CraveOnline: They’ve re-rated films before. Wasn’t A Clockwork Orange originally an X? Now it’s downgraded to an R.
James Mangold: That’s because what would be an X is now on Cinemax at 8pm in this day and age. No, I don’t think they regrade current movies in the current release cycle, meaning that it’s definitely against the rules to say, “This one was rated by the MPAA this, and this one was rated by the MPAA [this].”
Were the majority of the cuts to The Wolverine for the ratings?
Yes and no. Like the ninja fight; the trick of it was how do you run over people with a snowblower…?
Carefully.
Yeah. First of all, I felt the movie was long. Second of all, we started getting challenged with that sequence in a way that was really… I didn’t know how to make my way through it and come up underneath that bar.
Did you have to reshoot the beginning and end of the scene to help cut that out?
No. I felt like we found a way to make it just work where he falls down, and just gets up and starts running. I also felt like – and I think some people have commented, some critically and some glowingly – I always felt like I was very concerned about how we transition into a more comic book energy. There was something really naturalistic, more naturalistic than most comic book movies, for most of the film, and there was a point in the ninja fight where I started wondering… “Is this going [too far]?” The point where they’re arriving by cycles on rooftops.
I was wondering how they got them up there.
Right. Have we entered another movie? So I was torn about that, and I still think it’s really cool…
It is really cool.
I think I’m still torn. It was always about staging your descent. The movie becomes more and more of a fever dream the more and more it goes. It starts in a more real place and keeps going until it’s really crazy at the end.
They cut off the credits when we just watched it.
Right.
I’m wondering if in the preferred cut of the film, the teaser for X-Men: Days of Future Past is in there. Was that your decision? Did you shoot that?
Yeah, I shot that. You know, it’s an interesting question, because people have been asking why we didn’t do that little piece with him finding the uniform in the box. One of the reasons was it really conflicted with the extra scene. He finds his Wolverine costume in a box, and now he’s not wearing it and he’s in an airport. It also was a very big statement that may have had people wondering why he’s not wearing it in the movie Bryan [Singer]’s making. [Laughs] So there were a lot of reasons to hesitate about that one, but the biggest thing for me was… No, I love that end scene. I love the kick it offered.
