A shortlist of directors who are currently favourite to take on comic-book sequel The Wolverine has surfaced online.
Among them are the expected ‘trending’ names like Justin Lin (who’s been attached to Terminator 5 and Fast & Furious 6 as well as a handful of other projects) and the RoboCop reboot’s Jose Padilha.
Other names include James Mangold, Antoine Fuqua, Gavin O'Connor, Mark Romanek, Gary Shore and Doug Liman.
The latter is a particularly interesting addition – though his sci-fi Jumper is almost universally derided, he’s deftly handled gritty action with The Bourne Identity and Fair Game .
Whoever lands the gig, they’ll be working from a script by Christopher McQuarrie, which whisks Wolvie off to Japan.
One thing’s for sure – the director who eventually takes on The Wolverine will have a lot to live up to in the wake of Darren Aronofsky’s upsetting departure from the film.