It’s a difficult time to be an X-Men fan right now. I’m to starting think all our frustration over the franchise may only be making things worse rather than better. Some of the more nerdy media voices are only making fan outrage look like total buffoonery, and that’s a good way to get our common sense ignored.

Last night on the horrible horrible horrible G4/TechTV program “Attack of the Show” (which replaced several really great geek programs and resulted in the firing of all TechTV's best staff) Film Threat’s Chris Gore engaged in a staged on screen rant about the hiring of Brett Ratner complete with re-enactment of Ratner’s comments on MTV. It was pretty damn embarrassing. I mean it’s bad enough as an X-Men fan to sit here and watch Fox flush X-Men down the toilet, do we also need to be represented by someone who makes us all look like idiots? Gore’s a smart guy, but that little bit he did just didn’t work. It’s probably the fault of the folks at “Attack of the Show” who don’t know the Millenium Falcon from an asshole. Heck, they hired a 21 year old jerk who’s never seen Star Wars to host a show for GEEKS. How’s that for intelligence?

Where was I? Oh yeah, it’s an all around bad time to be an X-Men fan. Right now, our best hope seems to be that this X3 movie will get over and done with, without crushing plans for a Wolverine solo movie. At least there’s still hope for that one.

In fact, the Wolverine spin-off movie seems to be finally gaining some momentum. Variety reported today that Hugh Jackman’s new producing platform Seed Productions is pushing the film and has inked a First Look deal with Fox. The plan is for a script by David Benioff to be used in making a Hugh Jackman toplined Wolverine movie right after X3 wraps (or implodes, I’m rooting for that). Benioff is the guy responsible for the screenplay used on Troy, but he’s also responsible for both the novel and script behind the brilliant Spike Lee movie The 25th Hour. He’s capable of great work.

This marks Jackman’s first stint as a producer, and he’ll be backed up by his partner John Palermo along with Lauren Shuler Donner and Marvel’s Avi Arad. With X3 being forcefully rushed into a 2006 release date, it’s a good bet you’ll see Wolverine in theaters for 2007.