Hugh Jackman went to the gym …

… and the good folks over at Empire Online have proof:

New Image From Wolverine

Click the photo below to see Empire’s exclusive high-resolution image:

I honestly have no idea what to make of this project. It comes out May 1, 2009, and it takes place before the X-Men movies we’ve already seen and it goes into Wolverine’s origin in the Weapon X program, with Liev Schrieber as the younger version of William Stryker, who was played with such dastardly glee by Brian Cox in X2.

I love Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. He’s an amazing actor and he brings total physical and emotional dedication to everything he does.

I just wish they’d take a bigger chance than just another origin story. Let there be some mystery about the character, and instead do one of the stories about Wolverine in Japan fighting ninjas or something. This could have been an opportunity to use a familiar character to tell an entirely different kind of story in a totally different kind of environment than what we’ve seen in the X-Men films so far, but instead it sounds like they’re playing it safe.

Oh, well.

For a running tally of news and information about Wolverine, which I refuse to call it by its ridiculous official title of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, you can click right here.

Other people want to see The Dark Knight, too

A week from today, I’ll be counting down the minutes until one minute after midnight … when The Dark Knight will begin to unfold in front of my eyes on an IMAX screen in Los Angeles.

I’ll be seeing the film with my friend Kareem, his beautiful girlfriend Claire, and his gorgeous friend Kay-Anne.

And that’s a massive honor for me, because Kareem and I have been talking about this movie and its epic predecessor, Batman Begins, for a long time (and usually for a very long time each time).

It’s going to be good.

And as it turns out, we’re not the only ones who want to see the movie.

Kareem sent me these stats from Fandango:

• 37% of respondents plan to see the film at least once during one of the late night performances on Thursday night.
• 38% say that they intend to take off a few hours or the entire day from work on Friday as a result of seeing the movie the night before.
• 60% of these moviegoers are male.
• 71% are under the age of 35.
• 39% plan to see the film in IMAX
• 92% expect that the Academy will recognize Heath Ledger’s performance as The Joker with a posthumous Oscar nomination next year.

Sweet.

And the New York Times has a good story about it, too:

Because of Demand, Many Theaters Decide to Leave the Bat Signal on Till Dawn

This is going to be huge.

“Biggest movie of the year” huge?

I’m going to make a bold declaration and say that I think it will be.

My friend Kyle has seen The Dark Knight …

… and he loved it.

His cleverly composed visual review, built around one of the film’s posters, can be seen here, and be sure to click it for a larger version.

There are no spoilers in his review.

And I’ll be seeing it myself a WEEK from TODAY.

And that makes me happy.

WHAMMY!