The latest UK Empire Magazine (August) has a one page article about Wolverine and a 4-page feature on Australia. Hoping to get scans as soon as I can scrape together the cash to buy it but if anyone has a copy and would be willing to scan, please do!

From The Daily:

Fancy lunch with Hugh Jackman? Dream on, right?

Wrong. The star of Wolverine has offered a day of his time as an auction prize in a Noosa Anglican Church fundraiser, which will raise money towards building an orphanage in Nepal.

The winning bidder will be flown to Sydney where they will visit the set of Hugh’s new movie. They will receive a framed and signed photograph of Hugh, have their picture taken with him, and will also get to have lunch at Fox Studios with the Boy From Oz himself.

Parishioner Graeme Marlow was able to sign the star up for the event, since they have been mates since primary school.

“We’re best mates, yeah,” Graeme said.

“Jacko’s always very obliging in supporting us with any of the charity work that we do.”

Graeme said his old Knox Grammar School buddy, who he catches up with about once or twice a year, was a truly genuine person.

“He’s exactly as he comes across, he’s a champion bloke.

“He’s very humble and I don’t think I’ve heard a bad word about him.”

Graeme said the cause of the fundraiser was close to Hugh’s heart, since he and his wife Deborra-Lee Furness had adopted two children of their own.

Hugh will be unable to attend the fundraiser at Ricky’s in Noosa this Wednesday because of filming commitments, but he has pre-recorded a video message for the evening.

“We so wished to be there to help raise much-needed funding. However, I’m filming and I’ve gotta save the world from bad guys with my claws,” Hugh joked.

Five Noosa teenagers will travel to Nepal at their own expense to work with orphans in their school holidays, and Hugh had a piece of advice for them in his video message.

“Make sure whatever you learn you come back and teach all of us,” Hugh said.

Auctioneer David Garwood from Remax Noosa said he expected a lot of enthusiastic bidding for Hugh Jackman.

“This is something really special, you can’t just go and buy a day with Hugh,” he said.

The project to build an orphanage is sponsored by the Noosa Anglican Church, which has already raised $40,000 to purchase land. The fundraising night is already sold out.

IESB reports:

It’s a wrap for Wolvies’ principal photography that has currently been shooting in Australia and earlier in New Zealand.

Marvel’s Kevin Feige told IESB that X-Men Origins: Wolverine has just wrapped principal photography in Australia and that there are only a couple of weeks left for some pick up shots second unit will be taking care of.

Several sources close to the production have described X-Men Origins: Wolverine as a gritty 70’s type of action film.

Leading up to the events of “X-Men,” “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” tells the story of Wolverine’s epically violent and romantic past, his complex relationship with Victor Creed, and the ominous Weapon X program. Along the way, Wolverine encounters many mutants, both familiar and new, including surprise appearances by several legends of the X-Men universe.

It’s also being mentioned in various places around the internet that Hugh might make an appearance at the San Diego Comic Con to promote X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Thanks to our friends over at the unofficial Australia movie site, we now know some release dates for Hugh’s upcoming film which also stars Nicole Kidman:

Further unconfirmed dates are filtering out from various sources in dribs and drabbs. However, via 20th Century Fox we can confirm a November 13th release for Australians and six weeks later the Brits get their moment with a December 26th release in the UK.

The Internet Movie Database has also listed a string of dates to follow:
Russia - 4 December 2008
France - 24 December 2008
Germany - 25 December 2008
Sweden - 25 December 2008
Finland - 26 December 2008

At this early stage it’s still fair to say that nothing’s set in stone, so these are of course subject to change. However we doubt the film will hit our screens much later as a November/December release puts it in prime positioning for Academy Award consideration.

You may also have seen posters for The Deception which is in cinemas now and was previously titled The Tourist (amongst other things). More on that soon.

Thanks to Maria there are several scans of Russian GQ magazine’s Hugh feature from November last year. Previews below, click to see them larger: