Although “Wonder Woman” got snubbed in Tuesday’s Oscar nominations, superhero fans still had reason to celebrate as “Logan” become the first superhero movie to land an Oscar nomination in the Best Adapted Screenplay category.
Director James Mangold wrote the screenplay with Scott Frank and Michael Green sharing the honor. “Logan” is up against “Call Me By Your Name,” “The Disaster Artist,” “Molly’s Game” and “Mudbound.”
“For us, ‘Logan’ was always going to be a dramatic character piece,” Mangold told TheWrap. “The last chapter of Wolverine’s arc, to us, should be about what he fears most, and that’s not the end of the world or his life, but intimacy. So every step of the way, we wanted to put Logan in a situation where he’d be in the greatest jeopardy, which is being asked to be vulnerable and to trust.”
“If Hollywood kept statistics for the most assists in nominations/awards … @mang0ld would be the league leader. Today, he finally got the recognition he deserves. Congrats brother,” tweeted Hugh Jackman.
If Hollywood kept statistics for the most assists in nominations/awards … @mang0ld would be the league leader. Today, he finally got the recognition he deserves. Congrats brother! @WolverineMovie #Logan #Wolverine #Oscars2018 pic.twitter.com/Zp2CDo9mCA
— Hugh Jackman (@RealHughJackman) January 23, 2018
“Logan” was loosely inspired by Marc Millar’s 2009 comic “Old Man Logan,” which finds the former Wolverine crossing a harshly divided America. The film finds a weakened, older Logan trying to protect both a senile and unstable Xavier and a young mutant named Laura (a.k.a. X-23), in a world where mutants are either engineered for nefarious purposes or exterminated.
Mangold said he and his fellow writers are grateful not only to the Academy, but to the “X-Men” fans who were willing to join him as Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart’s delivered their final performances as Wolverine and Professor Xavier.
“When I first started writing the film with Scott Frank and Michael Green, I was really nervous over whether the take we were going to have on Logan was going to be something that people were going to be shocked by and reject or embrace. The way people have leaned into this story has been very moving, and it’s really gratifying that we put this picture out almost a year ago and that people are still talking about it so much,” Mangold said.
Hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, the 90th Academy Awards will be held at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood and Highland Center on Sunday, March 4, 2018. The ceremony will be televised live on ABC.