The latest movie in the X-Men series, X-Men Origins: Wolverine starts in Hong Kong tomorrow.  I dunno how many of you know it but this latest X-Men movie was directed by South Africa’s own Gavin Hood. 

You will remember him as the director of the TV drama about rugby called ‘The Game’ and more recently of the award-winning movie Tsotsi.

In an interview with filmjournal.com, Hood had the following to say:

Hood was as surprised as anyone when Jackman contacted him. “I got a call from my agent-I remember it as if it were yesterday-saying, ‘Hi, Gavin, Hugh Jackman would like to meet with you about the possibility of your directing Wolverine.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, right, what are you really calling about?’” he says, chuckling. But Jackman had seen and liked Tsotsi, “So I went along to the meeting, not knowing a great deal about the Wolverine comics. I grew up in South Africa and was exposed to the wonderful Asterix and Obelix [René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo's long-running, French cartoon-adventure strip "The Adventures of Asterix," starring the titular ancient Gaul and his right-hand warrior], but I hadn’t actually seen anything to do with Wolverine. I knew the [X-Men] movies,” he amends, “but I’d watched them as a casual moviegoer, not as an avid fan.”

In the spirit yesterday’s Freedom Day in South Africa, we salute Mr. Gavin Hood.

I have a ticket for Friday.

Happy “Wackers Day” !