Ridley Scott's Robin Hood was famously delayed because the leaves in the forest doubling for Sherwood were not green enough. Now Wolverine 2 has been forced to postpone a shoot in Japan due to unforeseen circumstances: in this instance, the mercurial weather in the land of the rising sun.

Deadline reports that Wolverine 2 will most likely now shoot in the spring, possibly in Canada and possibly in a combination of the two locations. The film's storyline is set mainly in Japan and appears to echo the events of a 1982 Marvel comics miniseries drawn by Frank Miller in which the adamantine-clawed hero travels to the far east to rescue his lover, who is about to be married off to another man.

The weather delay is just the latest obstacle faced by the film. Original director Darren Aronofsky walked off the project in March, citing an unwillingness to be away from his family for more than a year during an overseas shoot. Walk the Line director James Mangold is the man charged with replacing him. Hugh Jackman will reprise his role as the X-Men hero for the fifth time. The Oscar-winning screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie has written the script.