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After a negotiation that saw director Matthew Vaughn go from hired, to declined, and finally back to hired again, Fox wasted no time in confirming Vaughn will in fact direct their upcoming X-Men: First Class prequel. The talks came after Bryan Singer had been brought back to the franchise to direct the movie, but was forced to drop out as director and stay on only as a producer.
read more about the director drama and the movie's tight timeframe >> Posted 05.05.10 by Ryan -
First he was in , then he was out, and now it looks like Kick-Ass director Matthew Vaughn may yet get a chance to direct Fox's X-Men prequel, X-Men: First Class.
Deadline reports that negotiations with Vaughn did break down over the project last Thursday, but after interviewing Clash of the Titans director Louis Leterrier and few others for the job, talks resumed with Vaughn this morning. Vaughn was initially offered X-Men: The Last Stand, but turned it down. Leterrier apparently made a good impression, but Fox wasn't letting Vaughn get away this time.
Vaughn is getting the job vacated by Bryan Singer, who was initally hired as the director but ended up as a producer instead Warner Brothers locked Singer into directing Jack the Giant Killer. Jamie Moss wrote the script, based on a treatment from Singer.
The report claims that Fox will look to start production on First Class in the late summer or early fall.
Posted 05.03.10 by Ryan -
It appears that comic book movie fans are not going to get a chance to see Kick-Ass director Matthew Vaughn's take on the young X-Men after all. Vaughn, who was initially signed on to direct X-Men: The Last Stand but dropped out at the last minute, was recently reported to be in talks to direct Fox's X-Men prequel, X-Men: First Class. Now, however, Deadline, citing "sources close to the director," has reported that Vaughn's discussions with Fox have broken down and he "won't be directing the movie."
with Vaughn out, who's in the running? >> Posted 05.02.10 by BrentJS -
Originally, Kick-Ass director Matthew Vaughn was signed on to direct The Last Stand, but hedropped out at the last minute, opening the door for Brett Ratner (who is unpopular with fans) to step in and take the helm. After seeing how Vaughn managed to put a new spin on superheroes with Kick-Ass, many wonder how Vaughn might have been able to contribute to the X-Men franchise. If a recent scoop turns out to be true, we may yet have the opportunity to find out the answer to that "what if?" scenario.
read more about the talks with Vaughn >> Posted 05.01.10 by BrentJS -
When Kick-Ass opens Friday, it will mark director Matthew Vaughn's comic book movie debut. While Vaughn was originally set to direct Thor and X-Men: The Last Stand, he ultimately departed both projects. At the Kick-Ass premiere in Los Angeles, Vaughn told MTV that Kick-Ass benefitted from those experiences.
How did Kick-Ass benefit? >> Posted 04.15.10 by Ryan -
Fox may be looking for a new director for X-Men: First Class now that Bryan Singer is now just producing the movie after his commitment to direct Jack the Giant Killer prohibited him from directing the project.
However, Fox remains undaunted, putting yet another X-Men project in the works. Kick-Ass writer Mark Millar told fans on his Millarworld forum that he was asked to write X-Men 4 for Fox, but turned them down.
Learn why Millar said no >> Posted 03.30.10 by Ryan -
Director Bryan Singer was practically a hero himself to comic book fans following the debut of the X-Men movie, a fairly faithful — except for the costumes — adaptation of one of the most beloved and perennially best-selling Marvel Comics titles. His follow-up, X2: X-Men United, was even better received by the critical comic book audience, and an even bigger hit at the box office, ensuring a sequel. However, rather than continue to guide "Marvel's Merry Mutants," Singer decided to jump ship and helm the reboot of the Superman franchise, Superman Returns.
While Singer's absence from the X-Men didn't seem to hurt its sales — the Brett Ratner-directed X-Men: The Last Stand made more than X2 at both the domestic and international box offices — his homage to Richard Donner's Superman was a flop, costing $270 million to produce and taking in only $200 million at the domestic box office. The movie also damaged his credibility in the comic book community for his portrayal of Superman as a "Super-stalker," and for abandoning comic book continuity by giving Lois Lane Superman's love-child.
Whether because his last movie, the Tom Cruise-led WWII thriller Valkyrie, was also a disappointment at the box office, because he wasn't invited back for the next Superman movie, or because he hopes to repair his damaged reputation among comic book fans, Singer has once again found his way back to the X-Men. Singer may eventually direct X-Men 4, but for now he is taking the helm of X-Men: First Class, a prequel to X-Men that focuses on the formative years of the characters. In a recent interview with the L.A. Times, Singer said that First Class will not just focus on the young mutants, but be very much about the yin-yang relationship of the patriarchs of the two camps of mutants.
Just doing younger mutants is not enough. The story needs to be more than that. I love the relationship between Magneto and Xavier, these two men who have diametrically opposite points of view but still manage to be friends — to a point. They are the ultimate frenemies.
Singer makes no apologies for Superman Returns, but said that he feels more at home in the X-Men "universe," both personally and artistically.
I genuinely like the people, and my personality meshes more with this universe than it does with other universes, I think; I see that now at this point. I feel a connection to the X-Men characters and also the ensemble nature of the films. If you look at Usual Suspects or my last film, Valkyrie, I feel especially comfortable with ensemble juggling. In the space between all the characters you can disguise a central thought that's hidden in all the discourse. I missed that with the singular relationship story of Superman. And, well, it always gives you something to cut to...
While many in Hollywood discount the impact of comic book fans, Singer feels quite the contrary.
Ultimately, the comic book fans are your first core audience, the ones that are going to embrace it and talk about it … or reject it.
Read the entire interview with Bryan Singer and also hear from producer Lauren Shuler Donner.
Posted 03.21.10 by BrentJS -
Shawn Ashmore played the superhero Iceman in the original X-Men trilogy, and is "contracted" for another but is still waiting to make another appearance. Ashmore has previously stated that he doesn't think X-Men 4 will ever get made, and likely won't appear in the upcoming X-Men: First Class. That didn't stop Ashmore from telling Movieline how happy he was to see director Bryan Singer return to the X-Men franchise to work on First Class.
I'm so excited. There was a weird transition between X-Men 2 and X-Men 3 because Bryan left and Brett Ratner came on. Ultimately it turned out to be a great thing, but it was kind of bizarre because Bryan had cast everyone and we'd all done two movies with him. It was bittersweet — it was nice to see Bryan go on and make Superman [Returns], and it was nice to have new blood and a new perspective from Brett coming in to work on thefilm. Bryan is clearly very, very passionate about the X-Men films and the characters, so you know he's going to a good job with whatever the story's going to be.
In the comic books, the character of Iceman is a member of the First Class team, alongside Cyclops, Jean Gray, Beast, and Angel. However, the time line of the X-Men movies put a teenage Iceman alongside adult versions of the original team. Ashmore remains undaunted that he can eventually return for another X-Men one day.
It'd be awesome to do another X-Men film, and it's too badthat there probably won't be a role for me [in First Class, but who knows? The universe is huge and they keep making those films. You never know — hopefully, I'll get the chance to play Iceman one more time.
Posted 01.16.10 by Ryan -
For someone about to turn 87 (Dec. 28), Stan Lee sure gets around. Not that this is news to anyone who’s been to a Comic-Con in the past decade or watches talk shows with any degree of regularity. From what we can gather, the only thing Lee loves more than adding exclamation points to his comics is appearing on-screen.
While his appearances used to be limited to what he could talk himself into, Lee's been seemingly everywhere this decade — ever since the explosion of Marvel properties being adapted into movies. Well, everywhere for about 15 seconds a movie.
With all the talk surrounding his upcoming cameo in Iron Man 2 (and an almost-for-certain appearance in Spider-Man 4), we decided to take a look back at his best appearances so far. Check out Our 10 Favorite Stan Lee Cameos.
Posted 12.03.09 by reelz -
Brett Ratner is tired of defending his directorial work in X-Men: The Last Stand, but fans continue to wonder what might have been if Bryan Singer had finished his X-Men trilogy, instead of defecting to Superman Returns. Michael Dougherty, the screenwriter for X2: X-Men United who joined Singer's defection, explained his ideas for X3 to Slashfilm in a recent podcast (transcribed by TheGeekFiles).
You found out was that Phoenix [(Famke Janssen)] was going round the world taking things into her own hands and that she had basically returned as a god, which they did in X3. She had viewed herself as above the conflict, that she was here to end things on her terms, she was sick of the fighting andshe was going to take things into her own hands and she did not give a s**t what the X-Men or the Brotherhood had to say about it.
And ultimately the way it was going to end, at least the version I was pushing for ... she kind of becomes that cosmic force that Phoenix is known to be, she leaves Earth and becomes a god, or at least a higher level of intelligence, and she goes into the cosmos possibly to kick-start life somewhere else. The final scene for me would have been her telling Cyclops [(James Marsden)] or her telling the X-Men "I'll be watching."
Dougherty also planned a different outcome for Rogue (Anna Paquin).
The whole point of Rogue's character is that she is supposed to come to terms with who she is and also I don't think it's good to tell girls "Yeah you should change yourselves so you can get a guy."
Instead The Last Stand saw Rogue lose her powers, Cyclops die, and Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) kill Phoenix, all to the disappointment of the fans.
You can check out the entire podcast here.
Posted 11.10.09 by Ryan