Black Eyed Peas singer will.i.am will make his feature acting debut in "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," the "X-Men" spinoff starring Hugh Jackman.

Danny Huston, Taylor Kitsch and Lynn Collins also have joined the Fox project, and Ryan Reynolds is making a cameo. Gavin Hood ("Tsotsi") is directing.

"Wolverine," set 17 years before the "X-Men" movies, traces the origins of the popular mutant superhero. will.i.am, whose real name is William Adams, will play Wraith, a mutant with the power to turn himself translucent.

Huston, who most recently appeared in "30 Days of Night," is playing Stryker, the military general who subjected Wolverine to the experiment that laced his bones with an unbreakable metal called adamantium. Brian Cox played the character in "X2: X-Men United."

Kitsch, one of the stars of NBC's "Friday Night Lights," is playing Gambit, a Cajun thief whose powers include the manipulation of kinetic energy, which allows him to use card-throwing to deadly effect.

Collins ("The Number 23") will play Kayla Silverfox, Wolverine's lover and a member of Team X, a superpowered covert ops team. Reynolds, onscreen in "Definitely, Maybe," will appear as Deadpool, a wisecracking mercenary.

Liev Schreiber already has been cast as Victor Creed, a mutant with bestial superpowers who also is known as Sabretooth.

Production began this month in New Zealand before moving to Australia. A New Orleans shoot also is on the docket. Fox is releasing the film everywhere May 1, 2009.

(by Borys Kit, The Hollywood Reporter)