Beaks here...
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Darren Aronofsky has vacated the director's chair on 20th Century Fox's forthcoming THE WOLVERINE. The celebrated filmmaker has cited the lengthy out-of-country shooting schedule as the primary reason for his exit. Can't fault a man for not wanting to be away from his family for an extended period of time.
Deadline has fleshed out the story a little bit, and it sounds like this has nothing to do with the dreaded "creative differences" (the buzz on Christopher McQuarrie's screenplay is generally positive). The film wasn't scheduled to start shooting until summer at the earliest, so there is some time for 20th Century Fox and Hugh Jackman to regroup and find a new director.
Aronofsky's departure completely erodes all interest I had in this movie. It'll be interesting to see how the studio proceeds now that they've lost a world-class filmmaker.
