The Bottom Line: ‘X3”s Jackman Awaits His ‘Last Stand’

No one needs the X-Men to survive their last stand more than Hugh Jackman.

Cast at the late minute as Wolverine in X-Men, Jackman’s pocketing a cool $15 million—per Premiere—to unsheathe his claws in X-Men: The Last Stand, the first of six films he contributes to this year. And Fox is readying a spin-off dedicated to Jackman’s cigar-chomping wiseacre of a mutant.

For Jackman, Wolverine could be what Van Helsing never was: the catalyst for a possible new franchise. And that would give Jackman an invaluable insurance policy should his non-Wolverine offerings continue to flounder.

X-Men turned the Australian stage and TV star into a household name, but his film career hasn’t lived up to expectations. The regrettably campy Van Helsing  failed to launch a series in the vein of The Mummy; Halle Berry’s bare breasts overshadowed all else in the otherwise forgettable Swordfish; and the romantic comedies Someone Like You and Kate & Leopold made poor use of Jackman’s undeniable charm and charisma.

Jackman’s greatest post-X-Men achievement: his Tony-winning performance in the musical The Boy from Oz.

That Jackman’s won over Broadway audiences, but thus far failed to impress moviegoers, doesn’t matter in Hollywood—at least not at the moment.

His X3 paycheck reveals how important he is to the franchise. He even had approval over the hiring of director Brett Ratner when Bryan Singer abandoned X3 for Superman Returns.

Jackman‘s endorsement of Ratner could come back to haunt him and possibly jeopardize future X-Men adventures (no, X-Men’s not over and done, per producer Ralph Winter). Or even Wolverine. Ratner’s received the cold shoulder from fans. They fear the Rush Hour director’s an unworthy successor to Singer. If Ratner doesn’t pull off what should be an epic showdown between mankind and mutant, a maligned X3 could stumble a la Mission: Impossible III. And that could thwart plans to continue the franchise and ground the Wolverine and Magneto spin-offs.

Jackman, though, has more pressing concerns beyond Wolverine’s eventual fate.

Hot on the heels of X3 comes Scoop (July 28), a screwball comedy from Woody Allen that pairs Jackman romantically with Scarlett Johansson.

Allen’s offerings rarely make that much money, so Scoop is more about Jackman finally establishing himself as a heartthrob women will want to swoon over. And everything hinges on whether sparks fly between Jackman and the much-younger Johansson–and Allen demonstrating that Match Point truly marked a return to form after years of mediocrity.

Jackman also appears with Johansson in Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige  (Oct. 27), a tale of feuding magicians costarring Christian Bale. The Prestige and Darren Aronofsky’s long-in-the-works sci-fi saga The Fountain (TBA)—which Jackman waded into after Brad Pitt jumped out—could be among the most intriguing films of the year. But without strong critical support, both look like tough sells with a questionable draw as the lead. So if either The Prestige  or The Prestige hit it big, Jackman—who also lends his voice to Flushed Away (Nov. 3) and Happy Feet (Nov. 17)—can take comfort knowing that audiences will want to witness him doing something other than staring down Magneto.

The Bottom Line
Wolverine can only take Jackman so far, as shown by the so-so responses to Swordfish and Van Helsing. The Fountain, The Prestige and Scoop certainly appear to be three worthy endeavors that could finally allow Jackman to distinguish himself from the X-Men franchise. And prove that there’s more to Jackman than bearing Wolverine’s claws. If not, Jackman may find himself forever identified with the role of a superhero, just as Christopher Reeve was after Superman.