Variety is reporting that 20th Century Fox has staked a claim on May 1st, 2009 by announcing that date for the premiere of X-Men Origins: Wolverine.  As expected Hugh Jackman will reprise his role as Wolverine in the first film to spin off from the popular X-Men movie series (a Magneto movie is also in development).  Director Gavin Hood will begin shooting the new X-Men Origins: Wolverine film later this year in Australia.  The production will then move to New Zealand and New Orleans for additional shooting. 

Fox's choice of the May 1st weekend demonstrates the studio's faith in the potential of its film about the X-Men's most popular character. The first weekend in May is certainly highly coveted movie release territory. X-2 debuted during the first week of May in 2003 and earned a then-record $86 million, while Spider-Man 3 brought in $151 million during its early May opening this year.  So far it appears that X-Men Origins: Wolverine faces little in the way of direct competition during its opening weekend with only the Disney animated feature G Force scheduled to open during the frame that now defines the start of Hollywood's increasingly front-loaded summer movie seasons.

Variety is also reporting that actor Liev Schreiber is in final talks to play a younger version of William Stryker, an X-Men nemesis, who was played by Brian Cox in X2.  Stryker first appeared in a Chris Claremont's 1982 saga, God Loves: Man Kills as a Christian fundamentalist televangelist on a mission from god to destroy all mutants, but reappeared in the 2003 X2 film as a crazed army colonel without the religious trappings, but with the same 'terminate with extreme prejudice' attitude towards all mutants.