Logan

Logan stands out from other superhero movies because of its violence, definitely, but also because of its very elegantly understated melancholy. It’s barely a superhero movie at times, instead relying on emotion and character to drive a lot of its scenes, instead of a lot of CGI-laden action sequences. But, if you can believe it, director James Mangold actually had an opening prologue that would’ve made the movie even sadder.

Since Logan would be his last run as Wolverine, there was a ton of stuff Hugh Jackman wanted to put in the movie that never made it into the script. One of these things was the return, of sorts, of his brother and sometime nemesis Sabretooth, which Jackman and James Mangold toyed with but ultimately had to cut from the script.

One of the most impressive parts about Logan was one of its most closely guarded secrets: Hugh Jackman not only played the title character, he played his evil double too; a perfect clone of Wolverine known as X-24. This new character wasn’t featured in any of the marketing materials or even alluded to in any way. When he shows up late in the film he is a shock, and an effective extension of the movie’s themes about a man wrestling with his nature as a killer (and, possibly, a monster).

When Logan arrives on Blu-ray next week, it will include one of the better bonus features in recent home entertainment history: A black and white cut of the film called Logan Noir, which made its premiere last night at a special screening at Brooklyn’s Alamo Drafthouse. The Noir cut looks great, but the real story coming out of last night’s event wasn’t the new version, it was a comment made by director James Mangold during the post-screening Q&A.

With the black-and-white version of Logan, now known as Logan Noir, set to hit theaters tomorrow, May 17, director James Mangold gave fans a sneak peek at the de-colorized edition. And hoo boy, does it look pretty.

The role of young mutant Laura (aka X-23) in Logan is a demanding one, to say the least, and it’s not surprising that finding the perfect actor for the part was equally challenging for director James Mangold. He needed to find a 12-year-old actress with acrobatic and martial-arts skills who could speak English and Spanish, and, perhaps most important of all, hold her own opposite Hugh Jackman. That’s a pretty specific list of requirements, but Dafne Keen fit the bill (and then some), and now you can watch one of the incredibly impressive (and profanity-laden, FYI) audition tapes that led to her breakout role.

Fans of Hugh Jackman’s final Wolverine movie are about to have a pretty big month: not only does Logan return to theaters in a special black-and-white format on Tuesday, May 16, but the movie will be available on VOD that same date and on Blu-ray/DVD on May 23. A home video release, of course, means deleted scenes, and deleted scenes often have a habit of showing up online in the few weeks before the physical copy is released. And gosh, wouldn’t you know? A doozy of a deleted scene is now available for your viewing pleasure.

Since Dennis Miller hosted the very first MTV Movie Awards back in 1992, the music channel’s annual award ceremony has been something of a fun dalliance into a world where the artistic merit of a movie is less important than its popular clout. This year marks a couple of big changes for the format: not only did the award show change its official name  —  it is now known as the MTV Movie & TV Awards  —  it also has become arguably the most inclusive award show to date, honoring titles like Moonlight, Get Out, and Jane the Virgin alongside its stalwart categories like Best Kiss and Best Villain.

Black-and-white re-edits of crowd-pleasing action blockbusters — so hot right now. George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road exploded heads across the globe upon release in 2015, and though the oversaturated coloration gave the film its distinctive post-apocalyptic look, rumors that Miller had planned a monochromatic cut of the film compelled fans to demand just that. The so-called ‘Black and Chrome’ edit drained all the color from the film, leaving something sparser and bleaker. And now Logan will be the latest to undergo a similar process, rendering a gritty and tough superhero picture as something even grittier and tougher. [Spits out mouthful of nails.]

For those of you who, like me, were totally enamored with the official Logan Instagram account’s eschewal of color for most of the movie’s production schedule, you probably missed that retro simplicity a little in the actual movie. If you’d like to see a black and white cut of Hugh Jackman’s last turn as Wolverine, good news: That’s exactly what James Mangold is going to give us.