Looks like IESB’s report that filming had wrapped was a little premature, just yesterday the X-men Origins production team were simulating war scenes at Blacksmiths Beach. A group of Flickr photographers in the area gathered to take their shots and meet Hugh Jackman. From the pictures it looks like WWII will feature, though it’s unclear how much the movie shall focus on this aspect of Wolverine’s past.

Panoramic by Father McKenzie

More pictures by Naomi Frost

Picture by subgirljess099

From Wikipedia - Wolverine’s brief history, to fill some people in:

During World War II, Logan teams with Captain America versus HYDRA [Captain America cameo!?], and continues a career as a soldier-of-fortune/adventurer. Logan works for the First Canadian Parachute Battalion and the CIA before being recruited for Team X.

As a member of Team X, Logan is given false memory implants. He continues on the team, until he is able to break free of the mental control and joins the Canadian Defense Ministry. Logan is subsequently kidnapped by Weapon X, where he remains captive and experimented on, until his rescue by the Winter Soldier, after which he returns to the Canadian wilderness.

Aint it Cool have the scoop on this one, via The Man Who Japed. The tip-off came via the Sydney Herald that an overnight shoot would be taking place in Federal Park on Friday 29th of February.

The set was pretty cool. They had sealed off a fairly large section of the park and done it up as a carnival with lots of bright lights, some rides and a Ferris Wheel and various attractions. There were a lot of extras milling around in typical carnival attire such as mimes, clowns etc.

[…]

We saw someone who looked like Will.i.am from the Black Eyes Peas wearing a purple jacket and sporting an afro walking around the carnival set and conferring with the director, but what I found most interesting was the set dressing of the sideshow attraction. There was one that had a picture of a man with a beard in a top hat called Dr Freak advertising his freak show with a woman called ‘Elastina’ who I assume is going to be a mutant. There was also a three headed baby. It’ll be interesting to see how this ties in to the film.

In this first image you can see the references to Dr Freak and the three headed baby on the posters to the left, and the Elastina poster can be spotted in the third picture just sticking out from behind the ticket booth.

Neil Miller of Film School Rejects has sent us in their latest scoop. The blob, a character previously rumored to be in the latest Wolverine movie now has a potential actor to play him, Kevin Durand:

Our source inside the production tells us that Durand was “live-scanned” for The Blob a while ago, but has just officially signed on to the project in recent days. Word is that he will be heading up to his native Canada to shoot scenes for the film sometime next week.

Notably, these scenes are not being shot in New Zealand, suggesting that The Blob’s role may only be a minor one - or limited to a specific portion of the film. Though this is only speculation.

Well, here’s yet another casting rumor. This time it comes via Aint it Cool, Ryan Reynolds to play Deadpool:

Well, today we can exclusively ask you… how about if Ryan Reynolds is playing [Deadpool]?

This one’s supposed to be a secret, but cat’s out of the bag now, Marvel. And I have to say… I think it sounds like fun. I know this has been a character you guys have been developing for years now (hell, I think I pitched a DEADPOOL film back in 2001), and Reynolds is absolutely the right guy for the job.

Casting rumors are all the rage these days it seems. Superherohype are reporting via a spurious “my friend is excited” message board post that Taylor Kitsch has been cast as Gambit. Personally I am sceptical, and a lot of websites are passing this around as fact, which it is not. One thing’s for sure, he’s a dead ringer for the character.