Gavin Hood has been chosen by Twentieth Century Fox to direct Hugh Jackman in “Wolverine,” the “X-Men” spin-off.

Gavin Hood won the foreign language Academy Award in 2005 for directing “Tsotsi.” The South African director has also recently finished directing “Rendition,” starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Reese Witherspoon Meryl Streep and Peter Sarsgaard, according to Variety.

“Wolverine” will begin production in November and is slated for a 2008 release. Producers are Lauren Shuler-Donner, Hugh Jackman himself and his production company Seed Productions partner John Palermo.

The screenplay is penned by David Benioff (“Stay,” “Troy,” “25th Hour”). Marvel Studios is executive producing the feature.

“Wolverine” will focus on the origins of the self-healing mutant and how Logan metamorphosed from a gruesome lab experiment to a member of the X-Men heroes. Wolverine sports those fascinating razor-sharp retractable claws and can recover from any wound.

Australian actor Hugh Jackman portrayed the wolfish mutant in the 2000 film “X-Men” and its two sequels, 2003’s “X2: X-Men United” and 2006’s “X-Men: The Last Stand.” All three movies were impressively successful at the box office worldwide.

The “X-Men” films grossed over $1 billion worldwide.

Jackman said of the forthcoming project: “I have long been a fan of Gavin's work and know he will make a masterful film with the character intensity and action beats the fans expect.”

Jackman has been keeping busy. Last year, he lent his voice to animated character in “Happy Feet” and “Flushed Away” and received positive review for his roles in “The Prestige” and “The Fountain.”