The Wolverine Will Pretty Much Be a Western

That's not how you Tebow, silly!

Via Slashfilm, EW did a long interview with James Mangold on his upcoming film The Wolverine (my ninth most anticipated movie of the year).  I didn't read it because I have the attention span of a dying moth, but here's the money quote:

"An old friendship [puts the story in motion]. What brings him there is an old ally in Japan. We find Logan in a moment of tremendous disillusionment. We find him estranged. One of the models I used working on the film was The Outlaw Josey Wales. You find Logan and his love is gone, his mentors are gone, many of his friends are gone, his own sense of purpose – what am I doing, why do I bother – and his exhaustion is high. He has lived a long time, and he’s tired. He’s tired of the pain."

Hells to the yeah.  So this thing pretty much has all of my favorite movie tropes rolled into one:  samurais, loneliness and Clint Eastwood.  All it needs is a dash of sassy black friend dishing out wisdom in a wacky manner and we'll have ourselves a bonafide Best Picture nominee.

And I've always said Hugh Jackman is a dead ringer for Clint.

RIGHT???