News: Wolverine vs. Schreiber and Huston

Now this news about a pair of Hugh Jackman archenemies struck my fancy.

JoBlo is saying that Danny Huston of 30 Days of Night and The Constant Gardener (pictured above) is going to be playing the younger version of X-Men 2’s Brian Cox in the upcoming spinoff X-Men Origins: Wolverine, a title that sounds a lot like a comic book but not at all like a movie.

But the news that I somehow missed is the notion that Liev Schreiber (shown with appropriate hairiness above in Love in the Time of Cholera), the incredible actor who was also up for Aaron Eckhart’s part in The Dark Knight, is set to be playing Sabretooth, the role entirely underwritten for Tyler Mane in the first X-Men film. True, ex-wrestler Mane likely doesn’t have the acting chops to really bring the necessary punch to Wolverine’s most viciously hated enemy, but I only hope Schreiber can bring the strong physical presence necessary to truly menace a guy who can heal any wound in a minute or three. He’s only a half-inch taller than Jackman, but it could work.

I love Liev Schreiber. This alone cranks up the Wolverine movie from a nerd-cred duty to something I’m actually excited about.