In a move that may tilt the axis of fanboys worldwide, Kick-Ass director Matthew Vaughn is in talks to direct X-Men: First Class for Twentieth Century Fox. Why is this so bizarre? Because Vaughn is the very director who turned down directing X-Men: The Last Stand back in 2005 after he had already negotiated his deal with the studio. (Fox later hired Brett Ratner to helm the most successful of all X-Men films.) Vaughn went on to direct the disappointing Stardust for Paramount and, just two weeks ago, released the well-reviewed R-rated Kick-Ass.
Of course, considering Vaughn’s history with the X-Men franchise, he could very well turn down the First Class offer, as well (sources say the studio is also speaking with other possible directors). Should a deal come together, however, Vaughn would be helming an origin story of the X-Men crew, one that tells the story of Cyclops, Jean Grey, and the other X-Men in their younger years, played by younger actors. (No word yet on whether Hugh Jackman would reprise his role as Wolverine since his character doesn’t age as the others do.) The script comes from Jamie Moss based on Bryan Singer’s treatment. Though the studio had wanted Singer to direct once again, the director is only signed on to produce, since he’s preoccupied with directing Jack the Giant Killer for Warner Bros.
Makes sense. He was supposed to do X-Men 3, but I think he walked when Fox wouldn’t let him shoot most of it in the UK. As a result, the third film was Ratner’d. *sigh*
And thank goodness too, that x-men flick was the worst of the 3, he probably wouldn’t have gotten to do kick-ass if he did it (kick-ass was awesome btw).
I reckon Bryan Singer is over-rated. True X-Men was ok. But after watching it like 10 times already it is getting boring.
X2 was bad and terrible. I watched it once in a movie theater and slept halfway.
Singer has no respect for comic lore, unlike Favreau’s Iron-Man or Raimi’s Spider-Man.
X3 was enjoyable but too many characters and lost the subtext of the X-characters.
I hope X-Men First Class goes back to its roots of a mutant drama but with action flair.
Raimi’s Spiderman does NOT show respect for the comic lore (I don’t remember Peter Parker dancing around BY acting all emo.
Can someone explain how X3 was Ratner’s fault. I mean if people had a problem with the story shouldn’t the writers be blamed and not the director?
For one, Ratner has said he asked the writers to only put in scenes that were in the comics, meaning most of his input was on autopilot from the get-go.
Two, he’s said that, while Singer directs with his mind, Ratner directs with his eye, so the performances he was looking for didn’t have the subtext or depth the first two X-films did.
Three, the director gets the final say on what stays and what goes. So while the writers are to be blamed, Ratner’s the captain of the ship and he goes down with it.
justin, if singer is such a “great” talent, please explain his butchering of the superman remake(it was dreadful)! k kthx
sorry justin i meant my comment for brian not you!
I agree–Singer didn’t get Superman at all. Superman’s not supposed to be dark like the X-men are (he can exist in a dark world, but he himself isn’t supposed to be, nor should he be a stalker), and handcuffing themselves to the Reeve movies (which are hugely overrated and outdated) was a terrible idea.
But Singer got the idea, subtext, and tone of the X-men correct, and X1-2 are two of the best comic book movies ever (even if Cyclops did get shafted completely and Storm was miscast).
Singer’s not perfect–I only like 3 of his movies (X1-2 and Usual Suspects), but he respected and understood the X-men source material much more than Ratner ever did.
Why was storm miscast. Now don’t get me wrong casting someone who then turned around & played another character from a different franchise I understand your trepidation but to say the role was miscast completely unfounded argument in my opinion. What do you have as your reason?
Please don’t make me start on Ratner. Really please. Brian pretty much covered it. Ratner is like the lazy guy who does absolutely no homework, turns out a crappy paper and still expects an A for finishing it. In addition to generally lording it over writers, he then picks their material to death but has no idea what he actually wants to do. He doesn’t have any idea what a sense of coherent story telling is, he doesn’t understand what an actual performance is and he uses special effects like a child uses LEGOs. He’s a lazy, self-involved filmmaker whose sole care in life is what person he can date next and who likely would have been kicked out of NYU Film School had he not been able to hoodwink some very powerful Hollywood directors into thinking he had talent. He doesn’t.
I don’t get the X3 hate, X1 and X2 were a lot better, but X3 is still good comic book movie. Imo X3 was better than Wolferine, Elektra, Daredevil, Catwoman, Fantastic 4 (both parts), Punisher etc.
Yes it was visuals over content, but it was still enjoyable flick.
Storm was miscast because Hallie Berry didn’t have the chops to pull off anything resembling Storm. This is a woman who used to be worshiped as a goddess, was a street thief, and is a motherly figure to the team, and Hallie conveyed none of that. This is partially the writers (and Singer’s) fault, because Storm just ended up bland and “Jean-lite.”
Can’t speak for anyone else, but I hate X3 because:
-the cure plot is uneven (and basically the plot of X2 all over again–using serum from one mutant on the rest)
-the phoenix saga was butchered
-they chose to introduce and prop up several characters who didn’t even matter in X1-2 (Shadowcat, Colossus, Beast, Angel, Magneto’s legion of gothic punks) rather than expanding on the already-established characters that I cared about (Cyclops, Rogue, Mystique, Nightcrawler-who was cut from the film because his part was already so small). New characters are fine, but this was too much at the expense of too many (better and deeper) people
-it’s heavily contrived (throwing Angel’s dad off the roof instead of just killing him in the hallway?)
-Rogue decides to change herself for a guy–yeah, giving up’s a great message, instead of owning her power and working to solve her control problem. Also, her lightswitch annoyance at Bobby-who in X1-2 was pretty much the nicest guy in the world-was out of place and contrived so she’d go for the cure over a misunderstanding.
-Wolverine took over the film again (X1-2 make sense because he’s the audience’s POV in 1 and 2 is about his backstory)
-Ratner can barely do action–the fight at Jean’s house was good, but the Alcatraz fight with the enormous amount of wire work was pretty lame
-There’s more, but this is just off the top of my head.
IMO, Tom Jane’s Punisher, both Fantastic 4s, and the Daredevil Director’s Cut were all better than X3. Elektra and Wolverine were on par with it (so, all pretty bad), and nothing is as bad as Catwoman (well, maybe Steel).
But the plot of X2 wasn’t the cure, it was telepathically killing all mutants at once across the globe.
The throwing Warren Worthington Jr. off of the roof was no doubt them making a stand, showing they weren’t going to take it to their mutant allies, by making an example of him.
Rogue changed herself for her benefit. She wasn’t happy the way she was, she’s never been happy. She was in love with someone who could never touch her, and was developing a connection with somebody who he could touch. While it fixed that problem, the Magneto reveal at the end showed that the cure wasn’t as permanent as one would think. And as for all those one off characters being brought in simply as “stunt characters”, like Kitty, Colossus, Angel and Beast, rather then use past characters more extensively like Cyclops, Rogue, Nightcrawler and Professor X, James Marsden was doing Superman Returns, therefore didn’t have alot of time before working constantly on that. Anna Paquin’s portrayal of Rogue was spot on, as in the comics Rogue hates what her ability does to her life. And to be fair they didn’t decide to cut Nightcrawler out. The actor decided to leave, when he realized Nightcrawler wasn’t going to play a larger part. Professor X’s “death” was the only way, because he had clearly messed up with Jean, and his death pushed the X-Men further.
@Pacman: Storm was the most ridiculous case of stunt casting – and every one of us who are black felt this way.
Storm is supposed to be a tall, statuesque, Amazonian, beautiful woman with dark, brown skin from Africa (Sudan or Somalia, I think). Those of us who read the X-Men series growing up always saw someone that looks maybe like Naomi Campbell, or even Iman being cast in that role.
Halle Berry is beautiful without doubt – however, she neither looks, sounds, or has anything else in common with Storm.
And, the wig…don’t even get us started on the wig…
Also, what the heck was going on with her accent in X1? It came and went throughout the whole movie (one second there, one second gone). And, when the accent did show up, it sounded Nigerian….
So, yeah, bad casting on sooooooooooooooooo many levels
I really hope this X-men movie turns out better then the last one. It really sucked.
My casting call for X-Men First Class.
Prof X should still be Patrick Stewart. Doesn’t matter who they cast for the rest.
no need to worry about wolverine since he was not part of the first class.
Correct you are! However, do you honestly think Marvel is concerned about a detail like that? Sadly we’ll probably have Wolverine in the movie, and the story will probably revolve around him too. As if the other characters couldn’t carry a movie without him.
I’m so sick of wolverine. He is not even close to the focus of the x-men. He has almost nothing to do with their main message.
The movie studioss have always retained final say over Marvel in ALL of the marvel universe films so it really doesn’t matter what Marvel think at the end of the day. A director might have the ear of execs at the publisher, but if the studio says ‘dump this character’ or ‘squeeze in this guy’ – the studio wins everytime.
J & Matt. I could not agree w/ you more.
Actually, it’s either going to be a prequel to X-men (2000) or a literal new series based on the comic X-men: First Class. Neither will feature wolverine. However, Singer is likely to direct X4 after his current commitment, and that’s expected to feature Wolverine (and reportedly, Cyclops and Phoenix, as well).
It’s not Marvel, the movies they control (like Iron Man, the latest Hulk, upcoming Avenger build up movies) they stay true. The properties that belong to other studios (for movie purposes) like Fantastic Four, Daredevil, Spiderman and X-Men all stink and violate the comics universe lore.
I think this would be amazing!! The third X-Men was completely awful. I hope they make First Class exactly that. Any ideas on casting?
Vaughn ditched X3 after he realized exactly what he was in for with Rothman (the reigning destroyer of movies) and the extremely tight timeframe the studio insisted on. He was quite right to bail: the script was crap and there was no time to change it. Stardust was a billion times better than X3. I hope Vaughn considers it, but I pity anyone that gets involved with Fox with Rothman involved.
Um no Tarc, he left because he didn’t want to get on a plane and film in North America.
Uh, get real. tyhe script was a dog, and he promptly got on a plane shortly thereafter. though his tune changed in later press (a la your concept), read the early press. Vaughn wasn’t happy with the script, with Rothman’s interference, the scale of the project (he’d not done anything of that budget), and (mostly) the tight schedule. The script was crap – I’m shocked that they didn’t call in Claremont (who did a fantastic novelization of X3 that actually made sense of that mess).
im truly glad someone gave Stardust credit. It is one of the most enjoyable movies of the last 5 years. And may I say, I applaud the relatively intelligent debate (as opposed to some other threads I’ve read)-especially considering the subjects under discussion
I really enjoyed Stardust, fantasy with a nice, dark sense of humor, way better movie than X-3.
Zoe Saldana as Storm?
Good call. Amanda Rhigetti as Jean Gray?
I always thought that Iman (the supermodel and wife of David Bowie) would make a great Storm, mostly because she looks like how I would picture Storm in real life. Have no idea about her acting chops (she was in a Michael Jackson video), but she was born in Somalia and has the perfect accent for the part. Halle Berry’s accent was atrocious in X1 and it was totally gone in X2 and X3.
Iman was in Star Trek VI. She was pretty good. I think she’d make a great Storm – at least 10-15 years ago – I have no idea how time has treated her.
I remember Storm as being tall which Zoe is, but Storm was a bit buff, i’d go with Angela Bassett.
I’m afraid Zoe would be blown away by her own typhoon
Angela Bassett??? Maybe 15 years ago and Storm is not buff so she couldn’t sport that What’s love got to do with it look.
Zoe S CANNOT be Storm.
I don’t think all the characters should be well known actors. For example, Storm should be played by an unknown, along with some of the others. Having all A-Listers play comic characters make movies cheesy and unrealistic.
Diana Aggron for Emma Frost.
Aaron Tveit for Cyclops.
X-Men 2 made about $75 million less than X-Men 3 (worldwide) and cost $100 million less to make. And that is before adjusting for inflation. X-Men 3 is not the most successful installment of the franchise. Oh yeah, and part 3 stunk. Just sayin’…
Okay, and I should have called myself KurtW. Another reason why part 2 is better… I was in it!!
The Last Stand was the “most successful” one, and Stardust was “disappointing”…when can the world stop sucking?
I’m with you: X3 was terrible, and Stardust was good (just a wee bit off fantastic).
“your hot, and I love you” stardust was good… i enjoyed it a lot
Stardust was a wonderful movie. It was like they picked images right out of Neil Gaiman’s head. I loved DeNiro!
Just because something doesn’t make craploads of money doesn’t mean it’s a bad movie. Frankly I thought Stardust was every bit as good as Avatar and worlds more charming all at a fraction of the budget and production time.
It’s like you’re reading my mind.
The reason X3 was so successful is that X2 was so good, and thus everyone wanted to see the next one. That’s not surprising.
Wait first Singer was attached, now Vaughn….oh boy…Didn’t I already de ja this vu?
No.
To Nicole Sperling:
“Vaughn went on to direct the disappointing Stardust”? Were you able to watch the movie? Do you know what you are talking about? I doubt.
See my above post. Stardust was “disappointing” in the same way that The Last Stand was “successful” – box office.
“Most successful” is not accurate. Certainly not successful with critics or fans, and not successful in protecting the franchise, in fact it rather destroyed it. Financial success is arguable, but seeing as how the film had a far larger budget and had a much more substantial drop-off after its opening weekend; it had no legs. Calling it the “most successful” based on one figure, its gross, is misleading.
Umm–Wolverine doesn’t age but Hugh Jackman does.
Good point!
And yet he seems to get hotter and hotter. He’s some sort of miracle. Or mutant.
hey man stardust may have been disappointing at the box office but it rocked! it is the new princess bride., it is rare you can make a contemporary fairy tale that works for grown ups and younger kids
Kudos to you, Jason. A man with taste and, apparently, an appreciation for charm
“Fox later hired Brett Ratner to helm the most successful of all X-Men films.”
Sure, if you want to call Killing Off The Lead Character, (Charles Xavior)appeasing Halle Berry making Storm the leader, (She didn’t want to come back unless she got more screen time, look it up.)renering Cerebro useless killing any chance for a direct sequel a sucess.
Then the sucsess Bret Ratner had with “The Last” equells the sucsess James Cameron had with “Avitar”.
Howevr in THE REAL WORLD that’s not the case.
The real reason “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”, “X-Men:The First Class”, and “Magneto” are prequels is beccause thanks to Brett Ratner, and Halle Berry a direct “X-Men” sequel iss impossible.
we can’t forget how horrible they treated The Phoenix Saga with it. This was supposed to be Famke Janssen’s movie!!!
Not to mention James Marsden’s. He could’ve done so much more with Cyclops than just get killed off/vanish 15 minutes in.
Didn’t anybody stay for the end credits of X3? Xavier, in fact, survived. And there’s no reason why, if Xavier survived, that Cyclops couldn’t have been reconstituted, too. I guess I’m in the minority who doesn’t think that X3 “sucked.”
Is that you Ratner? Just curious Brett.
I don’t think Cyclops died, because there’s no body and the effect on his face is different from the effect used when she disintegrates everyone/everything else.
Xavier, wasn’t reconstituted, but jumped into the body of that comatose man he was teaching the class about. Which makes it lame that they still used Patrick Stewart’s voice in that last scene.
Good call. Maybe X-Men will actually be decent.
I’m confused, Nikki Finke is saying he’s not doing it. You guys jumped the gun.
Let’s be clear: Stardust was in NO WAY disappointing; amazing film, poor PR company
Agreed!