For as long as their have been vampires in stories and popular culture, there have also been those who would see the undead destroyed. Vampire hunters have come in many shapes and sizes over the decades, from kick-ass men of action, to small, blonde women with superpowers, to demonic beings who may end up being just as dangerous as the very creatures they’re hunting. Then, of course, there is the greatest vampire hunter of them all. You can keep Blade and Buffy for yourself. If vampires did show up in my town, I’d want Professor Abraham Van Helsing, learned scholar, vampire expert and the arch enemy of Count Dracula himself, fighting in my corner first and foremost.

Bram Stoker’s second most famous creation (you can argue that, but you’d be wrong) may not have been the first vampire hunter the world had ever heard of, but he certainly set the template for every one which would come after. You’ll be hard pressed to find a vampire story these days which doesn’t have its very own Van Helsing figure. What else is Whistler to Blade than a modern version of Van Helsing, and in the universe of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Joss Whedon gave us an entire group of Van Helsings who worked with the Slayer in the Council of Watchers.

Surprisingly, given the number of times Dracula has appeared on screen, there haven’t been anywhere near as many actors to have portrayed the good professor, and of the ones who have, a great many of them have been awful. Christopher Plummer may be a very fine actor indeed, but his turn in Dracula 2001 was… Well, he was clearly just there for the money. Thankfully, there have also been a couple of great Van Helsings, including your favourite, Peter Cushing. Next year will also see Dario Argento bringing us Dracula 3D, featuring Rutger Hauer as Van Helsing. I like Rutger Hauer, and have a feeling that, even if the film is total crap, had I written this a year later, he would have found his way onto the list.

However, I didn’t, and so, since we have to begin somewhere…

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When I first started writing these columns, many moons ago (twenty-eightish), I was going to take a slightly different approach to them. As well as listing my five favourite actors to portray each character, I was also going to give one example of how not to play the part. It was while I was writing about how awful George Clooney was as Batman that I realised this wouldn’t work. Where would it go? You couldn’t start an article about the best with the worst. And you want to finish on a high, so the end’s out too. So I cut it, and decided it wouldn’t appear.

But Pat Fraley, who voiced Wolverine in Pryde of the X-Men pilot and on Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends needs mentioning here. For Odin’s sake, he played Wolverine as an Australian! Everyone’s favourite Canadian, with an Aussie accent. It just didn’t work. At all. I’m not anti-Fraley here, after all, the guy was also Krang in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but…did he ever read an X-Men comic? Rumour has it, the accent came about because in the script, Wolverine called Pyro a dingo. Pyro, who was an Australian. No one bothered to check. And we get the worst Wolverine ever. But anyway, on with the best!

As ever, I put it to the good people of the internet who their favourite Wolverine is, and it was surprisingly close. Two Wolverines stood head and shoulders above the rest, with Hugh Jackman taking the gold. But only just. But, as we all know, it’s not what the public thinks that matters. No. It’s all about me. And so…

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Link: http://www.deadline.com/interstitial/?ref=http://www.deadline.com/2011/06/james-mangold-foxs-choice-for-the-wolverine/

According to Deadline (who are usually fairly reliable) James Mangold is the chosen director for Hugh Jackman's second solo outing as the X-Men's Wolverine. Mangold has pretty good form as far as I'm concerned having previously directed Cop Land, Girl Interrupted, Identity and 3:10 to Yuma, I even surprisingly enjoyed his Tom Cruise/Cameron Diaz vehicle, Knight and Day.

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Link: http://www.reelzchannel.com/movie-news/3030/jessica-biel-to-play-wolverina-in-x-men-origins-wolverine-sequel

Bad news for Fox on this April Fool's Day as somebody appears to have leaked a near complete and DVD quality of the workprint for X-Men Origins: Wolverine onto the web. The big question is how will this effect the blockbuster appeal of the film? Surely if the film is good people will still go to see the finished article in cinema quality as it was meant to be seen, however if the film is bad word is bound to get out and this franchise could be sunk before it even sets sail.

In other related Wolverine news according to reelzchannel.com Gavin Hood has been saying he's on for a sequel but want's to focus on 'Wolverina' as played by Jessica Biel. WTF! Who is Wolverina?! Let's hope he means X-23 the suprisingly popular and successful female Wolverine clone and not some out-of cannon made up character they want to use because Jackman is jumping ship. I really couldn't see any point in a Wolverine film without Jackman anyway, although a Jackman/Biel team-up would at least give us something for both sexes to oggle.

Ok so here it is the final trailer for X-Men Origins: Wolverine, we've talked alot about this movie and it's related trailers/teasers/tv spots but this really is the last one. It's looking like a great action packed epic with a heart, it may even live up to the hype! Of course the big x-factor here is the story (David Benioff, The Kite Runner and 25th Hour) and the director (Tsotsi's Gavin Hood), not too shabby talent but can they make a good comercially viable superhero movie? As my my comic shop owner said we already know Hugh Jackman can play our favourite Adamantium-laced Canuckle-Head and the rest of the cast can certainly act but when it comes together will we get a coherent and (more importantly) fit into continuity that will suit both fans of the X-Men books and the movies? We'll just have to wait until May 1st to find out. If you like, try playing one of my favourite games whilst watching the trailer, spot the mutant. The film seems to be absolutely littered with cameos from the X-Universe. If you get more than 20 there's a prize!

Everyone will be talking about two things from this year's Oscars, the amazing and diserved success of Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire and the 'Oscars on a budget' feeling that was being passed off due to the economic climate. Well, here we do comics and maybe a bit of sci-fi/fantasy so we're gonna focus on that, what else did you expect? Like any true film geek, the Oscars is one of the high-points of my movie life calendar, an opportunity to celebrate and mock the last years 'best' films. Every year I book the next day off work, stay up late, thrown on my tuxedo t-shirt and settle down with a group of mates to not only watch but also take part in the Oscars. No I didn't present an award this year, they asked but I'm holding out for the Eisners, I did however enter the 8th Annual Oscar Drinking Contest. The rules are simple, choose your winners, wait for the announcement, then do a shot if you get it wrong, with over 25 categories believe me it get's pretty messy, pretty quickly.

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