Schreiber Battles Jackson in X-Men Prequel 'Wolverine'

SuperheroHype/ComingSoon.net reports that Tony-winning actor Liev Schreiber is currently "baring his fangs" in the upcoming summer X-Men spin-off Wolverine, starring fellow Tony Award-winner Hugh Jackman in the title role. Schreiber plays the iconic role of Victor Creed better known to comic fans as 'Sabertooth'.  

Wolverine, which "mixes action with an origin story about how Logan (Jackman) emerged from a barbaric experiment as an indestructible mutant with retractable razor-sharp claws," will be helmed by South African director Gavin Hood, whose credits include Tsotsi (which won the 2005 Oscar for Best Foreign Film) and the upcoming political drama Rendition, with Meryl Streep, Jake Gyllenhaal, Reese Witherspoon and more.  Wolverine began filming in November and will be released summer 2009. To read the interview with Schreiber click here.

With a screenplay by David Benioff, Wolverine will be based on the Marvel comics as well as more recent work by Frank Miller and Barry Windsor-Smith, the author of the "Weapon X" graphic novels.  The three X-Men films, starring Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Anna Paquin and more, have grossed over $1 billion worldwide.

Liev Schreiber has appeared on Broadway in: Talk Radio, Glengarry Glen Ross (Tony Award), Betrayal, In the Summer House, Moonlight. Off-Broadway: The Mercy Seat, Ivanov, Edward II, Escape From Happiness, The Size of the World, and Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet). Public Theater credits include Macbeth (Macbeth), Henry V (King Henry V), Othello (Iago), Hamlet (Hamlet), Cymbeline (Iachimo; Obie, Caloway Awards), The Tempest (Sebastian). Film: Love In the Time of Cholera (2007), The Painted Veil, The Ten, The Omen, The Manchurian Candidate, The Sum of All Fears, Kate & Leopold, The Hurricane, Jakob the Liar, A Walk on the Moon, Twilight, Party Girl, Mixed Nuts, Walking and Talking, The Daytrippers, Scream 1-3, Sphere, Ransom, Spring Forward. Television: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, HBO's RKO 281 (Emmy, Golden Globe nominations), Lackawanna Blues, Spinning Boris, Buffalo Girls, People V, The Sunshine Boys. Feature film directorial debut: Jonathan Safran Foer's novel, Everything Is Illuminated, which he also adapted for the screen. Training: Yale School of Drama.

The multi-talented Jackman won a Tony Award for playing Peter Allen in Broadway's The Boy from Oz, and also won an Emmy for hosting the 2004 Tony Awards ceremony. He was also nominated for the 1998 Olivier for Best Actor in a Musical for his Curly in the Royal National Theatre's Oklahoma! A musical theatre veteran back in Australia, he played Joe Gillis in the 1996 production of Sunset Boulevard in Melbourne, and Gaston in 1995's Beauty and the Beast.  Allen is the executive producer of the new CBS show "Viva Laughlin!." Other film credits include Australia,The Fountain, The Prestige, Scoop, and Someone Like You. 

Photo by Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.