“Logan” cast and filmmakers Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Richard E. Grant, Eriq LaSalle, Elise Neal, Elizabeth Rodriguez, Dafne Keen, Quincy Fouse, Composer Marco Beltrami, Producer Hutch Parker, Producer Simon Kinberg, Screenwriter Scott Frank, Screenwriter Michael Green, and Director James Mangold all walked the red carpet at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall for the film’s New York fan event.
In the near future, a weary Logan cares for an ailing Professor X in a hide out on the Mexican border. But Logan‘s attempts to hide from the world and his legacy are up-ended when a young mutant arrives, being pursued by dark forces.
What’s one key theme that you really connected with?
Hugh Jackman: This is a movie about family, which I really connect with. At the center of it is a character who is terrified of love. Everyone he’s ever known or loved has died. He’s got this desire to keep everyone at a distance and yet, now all of a sudden he’s having to look out for his father figure in Charles, and his daughter rocks up on his doorstep. So it becomes this movie about family, and … it’s annoying sometimes, it’s frustrating, it can even been dangerous but, connecting and actually opening yourself up, having a real relationship with family members is what it’s all about.
Can you speak about reuniting with James and what you admire about him?
Hugh Jackman: It’s my third film with James, I hope I do thirty more. He’s one of the great story tellers, he gets the best performances out of me. He’s a true friend, we argued at times, we mainly hugged it out, and I am so grateful to him, this movie meant more to me than any other, and I said Jim, I’m trusting you to deliver and he exceeded every expectation.
Tell me why you wanted to make another Wolverine film?
Hutch Parker: There was more to tell, I mean I think we all felt like there was a Logan movie out there that we hadn’t quite gotten to yet … That Hugh was passionate to tell, that Jim was passionate … We’re all very passionate about and the idea of doing something that was bolder and different was really exciting.
There are many interesting locations in the movie. Can you talk a little bit about the location scouting?
Hutch Parker: Yeah, it was pretty rigorous, location scouting. Part of the design of the movie, all the X-men movies have been stage movies, they’ve all been either in Montreal or Vancouver or in London where you’re working on sound stages with big sets. It was important for Jim in looking to do a more gritty and real version of the movie that given it’s a road movie that we actually incorporate the real locations. It meant … Which is challenging for a production because picking up and moving these big enterprises is not easy and particularly going into as remote locations as we did, because we were in some very remote and very uncomfortable locations. Now kind of with that behind us, when you see it on the film, you really feel the journey they’ve gone on, it really feels like they’ve covered the ground that we’ve said they do.
I think that makes a difference, I think it becomes part of the texture of the film … where audiences can sense when it’s a set and when it’s a green screen and not real. I also think it informed the filmmaking. I think we as a crew all felt it and it’s in there, it seeps into the way you make the movie and you feel about being out in the wilderness as a team or out in the heat, desert, woods, snow, whatever it is, it’s a bonding thing too.
My last question is the R rating, fans are getting to see a R rated Logan, can you speak about that?
Hutch Parker: Yeah, it was incredibly exciting for us but not … It really grew out of the decision to tell the story we were choosing to tell and in order to do that well it felt to us like it required the R and thankfully we have a studio in 20th Century Fox who was supportive of that and I think it makes a difference. It is getting to depict the violence in ways that are both exciting from an action perspective but that have consequence and that’s something I don’t think you feel as acutely when you’re not really showing what’s going on, when you’re kind of hiding it. So, yeah, it was great for us and I hope it’s great for the fans.
Logan hits theaters on March 3.
