Movie News
EXCLUSIVE: Wolverine Will Encounter “The Blob”
Posted by Neil Miller (neil@filmschoolrejects.com) on February 15, 2008
In an interview released the other day with USA Today, Hugh Jackman let on that the upcoming X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie that is currently in production will feature “a good bit of cameos of new and familiar mutants.”
As well, back in August Beyond Hollywood referrenced an interview on Wizard Magazine’s website (that can no longer be located on Wizard’s site) where sources mentioned “scenes featuring Wolverine in Vietnam, a pre-X-Men love interest for the furry mutant and character names familiar to comic fans such as the teleporter John Wraith, who served with Wolverine on special ops missions as part of Team X, along with Fred J. Dukes (aka the Blob).”
Today, I received an email from a very reliable source inside the production that confirmed that not only will The Blob appear in the movie, but that test footage has already been shot with an actor in a rubber suit. As our source explains, the suit makes him look like he is 800 lbs., but the producers of the film wanted to make him even bigger, something like 1200 lbs. The key thing to note here is not only that The Blob will appear in the movie, but that it will be an actor in a suit rather than CGI. Of course the fact that this is test footage being shot means it isn’t final, but this confirms that some Blob-ness will be in the movie in some form or another.
The 1200 lbs. thing also had be curious, so I consulted the Marvel Universe website for more. According to Marvel Universe’s listing, Fred J. Dukes (a.k.a The Blob) stands 5′10″ and originally weighted 510 lbs. This makes me wonder about the size. Marvel describes The Blob’s powers as follows:
“The Blob could create a mono-directional gravity field extending five feet from his center of balance, rendering himself virtually immovable as long as he was in contact with the ground. His body formerly had superhuman strength and durability; the fat tissues could absorb the impact of bullets, cannonballs, and even missiles. Unable to feel pain, the Blob’s skin could not be punctured, lacerated, frostbitten, or ravaged by disease due to its great elasticity and highly accelerated cell replacement rate. His eyes, ears, nose and mouth were not as resistant to injury, nor was he as resistant to fire or heat. The Blob’s size and strength have been temporarily increased to various levels over the years.”
From where I am sitting this is a very interesting character, but I am a little weary about him being 1200 lbs. Does that even make sense? I need some X-Men/Marvel fanatics to weigh in on this topic.
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4 Comments
February 15th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
In the Marvel Universe the Blob became looked at as almost a jobber. He was always part of a random villian’s entourage. Everything that i’ve read over the years with him in it wasn’t very good or interesting @ all. Lets hope that marvel knows what they are doing by putting him in this film. As for the weight issue i don’t know why they would make him that big. It doesn’t make sense & may turn out to be a horrible move. (Remember the Ang Lee Hulk movie that made him waaay too big) The other peice i don’t understand is why they wouldn’t put some more of Wolverine’s bigger enemies against him like Sabretooth or Omega Red. Now Wolverine VS Omega Red would be a raw movie!! Let’s hope this one comes out better than it sounds so far.
February 15th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Chris — It looks like Sabertooth is already in the film. Liev Schrieber is on to play him. Jackman told USA Today that his role will be pretty significant in the film. The Blob is going to be more of a cameo, at least from what I gather.
February 16th, 2008 at 11:07 am
Although the Blob originally appeared in the comics as about 5-foot-10 and 500 pounds in “X-Men” No. 3, the Blob has stood closer to 7-feet and who-knows-how-many-pounds during his appearances since the 1990s. I have been a fan of the character since I read my first comic with the Blob in the early 1970s, and 500 pounds is FAR too light for the Blob. I think any appearance of ol’ Frederick J. Dukes in the Wolverine movie could be great. :)
February 16th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
While I’m still skeptical about the need for a Wolverine prequel, I’m a-ok w/ a Blob appearance. I remember the Blob as having a carny freak origin, and another of his powers was the ability to withstand any bodily attack and virtually entrap a combatant into his belly. I’m wondering if this flick will introduce any Alpha Flight characters, since I remember Wolvie being traced to the X mansion by Captain Maple Leaf or whatever his name was, and the issue concerned his involvement in the Canadian govts version of the CIA. Or something like that. But I think that could be a cool angle to explore. How good the flick will be remains to be seen, but since I got over Jackman being a full foot taller than the comic Wolvie, I’ll probably be able to enjoy what they produce here.