Development In November 2013,
20th Century Fox initiated discussions over another solo film starring Wolverine, with
James Mangold in negotiations to write the treatment for the film and
Lauren Shuler Donner returning to produce under
The Donners' Company. At the time,
Hugh Jackman neither confirmed nor denied his reprisal of Logan in a new film. Jackman clarified that his lapsing contract with Fox, which reportedly would need to be renegotiated after
X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), did not mean he was leaving the franchise, as he had been working movie-by-movie since
X2 (2003). He also stated, "I do want to do it with Jim and with [producer] Lauren Shuler-Donner because we had such a great experience. I'm really proud of
The Wolverine (2013)". Later in the month, Mangold announced that the
pre-production aspect of the film had not yet begun, nor the writing process, though he furthered this by stating, "... I would say I'm not there yet. But I have taken finger to key. Let's say that. There's been typing. And ideas. And talking amongst all the principles". Shortly after the release of
The Wolverine, Mangold spoke of a potential sequel with the aim of not converting it into a "Will the world survive?" film, while also stressing his need "... not to make the same picture again". In December 2013, Jackman spoke of nearing the end of his tenure as the character, while stating that the film was in the very early stages of development. Jackman also revealed that Mangold and he had begun speaking of potential ideas, adding, "... Jim Mangold and I were literally on the phone last night talking about ideas but there is no script and no writer yet so it's a way off". Mangold would later reveal that Jackman was very involved in developing the story, saying, "Hugh and I have been friends for almost twenty years now, and he was there every step of the way. For Hugh and I, the first goal was to construct something more intimate. Hugh often brought up
The Wrestler (2008) and
Unforgiven (1992) as examples. I used those references as well as others. I
pitched to both Hugh and the studio that I had an idea for an extremely bloody, existential
Little Miss Sunshine (2006)". with producer Hutch Parker stating, "... the goal will be
X-Men: Apocalypse for 2016, which means at the latest [filming begins] in summer 2015, and then the same thing with
Wolverine, either before or after, but based on the script". Also in March, 20th Century Fox set a release date of March 3, 2017, Mangold boarded the project as director, Jackman signed on to reprise his role, and David James Kelly was hired to pen the screenplay. In April 2014, Jackman spoke about his ambitious feelings for the character of Logan while mentioning that they can go further than what they achieved in
The Wolverine. Jackman also expressed his feelings of finality with portraying the character of Logan, while in terms of storyline, he explained that nothing had been decided as of yet. Jackman concluded by highlighting that the success of the script development would determine whether Jackman would return at all: "I haven't signed on. I'm genuinely at that point where unless it's better than the last one I'm not going to do it. I think it has to be better. I can still see where we can improve on the last one. I love the intimacy of that story, I liked the small stuff, I liked that it was a little unexpected". In February 2015,
Patrick Stewart spoke of discussions about the third Wolverine film, centering around a team-up between Jackman's Wolverine and himself as Charles Xavier, with Stewart stating to Marc Mohan that "... we have been talking about a Wolverine movie, which would team Hugh Jackman and myself together ... That would be a very different sort of
X-Men from the four movies that I've already done". By April 2015,
Michael Green had taken over screenwriting duties, with Mangold still actively overseeing the script development process. In September 2015, Jackman spoke of the writers being halfway through the script, and that the story would delve into the relationship between Wolverine and Professor X, to which he added, "I think it's a really important relationship but I want to see signs of that quasi-father/son sort of relationship that has not been seen before, and sides of particularly Professor X that have not been seen before". Jackman spoke of Mangold's plan to start filming the next year, though he expressed uncertainty as to filming locations. Also in September,
Mark Millar, creative consultant for Fox, confirmed that Mangold's film would be a loose adaptation of the "
Old Man Logan" story he had written in 2008, something that was hinted at earlier by Jackman. In October 2016, the title of the film was announced as
Logan. In January 2016, Jackman confirmed that Mangold had a full screenplay, albeit not complete. The following month,
Liev Schreiber expressed interest in returning to portray
Victor Creed / Sabretooth, with Jackman himself mentioning Mangold's vision to Schreiber. After the film's release, it was revealed by Jackman that originally the script had the character play a role in the film, but that Sabretooth was excluded from the final screenplay. By April 2016, Mangold had chosen
Boyd Holbrook to portray the main antagonist of the movie, the chief of security for a global corporation that is pursuing Wolverine. Also by April,
Richard E. Grant was cast as a villainous
mad scientist, and
Stephen Merchant had also been cast. In May,
Eriq Lasalle and
Elise Neal were cast supporting roles, and
Elizabeth Rodriguez entered negotiations for a small but key role. Mangold felt Dafne Keen was a perfect choice for X-23 after seeing her audition tape, but Fox wanted to continue the casting process, so Mangold brought Stewart to see Keen's tape and he praised her and he had Jackman to read with her. Also in May, producer
Simon Kinberg revealed that filming had already begun, and confirmed that the movie would be
R-rated; regarding the setting and tonality, he stated, "It takes place in the future, and as you and others have reported, it is an R-rated movie. It's violent, it's kind of like a western in its tone. It's just a very cool, different film". Jackman wanted the film's ending be like
Unforgiven, but Mangold was keen to do the ending where Logan dies. The film included some vintage
X-Men comic books, used both to advance the plot and as a
metafictional reference. The director clarified that Marvel Comics allowed this on the condition that they could use actual characters and designs, but not use any real comic book issues. As a result, the comic book covers and pages seen in the film were made specifically for it, by writer
Joe Quesada and artist
Dan Panosian. Mangold commented that "The reality was that, like in
Unforgiven, when [Clint] Eastwood runs into Richard Harris, who's writing these fictional accounts of the great Western heroes, or Pat Garrett in
Billy the Kid, where you've got these aging heroes who kind of are twilight versions of their own legends — I think that idea, of being a kind of celebrity, or like a sports star long past your heyday, was really interesting for me to investigate with this kind of world". Panosian made 10 fake comic book covers, and interior arts were unused. He pointed that the arts had to resemble the style used in the
Bronze Age of Comic Books, and pointed out that they also served to contrast their campy style with the darker tone of the live-action film itself. He said that "The colors and art itself juxtaposed against the raw and savage world in the film capture just how much innocence has been lost over time". In terms of the series timeline, the film makes a consciousness effort to be as standalone as possible, and not intermingle with past X-Men movies. Jackman stated "Not only is it standalone in terms of timeline and tone, it's a slightly different universe. It's actually a different paradigm and that will become clear." Mangold further commented "I gave them many escape valves. We take place in 2029, and X-Men [Days of Future Past] ends in 2024. There's five blank years there that are wide open to seeing how things got from here to there. Or else you could do what I would advocate, which is imagine a different world and create a new movie, and you don't need the permission of the other movies."
Filming On March 5, 2015, James Mangold anticipated that filming would begin "early next year". Prior to filming, the film was given the
false title of
Juarez to lower the visibility of production, but the local media eventually uncovered the ruse. On March 1, 2016,
The Times-Picayune had confirmed that Mangold's film was preparing to shoot in
New Orleans,
Louisiana, with a starting schedule of May. Producers Kinberg, Shuler Donner and Parker chose to film in Louisiana because of its popularity in filmmaking locations,
Principal photography was confirmed to have begun in New Orleans, with an original shooting schedule occurring from April 25 to August 13, 2016, albeit shooting was altered to start on May 2, 2016. On May 23, 2016, filming took place at the
NASA Michoud Plant in
New Orleans East, with Jackman being spotted, not far from
Slidell, shooting a fight scene outdoors on the property. On May 26, 2016, the intersection of
LA 16 at
US 51 was closed for a time due to filming, with local store fronts donning faux signage to transform
Amite City, and east of Amite near Bell Road. It was revealed that scenes were filmed prior in
Husser on May 25, 2016, with a scheduled daytime shoot to occur at the Greenlawn Cemetery in
Hammond on May 27, 2016. Filming took place from June 9, 2016, until June 10, 2016, in New Orleans and
Metairie, respectively. On June 1, 2016, it was confirmed that 20th Century Fox had applied to film exterior scenes for
Juarez on
Louisiana Highway 15 between Ferriday and Clayton from June 12, 2016, up until June 16, 2016, at the Ferriday Plaza Shopping Center, while a portion of
U.S. Route 425 between Ferriday and Clayton would be closed for a five-day period in connection with Fox's production. On June 1, 2016,
The Concordia Sentinel revealed that Sicily Island High School and a house in
Sicily Island would be used in the production, while a crash scene would be shot on U.S. Route 425 just outside of Ferriday. On June 16, 2016,
Juarez was originally scheduled to move on toward Sicily Island, however, additional periods of shooting were added.
Natchez, Mississippi, had been chosen by producers of
Juarez as the next filming location, for an upcoming scene which required the casting truck drivers, that would be filmed between June 14 up until June 28, 2016. On July 12, 2016, the
Albuquerque Journal confirmed that
Juarez would move on to its third major filming location—
New Mexico, which ran through August in
Albuquerque,
Rio Rancho,
Abiquiú,
Tierra Amarilla and
Chama. The New Mexico Film Office revealed that the production employed about 130 New Mexican crew members and two New Mexican cast members, as well as 600 extras throughout the production, the film office stated. On July 17, 2016, it was reported that the production of
Juarez was in the process of casting to work on a scene filmed on July 22, 2016, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. On July 25, 2016, it was reported that filming had begun in the Northern Meadows neighborhood of Rio Rancho, while a few miles further down King Boulevard there was an elaborate set built with a toppled water tower, On August 11, 2016, it was reported that the production of
Juarez were in the process of seeking worn out cars to work on an upcoming scene filmed on August 12, 2016, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Principal photography was confirmed to have ended in New Mexico on August 13, 2016, with an altered shooting schedule occurring from May 2 to August 13, 2016.
Post-production Film editor Michael McCusker was finishing work on Mangold's
Logan, during the period of October 7, 2016, wherein he spoke of going through the dailies and breaking them down, and figuring out the structure of one scene which he described as a "complicated, multi-component scene". McCusker spoke of the task being rather time-consuming, on the front end, albeit stating, "I am looking at the back end experience with [Mangold] as the more important experience. I don't want to be searching for stuff for him, I want to be working towards getting the cut right". ==Music==