Will we soon be seeing Hugh in a Bollywood film? While talking with famous Bollywood superstar, Shah Rukh Khan, Jackman spoke about how he’s meeting with directors in India.

Tough guys do dance. Hollywood and Bollywood literally shook a leg at the closing session of the Ficci Frames confab Friday in Mumbai, when Hugh Jackman and Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan did a jig to a popular Hindi film song after participating in a panel on the Hollywood studio system and the growing impact of Bollywood on global cinema.

During the session, moderated by My Name is Kahn director Karan Johar, the Wolverine star revealed that he was actively seeking roles in Bollywood projects, “I am looking forward to working in Bollywood films. I am meeting directors.”

“I am a huge fan of Shah Rukh Khan and I loved his film My Name is Khan. I want to do a sequel to this film and that will be called My Name is Jackman and I am not a tourist,” Jackman joked in a reference to the My Name Is Khan tag line, “And I am not a terrorist.”

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Commenting on the Hollywood studio system, Jackman said, “I have mostly worked with Fox. Some creative people find the studio system intrusive and get very negative. But a studio which is putting in millions of dollars has the right to have a say. Studios are run by smart people. They make 18 to 20 films a year.”

Jackman added that studio heads often advised him on what roles he should be taking and how he should approach a character. When asked about how Bollywood is perceived in Australia, Jackman said, “Bollywood is cool.”

Jackman illustrated this with the example of a scene from his film Australia where Jackman and Nicole Kidman share their first kiss, “And out of nowhere came the instruction that we were to kiss in the rain! I was like ‘Why can’t it be the sun’? And then someone told me about Bollywood movies and the natural props they use to dramatize a scene.”

Khan felt that Hollywood studios setting up base in India could take Indian films to the next level. At the same time, he said it was up to Indian studios like veteran production banner Yash Raj Films to take advantage of the opportunity.

With studios like Fox and Disney coming to India, Jackman also felt the relationship between India and the U.S. will grow as “both are film loving countries.”

But Khan confessed his fears and inability to make it in Hollywood due to his accent and said, “So it’s better that I make films for my people here, and make them and myself happy.” Jackman disagreed and urged him to give Hollywood a shot, “I do not subscribe to your opinion. You are a big and popular star and I am sure you can make it in Hollywood.”

However Khan said that his dream “is to make a Hindi film that is seen globally. I always give the example of Life Is Beautiful. This was a film that was made in Italian, won Oscars and was seen globally.”

Khan also revealed that Jackman’s X-Men series inspired him to make his upcoming sci-fi superhero caper Ra.One that releases in October. “I wanted to do something different for the kids, so I watched all the X-Men movies, cartoons, read comics and honestly the X-Men series inspired me to do Ra.One,” said Khan.

Jackman was accompanied on his India visit by his wife Deborra-Lee Furness, and was also presented with a “Ganesha” memento by top Bollywood actress and former Miss World Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. “When I came to know that I will be meeting the most beautiful woman on earth, I actually thought it was my wife,” joked Jackman.

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Candids > 2011 > 24 March

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Candids > 2011 > 21 March

From May 3-15, Hugh Jackman will be performing a limited engagement show at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco. There, he’ll sing his favorite Broadway and Hollywood musical numbers. The press release is below:

SHN proudly presents Hugh Jackman, in Performance at The Curran Theatre for a two week limited engagement May 3-15 in San Francisco. Hugh Jackman will perform his Broadway and Hollywood favorite musical numbers backed by a 17 piece orchestra.

Australian native Hugh Jackman made his first major U.S. film appearance as Wolverine in the first installment of the “X-Men” franchise, a role he reprised in the enormously successful “X2″ and 2006′s “X-Men: The Last Stand.” Most recently, he reprised his role in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” which serves as a prequel to the popular series and grossed an outstanding $85 million domestically in its first weekend of release in May 2009.

Jackman has starred in Darren Aronofsky’s “The Fountain”, Christopher Nolan’s “The Prestige”, Woody Allen’s “Scoop” and opposite Nicole Kidman in Baz Luhrmann’s epic “Australia.” In addition, he lent his voice to the animated features “Happy Feet” and “Flushed Away”. Other leading roles include “Someone Like You”, “Swordfish”, “Van Helsing”, and “Kate and Leopold”, for which he received a 2002 Golden Globe nomination. Up next he can be seen in DreamWorks’ “Real Steel” out this October.

For his portrayal of the 1970s singer-songwriter Peter Allen in “The Boy From Oz,” Jackman received the 2004 Tony Award for Best Actor in a musical as well as Drama Desk, Drama League, Outer Critics Circle and Theatre World awards.

In the fall of 2009, Jackman made a return to Broadway in the Keith Huff penned “A Steady Rain.” Co-starring Daniel Craig, the play tells the story of two Chicago cops who are lifelong friends and whose differing accounts of a few traumatic days change their lives forever.

On February 22, 2009, Jackman took on the prestigious role of Oscar host as he fronted the 81st Annual Academy Awards. Live from the Kodak, he wowed those in attendance and helped ABC score a 13% increase in viewership from the previous year. This wasn’t, however, Jackman’s first foray into Awards show hosting. Previously, Jackman served as host of the Tony Awards three years in a row from 2003 – 2005, earning an Emmy Award for his 2004 duties at the 58th Annual ceremony, and an Emmy nomination for his 2005 appearance at the 59th Annual ceremony.

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This is such fantastic news! I live in the Bay Area, so I’m very excited to catch one of his performances.

“Hugh Jackman manages to stay in a good mood despite not being able to flag down a taxi cab. Jackman and wife Deborra-Lee Furness are spotted trying to return home after picking up their daughter Ava from school. After Jackman’s unsuccessful attempts, Deborra, Ava and Hugh were rescued when a friend offered to take them home.” (SOURCE)

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Candids > 2011 > 17 March

Very disappointing news: Darren Aronofsky (most recently, the director of Black Swan) has left The Wolverine project. His reasoning was that shooting the film would, understandably, mean being away from his family for too long.

Darren Aronofsky has exited “The Wolverine,” saying the length of the shoot would have kept him away from his family for too long.

The “Black Swan” director split from his longtime partner Rachel Weisz last fall. The couple have a young son, Henry Chance, together.

“As I talked more about the film with my collaborators at Fox, it became clear that the production of ‘The Wolverine’ would keep me out of the country for almost a year. I was not comfortable being away from my family for that length of time,” Aronofsky said in a statement announcing his decision to step away.

“I am sad that I won’t be able to see the project through, as it is a terrific script and I was very much looking forward to working with my friend, Hugh Jackman, again.”

Aronofsky was considered something of an offbeat choice for the “X-Men” spin-off, having made his name primarily in arthouse films such as “The Wrestler” and “Requiem for a Dream.”

However, comic book fans hailed the choice as inspired, arguing that the director could bring the weight and grit missing from Gavin Hood’s critically maligned “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.”

The latest installment is set in Japan and purportedly contained a samurai subplot. Christopher McQuarrie wrote the script.

Fox did not say when production would resume or if it would push back the film’s rumored 2012 release date. Given Aronfsky’s exit and the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, a spring start date seems impossible.

“Hugh Jackman and Fox both remain fully committed to making ‘The Wolverine’. We will regroup and move forward aggressively,” Fox said in a statement.

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Candids > 2011 > 14 March

Among many other celebrities including Mario Batali, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Claire Danes and Hugh Dancy, Hugh Jackman enjoyed his evening at BAM’s annual theater gala on Thursday, March 10th. After a dinner at the Howard Gilman Opera House, the stars headed two and a half blocks to the Harvey Theatre for further celebrations. There, they were treated to a celebration of Geoffrey Rush in “The Diary of a Madman.” For more information, check out these excerpts below:

Jackman’s “The Boy from Oz” director Philip William McKinley will take over reins of Broadway’s expensive, troubled “Spider-Man.”

“Size is not a problem for Bill. He will rise to the occasion,” Jackman predicted, adding that it is one show he has yet to see.

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There is an adage among actors: never work with children or animals — they inevitably steal the show. For theater publicists seeking to promote their productions, there should be an addendum: never seat a journalist next to Hugh Jackman.

At the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Spring Theater Gala in Fort Greene on Thursday night, there were many notable things: Guests as diverse as David Hyde Pierce and David M. Steiner, New York State’s education commissioner, were served on stage at the Howard Gilman Opera House, under a fanciful awning of paper and colored lights. But to the guests at Mr. Jackman’s end of a long banquet table — dowagers transformed into tweens at a Justin Bieber concert by his presence — the actor eclipsed the scene with the heat of a thousand suns.

Mr. Jackman withstood the nonstop and genuine-seeming fawning with grace. “I prayed for you,” said Mary Reilly, BAM’s director of artist services, of Mr. Jackman’s body-wrenching all-out performance in “The Boy From Oz,” for which he won a Tony Award in 2004. He may have needed it: “By the end, I had stress fractures in both of my feet,” he said.

“I spent all my time in buckets of ice.”

Mr. Jackman seemed to find the guileless awe refreshing. “It’s different than Hollywood,” he whispered, punctuating his point by scarfing down his asparagus appetizer and entree of sumac-roasted steak — with an un-L.A. chaser of Nocturnalist’s appetizer and plate of steak. (We weren’t hungry anyway.) “There’s a quail egg on it?” he asked, after having just forked one into his mouth, and moving on to inhale a second appetizer. “I hadn’t noticed.”

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