(CNN) -- When Hugh Jackman first called his director for "The Wolverine," James Mangold told him that he had had an inspiration after reading the script. Mangold wanted to make the set-in-Japan film similar to "The Outlaw Josey Wales" by making the mutant a Josey Wales with healing powers. Jackman hadn't seen the classic Clint Eastwood film, so Mangold sent him a copy. 

"I felt like tonally, it would give him a clue of what I was talking about," the director said. 

The director started thinking about the deep affinity between gun-slinging Westerns and swordfighting samurai films. Mangold thought that drawing upon both of them would help "The Wolverine" stand apart from the rest of the X-Men series. 

This installment takes place after "X-Men: The Last Stand," as Wolverine retreats from killing the love of his life, Jean Grey/Dark Phoenix, and heads to Japan. It is based on the comic by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller, and Mangold thought of it as Hugh Jackman in a Western in Japan, without the horse. To make sense of this movie mashup, the director tweeted images from the top ten inspirations for "The Wolverine," daring fans to identify them. 

Astute fans of Mangold's body of work (which includes "Cop Land," "Walk the Line" and "3:10 to Yuma") might have spotted the 1959 Yasujiro Ozu film "Floating Weeds," since the director has cited it as one of the best films of all time as well as a major influence on his first film, "Heavy." 

"Ozu is the most underappreciated Japanese director, in my mind," Mangold said. "For me, the whole trip that Logan takes south to the Nagasaki area, it's almost the reverse train trip that the older couple take in 'Tokyo Story.' " 
When does the installment take place?
This installment takes place after "X-Men: The Last Stand,"