Hugh Jackman's Ready for Action

ByABC News
May 6, 2004, 6:15 PM

May 7 -- In his new movie, X-Men star Hugh Jackman is going from Wolverine to werewolves, and the 35-year-old Aussie star is hoping for another monster opening.

As the steel-clawed mutant Wolverine, Jackman scored his biggest box-office success. The two X-Men features reeled in nearly $475 million.

Now, in his new movie, Van Helsing, opening today, he heads to Dracula's lair, where he'll battle supernatural villains. The monster-hunter role raises the obvious question: Could his new character take on his old one?

"I may lose my job, but probably Wolverine" would win, says Jackman. "I think the old healing factor probably gives him a little bit of an edge."

Writer-director Stephen Sommers, who scored a major hit by reviving The Mummy with Brendan Fraser, gives Van Helsing a similar treatment, tying together the legends of Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolf Man, and several other creature.

Jackman plays a monster-hunting vigilante who battles ghouls in the name of God, and must stop Dracula from spawning thousands of vampire children with the involuntary help of Frankenstein's monster.

Sommers tips his cap to horror film legends Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff with a black-and-white opening wherein a monster-hunting, torch-wielding mob storms Frankenstein's castle.

Another would-be vampire slayer, Kate Beckinsale, plays the last survivor of a family sworn to stop Dracula or be damned forever.

Jackman says he's getting used to adventure movies, and he's also getting used to seeing images of himself in video games.

"I thought it looks a little like Clint Eastwood, actually", he says. "I thought he kind of looked cool."