Logan: Hugh Jackman took a pay cut to make sure his final Wolverine film would be rated R

Director James Mangold revealed the news over the weekend

Justin Carissimo
New York
Monday 12 December 2016 23:24 GMT
(20th Century Fox)

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Following in Deadpool’s footsteps, Hugh Jackman’s final Wolverine flick, Logan, will be rated R, and now we can thank the film’s lead actor for making sure that extra violence and profanity hits the big screen.

Director James Mangold revealed Jackman’s salary cut over the weekend during a 40-minute screening of his film, which draws inspiration from Marvel’s Old Man Logan comic series. The rating likely reduces the $127 million film’s box office success, so if Jackman asked for a full salary, 20th Century Fox would’ve likely favored a PG-13 rating.

Eric Vespe, a writer with Ain’t It Cool News, live-tweeted the screening at the Butt-Numb-A-Thon film festival in Austin this past weekend, reporting Jackson's pay cut and noting that the film is loaded with more profanity than The Big Lebowski.

“40 mins of Logan screened with [Mangold] in the house,” Vespe wrote on Twitter. “Full on berserker Wolverine [finally] and more f-bombs than Lebowski.”

It’s currently unclear how much money Jackson will make for the film but even if the movie doesn’t break box office records, he'll at least be remembered for bringing artistic integrity back to the Marvel universe.

“Seriously, this audience is kinda pissed the movie stopped,” Vespe wrote. “Refreshing after a couple of cartoony Singer X-films.”

Logan hits theaters on March 3, 2017.

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