. So it's better that he just escapes. He can't die really. He just wants to get away from everything."
• ^[?] Jessica Henwick and Katie Leung were considered for the role of Yukio. ^[?] Togo Igawa was considered for the role of Shingen.
• An alternate ending was filmed where Yukio presents Logan with a box that contains his yellow Wolverine mask from the comic books. The scene is presented as a bonus feature on the BluRay edition.
• Hugh Jackman said that with this film, he finally achieved the physique that he always envisioned in his mind that Wolverine should have. He said that for some reason, on each of his 5 prior takes at the character, he felt that he never had enough time to get in shape; for this film he finally had enough time, and got his body exactly the way he wanted it to look. Co-star Will Yun Lee also said that it was Jackman's best physique for the role of Wolverine.
• To prepare for the role, Hugh Jackman contacted Dwayne Johnson for advice on bulking up for the movie. Johnson suggested Jackman could gain a pound a week over six months (24 weeks) by eating 6,000 calories a day of "an awful lot of chicken, steak and brown rice." He said that for his shirtless scenes in the film, he wanted to look "as ripped and cut as possible". So he adopted a dehydration diet (used in bodybuilding) where he did not consume any liquid for 36 hours before filming his shirtless shots. He said it made him feel "headachy" and faint but he was pleased with the results as dehydrating tightens everything up and gave him the exaggerated muscle definition and vascularity that he wanted to show in his shirtless scenes.
• Famke Janssen filmed her Jean Gray cameo in three days. Hugh Jackman said, "There's no doubt that the most important relationship in his life is - we've seen through the movies - is his relationship with Jean Grey. Yes, we saw her die at the end of X-Men: The Last Stand, but in this movie, she has a presence which I think is vital to the movie, particularly for him confronting the most difficult thing within himself."
• In the film Yukio and Viper are mutants whereas Harada is not; it's the other way around in the comics.
• Almost all the promotional materials for the film and the posters featured a shirtless Hugh Jackman; in contrast, he appears shirtless only in a handful of scenes in the actual film. This was done in order to emphasize the superior shape he got into for the film.
• Young Yashida gives Wolverine a samurai sword with 6 Kanji letters engraved on it. These kanji read: "Never Died, Never Aged, Never Destroyed". This is apt for Wolverine.
• Ian McKellen's cameo as Magneto marks the first time in 10 years that he has played both Magneto and Gandalf in the same year. X-Men 2 was released in the same year as The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, while this film was released in the same year as The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.
• This is Jackman's sixth portrayal of Logan/Wolverine.