Call this rumor territory, but there seems to be some sort of power-struggle between X-Men Origins: Wolverine director Gavin Hood (Tsotsi) and Fox CEO Tom Rothman that has boiled down to how a set is painted and how “dark” the film is.

We’ve heard mild rumblings of bickering on the set of Hugh Jackman’s latest foray into mutant-dom, but the surprise appearance by Jackman at SDCC and his gushing speech about the character seemed to silence a lot of gossip concerning Fox V. Hood.

Now, this pops up on Hollywood Elsewhere:

There was/is a huge Wolverine set being recently used. I’m not even sure which lot it was built on, but the look or mood of the set is, according to a source who was told Hood’s view of things, supposed to be on the dark, dinghy and somber side. I only know what I was told, but the basics are that Hood was away from the set for whatever reason (shooting something else, taking a day or two off), and when he returned to the big somber set he was shocked to find that it had been repainted top to bottom on Rothman’s orders. The murky-scuzzy vibe was gone, and a brighter and less downish look had taken its place.

Sounds like a studio power-grab, but there is not telling what sort of message this was supposed to send, be it: “Fox is holdin’ the reins here,” or “We’re not going to let you fuck this up like Ratner did.”

Either way, you know how we feel about studios taking power from the directors.