Admittedly, this story is not terribly different to the last time we reported it. But its worth a mention, since the talks between Fox and Darren Aronofsky about Wolverine 2 seem to be escalating.

It's still probably nothing more than fanboy wishful thinking to believe it'll happen, but Aronofsky, having expressed at least a casual interest in a big-budget studio project (y'know, just to make a change, for a laugh) has let a rather large genie out of its bottle, with studios falling over themselves to sign him up for something. 

Having lost Superman to Zack Snyder (which assumes that he actually wanted to do it), Aronofsky may now get in bed with Fox, who have now apparently stepped in where Warners feared to tread (although Warners have offered the director Tales From the Gangster Squad as a consolation prize, which presumably means that Ben Affleck is no longer looking at that). Aronofsky is reportedly now in "serious talks" to re-team with his Fountain star Hugh Jackman. Or maybe Fox are seriously talking, and Aronofsky is just happy to eat the free lunch. 

Aronofsky has had good experiences working with Fox Searchlight, the more "indie" outpost of the empire, but whether he could get anything like the complete control he'd require from the main studio is presumably what's under discussion. We can see the samurai movie aspects of the Chris Claremont / Frank Miller source material (Marvel's four-issue mini-series from 1982, where Logan heads east to Japan) being attractive to Aronofsky though.

But lest we forget, David Slade's hat is still very much in the ring to direct Christopher McQuarrie's Wolverine 2 script (which Jackman says will shoot early next year), and Aronofsky is also pondering an offer from Columbia for Preacher. 

Wolverine or Preacher, readers? They both potentially rock, but there's still every chance that Aronofsky will do neither...