Los Angeles (AFP)

Pioneer of superhero films with his character of Wolverine in the "X-Men" saga, Hugh Jackman did not hesitate for long when he was asked to participate in "Reminiscence", a science-based anticipation film. fiction, old-fashioned thriller and love story.

The film from Warner Bros. studios (in theaters Friday in the United States, August 25 in France) comes straight from the imagination of the creators of the hit TV series "Westworld" and is set in an alternative Miami almost completely drowned by rising sea levels.

Apart from the richest, the inhabitants of the city are reduced to a precarious existence on islets undermined by crime or in flooded alleys.

No superpowers here, but technology that allows those with enough money to relive memories of a happier past in great detail.

"Hey, I can't really criticize the sagas, I've done nine films where I played Wolverine! But I think audiences want something fresh and new," Hugh Jackman told AFP.

In "Reminiscence", which has a little taste of "Minority Report", the Australian actor plays a scientist at the head of one of these clandestine memory laboratories, whose life is suddenly turned upside down by a mysterious client who asks him to help her remember where she left her keys.

The film is written and directed by Lisa Joy, who created with her husband Jonathan Nolan the series "Westworld".

"It was a challenge and we would not have succeeded without Hugh's support," she said.

“It was my first feature film as a director and I had an original idea that involved making Miami sink,” smiles Lisa Joy.

"I was really moved by the fact that Hugh joined us and said + I believe in her +".

Producer of "Reminiscence", Jonathan Nolan had already explored in 2000 the dark meanders of human memory by developing the story of the thriller "Memento", a film directed by his famous brother Christopher.

That same year, Jackman was filming his first "X-Men", a film known to have ushered in the great era of the Marvel superhero sagas that have rocketed the box office ever since.

"Reminiscence" was written and directed by Lisa Joy, who created with her husband Jonathan Nolan the series "Westworld" VALERIE MACON AFP

In total, the nine films in which the actor appeared as Wolverine generated more than $ 4 billion in revenue.

- Private detective and Greek myth -

In "Reminiscence," Hugh Jackman plays "a minded private investigator, sort of a cross between Wolverine and Humphrey Bogart," says Lisa Joy.

"He probably plays more fists than Bogart ever did," laughs Hugh Jackman, acknowledging, however, that there is "a hint" of Wolverine in his character as Nick Bannister.

A war hero suffering from post-traumatic stress, Bannister finds himself grappling in "Reminiscence" with a network of drug traffickers and landowners who jealously guard the few islets still dry.

Like the clawed mutant of the X-Men, "he looks tough and gruff. And like Wolverine, it's the result of suffering," says Jackman, 52.

"Often times, the harder the surface looks, the more it is broken inside."

The film openly plays with the long Hollywood tradition of the badass private investigator but also draws inspiration from the more subtle myth of Orpheus and Eurydice.

This "mix of genres" seduced the jack-of-all-trades Australian actor, awarded as much for his musical performances ("The Greatest Showman", "Les Misérables") as for his action films.

"Everything is new to me ... even when I was playing Wolverine, it felt new and stimulating to me," he says.

"But I think doing something like that, which sounds very original, is exciting."

© 2021 AFP