‘Wolverine’ promo is ‘too big for one night,’ says Fox

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So, here’s a new twist on movie promotions.

20th Century Fox has produced a three-part trailer to promote its big-budget summer release ‘X-Men Orgins: Wolverine’ that will run as separate 60-second spots beginning Sunday on the studio’s TV shows ‘Family Guy,’ ‘House’ and ‘American Idol.’

Immediately after Tuesday’s broadcast of the final ‘Wolverine’ spot on ‘Idol,’ all three trailers — which together form a narrative — will appear on Yahoo.

The fourth ‘X-Men’ movie, which debuts in theaters May 1, is one of this summer’s most highly anticipated releases. The spinoff of the three earlier films, which have generated a total of $1.2 billion in worldwide ticket sales, traces the origins and transformation of the the mutant played by the humanly handsome Hugh Jackman into Wolverine. The studio is billing it as the first chapter in the X-Man saga that unites Wolverine with other legends in the X-Men character ‘universe.’

Fox says the fourth installment of the Marvel Comics movie cost about $100 million. That would be considerably less than the cost of the 2006 sequel ‘X-Men: The Last Stand,’ which reportedly carried a price tag of more than $200 million. Why cheaper? For one, Jackman is the only major star in this ‘prequel.’ And Halle Berry, who appeared in the first three films, doesn’t have a role. Nor was ‘Wolverine’ directed by Brett Ratner, who made the last film, but rather Gavin Hood, who won the 2006 best foreign film Oscar for the low-budget crime drama ‘Tsotsi’ and has never handled a big franchise picture.

— Claudia Eller

Photos from ‘Wolverine’ courtesy of Fox