Paul Benjamin talks writing X-Men Origins Wolverine for Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 2
X-Men Origins: Wolverine for the Nintendo Wii
Writer Paul Benjamin, a Putnam City North graduate who now lives in Austin, Texas, is a writer of comic books and video games. He was able to merge knowledge from both worlds recently, as the writer of the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo Wii version of “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.” Benjamin recently talked to The 
Oklahoman about the experience. Look for more from Benjamin in Friday’s Weekend LOOK section of The Oklahoman.
Matt Price: What kind of research did you have to do to write the game?
Paul Benjamin: Yeah, this is the worst part of my job. I had to read A LOT of comics. When people hear that I write comics and video games, they generally assume that I just sit around reading comics and playing video games all day. Mostly that’s not true, but when starting a new project I do have to do some initial research. I am, of course, very familiar with Wolverine, but before I got started on the game I had to make sure I really had his voice down. I read some of Marc Guggenheim’s Wolverine comics because all of the Wii/PS2 in-game movies (aka Cinematics) came from the version of the game that Marc had written. I also spent time with classic Wolverine comics, like the first Wolverine mini-series, his early X-Men appearances and Origin, the tale of Wolverine as a boy that is the basis of the beginning of the film. I also got to read a synopsis of 
the movie, though there wasn’t enough time for me to fly out to Los Angeles to read the actual script. It’s not unusual for film scripts to be held so tightly under wraps that you have to go to the studio to read it to prevent leaks.
MP: What types of changes have to be made when creating the Wii/PS2 version of a game?
PB: This can vary greatly depending on the project. In this case, the Wii/PS2 version was being developed by a different studio from the Xbox 360/PS3/PC version. Though both versions shared cinematics and followed similar storylines, many other elements of the game were taken in different directions. For example, because the Wii tends to be owned by more casual gamers and has a large family following, the Wii version is much more family-friendly. Where the Uncaged Edition on the other consoles embraces the extreme violence of the Wolverine character, the Wii/PS2 version adopts a feel that is more in line with Wolverine from the three X-Men movies. There’s still plenty of fighting, but there’s almost no actual bloodshed portrayed in the combat.
Also, the Wii team took the unique motion sensitive Wii controls into account when making the game. You 
use the Wii controller in a very kinetic fashion to throw doors open, for example, and to lunge across the room at an opponent in a way that is unique to the Wii. Because this version was developed separately with these considerations in mind, many of the story details end up being different as well. The game has to be fun first and foremost, so the story was tweaked and revised to fit the gameplay involved. Overall things are the same, but one console’s version may have more levels set in one location than on another console, creating differences in where the story goes and how much we see of one character or another.
MP: What’s a typical day of writing for a video game project entail?
PB: Writing video games is a very different exercise from writing for other mediums. For example, when I 
write a comic book or graphic novel, I’m creating a narrative that goes from beginning to end. When writing a video game based on a movie (and on another video game), much of the story is predetermined. In addition, the gameplay drives the story to a great extent. Some days I spent all my time writing contextual action sequences. Those are situations where a series of events happens and you press certain buttons to change the course of the action. For example, Sabretooth might be trying to throw Wolverine off a truck and a series of button presses will either allow Wolverine to toss Sabretooth overboard or result in Logan going under the wheels. It’s my job to write dialogue for both scenarios. Ideally, voice over is recorded for several different versions of the scenario in case the designers end up using the same set up more than once.
On other days, I spent all my time just writing lines of dialogue for various characters. For example, I might write ten different lines that a specific group of bad guys will say when they engage Wolverine, ten 
more for when Wolverine hits them, etc. This is a real challenge because you’re writing these lines in a vacuum. You never know how they will be applied. Those enemies could end up cut from the game entirely or they could end up being used far more than originally expected because they are fun to fight. You have to try to cover all bases. Ultimately, the fun of writing for games is seeing how the gameplay designers apply your words to the game. The coolest part of writing for this game was hearing Hugh Jackman and Liev Schreiber delivering my dialogue as Wolverine versus Sabretooth. That’s something you can’t get from writing comics!
Comics vodcast: Amazing Spider-Man 593, Flash Rebirth 2, Final Crisis Aftermath Run 1 and New Mutants 1
The New Mutants team up again, and Spider-Man works around the clock in this week’s comics. Kyle Roberts and Matt Price discuss those highlights, plus two comics about running: Final Crisis Aftermath Run and Flash Rebirth 2.
Entertainment Insider: Wolverine’s big weekend
Gene Triplett, George Lang, Matt Price and Brandy McDonnell discuss the $87 million opening weekend for “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.”
DVD review: Wolverine and the X-Men: Heroes Return Trilogy
The X-Men have returned to television screens with “Wolverine and the X-Men,” the first three episodes of which are presented on DVD with the “Heroes Return Trilogy.”
In “Wolverine and the X-Men,” a catastrophe has struck the X-Men, destroying Professor Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. The X-Men have disbanded, and mutants face persecution and imprisonment.
Wolverine (voiced by Steve Blum) begins to track down his former teammates, including Beast, Cyclops, and Rogue.
While Wolverine hasn’t taken a leadership role often in “X-Men,” circumstances dictate that he’s the only choice to lead this team. Supervising producer Craig Kyle points out in the commentary that the show’s creators intentionally switched the typical roles of Cyclops and Wolverine, that of leader and loner.
Some fans have complained that, at only 68 minutes, the DVD doesn’t provide enough value for its $14.98 retail price. While a full-season release would be preferable, there are multiple commentaries on each episode, and it allowed Lionsgate to have a “Wolverine” property available as the “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” theatrical film is released.
- Matthew Price
Wolverine fan delves into past to find voice
THE NEXT LEVEL
Voice actor Steve Blum heard Wolverine’s voice in his head from a young age, when he sat in his grandfather’s book store sorting comic book collections purchased by his uncle.
Today, he voices the character in “Wolverine and the X-Men,” the first three episodes of which have just been released on DVD. Blum first voiced the character of Wolverine in 2004 in the “X-Men Legends” video game. He’s since returned to Wolverine in additional video games, and in the “Hulk Vs. Wolverine” DVD film from earlier this year.
“Initially my take on Wolverine was based on what I had been hearing in my head since I was a comic-book kid,” Blum said in a recent phone interview with The Oklahoman. “I didn’t really base it on anything but that. I really tried to divorce myself from all of the other animated incarnations. And though I love Hugh Jackman’s on-camera version of Wolverine, I have a different voice in my head for sort of a comic book/animated representation of him.”
In “Wolverine and the X-Men,” the X-Men have been disbanded after an attack on Professor Xavier. Wolverine, known as a loner, must regroup the team under his leadership. The character of Wolverine is as high-profile as ever, with appearances in comics, the animated series, and a big-budget movie, “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” starring Jackman. Wolverine wasn’t necessarily the most likely multimedia star, first appearing as an antagonist to the Hulk in “Incredible Hulk” No. 181. Blum’s path to voice acting was also somewhat circumspect.
Blum broke in as a voice actor almost by accident, while working as a driver for a low-budget sci-fi film company.
“In the mailroom, we had a lot of time to just banter around and tell awful jokes,” Blum said. “I just happened to mess around with voices.”
A friend who was casting an anime production for a new company heard Blum’s voices, and asked if he’d be interested to come in and create some monster voices.
“He’d pay me $7 a line for doing it and feed me breakfast and lunch, and I thought that was the best deal I ever heard of,” Blum said.
Blum said the timing of voice-over for anime came to him very naturally.
“I was able to fall in step with the sounds that they needed for their creatures, and eventually that evolved into actual acting and creating voices for human-like characters,” he said. “I kind of learned on the job, I really had no acting training. Just doing it for 15 years in anime was really my schooling.”
Blum said working on “Wolverine and the X-Men” is an incredible ride, as more and more characters from the X-Men’s world are brought to life.
“It’s really the realization of a fanboy’s dream, it’s amazing for me,” Blum said. “In the studio, when we were recording the series, for me to sit and listen to the other characters come to life around me was just as exciting as doing the voice itself.”
By Matthew Price
From Friday’s The Oklahoman
Comics vodcast: X-Men Origins: Wolverine the movie and the comic book; Battle for the Cowl the Underground; Legion of Three Worlds 4
Matt Price and Kyle Roberts review X-Men Origins: Wolverine and talk about a few of the best comics that came out this week, including the one-shot with the same title, X-Men Origins: Wolverine; Batman Battle for the Cowl: The Underground, and Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds #4.
Wolverine trivia at midnight screening
Kyle Roberts heads down to Warren Theatre in Moore for the midnight showing of Wolverine to see how much trivia X-fans know.
Matt’s review: X-Men Origins: Wolverine
The beginnings of Wolverine are explored in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” a tight, just-under-two-hours action thriller.
It takes pieces from the graphic novels “Wolverine Origin” and “Weapon X,” but the heart of the film is the Wolverine-Sabretooth relationship.
Hugh Jackman returns as Wolverine, who starts the film as a sickly young boy named James Howlett. A family dispute leaves him fatherless and homeless, and his only companion is another youngster, the violent and dangerous Victor Creed. James’ life through the ages as a hard-bitten fighter and warrior, with Victor Creed (Liev Schreiber), aka Sabretooth at his side, is shown as the film opens. Eventually, Victor’s sadistic and violent proclivities get the pair in trouble. However, their unusual talents are of special interest to Col. William Stryker (Danny Huston), who recruits them for a special mutant task force.
This black ops task force doesn’t always have the best interests of the innocent in mind, and James eventually tires of the killing, leaving Victor alone for perhaps the first time ever. James retires to Canada, where he’s known as Logan and works as a lumberjack. He’s seemingly at peace for the first time. But his past can’t leave him alone. It haunts his dreams — and eventually it returns in his waking life, as well.
When it appears someone is hunting down his old task force comrades, Logan agrees to have a possibly fatal procedure performed, melding the unbreakable metal adamantium to his bones and claws. But, he discovers, not all is as it seems, and his enemies may not be who he thought they were.
The final quarter of the film, where Wolverine seeks to put and end to an mutant experimentation project, drags a little and doesn’t entirely make sense. But until then, “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” is a sleek superhero action film. The cool Cajun mutant Gambit (Taylor Kitsch) seems a likely spinoff star, as does Ryan Reynolds’ Wade Wilson, a member of the black ops squad.
- Matt Price
Wolverine nears 300 sellouts
“X-Men Origins: Wolverine” has sold out close to 300 performances, according to MovieTickets.com.
That sounds pretty good, but “Wolverine” is trailing “Transformers” by 2-to-1 at the same point in the sales cycle. “Transformers” is MovieTickets.com’s No. 25 pre-seller of all-time.
“Wolverine” accounts for 73 percent of tickets sold at the site Thursday as of 12 p.m. ET.
- Matt Price
“Wolverine” continues strong advance sales
As of 11 a.m. Central time today, MovieTickets.com reports the following ticket info for “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.” Ticket sales doubled from Saturday, April 25, to Sunday, April 26. Ticket sales then doubled again from Sunday, April 26, to Monday, April 27.
- Matt Price
