Darren Aronofsky won’t be directing the upcoming Wolverine movie sequel The Wolverine because the movie would keep him out of the country too long, away from his family.  In a released statement Aronofsky said:

As I talked more about the film with my collaborators at Fox, who have been totally supportive throughout my work on the movie, it became clear that the production of The Wolverine would keep me out of the country for almost a year.

I was not comfortable being away from my family for that length of time. I am sad that I won’t be able to see the project through, as it is a terrific script and I was very much looking forward to working with my friend, Hugh Jackman, again.

In their joint statement with the director, 20th Century Fox continued:

While we are of course disappointed that Darren can’t do The Wolverine, we also understand and respect his reasons.  Having done both The Wrestler and Black Swan with Darren, we know he is an extraordinary talent and we look forward to working with him on other projects in the future. Hugh Jackman and Fox both remain fully committed to making The Wolverine.  We will regroup and move forward aggressively.

As a fan, I’m really disappointed as Aronofsky’s The Wrestler and Black Swan are two of my favorite recent movies and I wanted to see what he’d do with a “comic book” movie.  There is no release date for the film and it’s currently being written by Christopher McQuarrie.