Taylor Kitsch talks Gambit, Josh Schwartz talks X-Men: First Class

From: coventrytelegraph.net
Written by: David Bentley

TAYLOR KITSCH says he hopes to go deeper into his character Gambit, the mutant card trickster who had a long-awaited screen appearance in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Studio bosses at 20th Century Fox are considering a solo film for Gambit - and if that doesn't happen he could reprise his role in the Wolverine sequel that's already in development.

Gambit, who can charge objects (often his deck of cards) with an explosive kinetic energy, was the most hotly anticipated new character in the movie, according to a poll of film fans.

Kitsch, 28, spoke to Rotten Tomatoes at the Cannes Film Festival, where he was promoting his latest project, The Bang Bang Club, and said he was excited about taking Gambit to the next level.

After being told about the Wolverine sequel, Kitsch said: "Man, good on Hugh for doing that to his body again. I hadn't heard that was going to happen! You have my brain going now about what I'd love to do with Gambit!"

He added: "I'm just excited to go deeper into Gambit. It's a flattering thing when people say that the only shitty part about the character is we didn't see enough of him. If that's the case, bring it on. I want to go deep into Gambit.

"He has so many more colours to explore. I want to go dark with that cat. There are so many things I want people to see of him and he really is his own deal. In Wolverine he was very much moving the story along.

"If I can have some moments where you go deeper into Gambit's back-story and why he was the way he was at that poker table - that's a fun thing to explore."

"I have the tools now to do some larger fights and I'd be really excited to get a chance to do that, too. I have so many ideas in my mind right now!"

One of the other X-Men projects in the pipeline is X-Men: First Class, focusing on the earliest students at Xavier's school. It's being written by Gossip Girl creator Josh Schwartz and was set up by final scenes in the Wolverine movie.

Schwartz was asked about the project by THR and said: "It's something I'd always fantasised about doing. I knew [producer] Simon Kinberg (who co-wrote X-Men: The Last Stand) and he approached me about it. I've started it and I'm having a blast, but I'm not allowed to say anything more."

The film is expected to include young versions of Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast and Storm along with - if scenes in Wolverine can be taken as clues - Banshee, Emma Frost, Quicksilver and other mutant students.

X-Men Producer Talks Magneto & X-Men: First Class

From: Screenrant.com
Written by: Rob Keyes

SCI FI Wire spoke with producer Lauren Shuler Donner over the phone last week to promote next Friday’s opening of X-Men Origins: Wolverine and they took some time to discuss several other projects that are in development for Fox Studios, including the Magneto spinoff and X-Men: First Class.

The first question was simply asking for a status update on X-Men Origins: Magneto for which Shuler Donner responded (responses below edited by SCI FI Wire):

“I don’t know. We have a great script. Honestly, we have all been just so focused on getting Wolverine out that we didn’t take the time to sit down and explore ‘What are the movies we’re going to do next within the genre?’ We will do that. We will do that. We all want to. Magneto is a fantastic script, and hopefully we’ll make it. I don’t know.”

I love the Magneto character and he certainly has an intriguing history to flesh out a nice story for a feature film, but I’m very fearful of what Fox may do with the character.

If things stay on track to what we’ve seen in the X-Men films and the Wolverine spinoff, we’ll likely see a convoluted history of the character loaded with other popular characters that don’t belong. Maybe they’ll throw in characters Cable and Bishop and some Sentinels just for the sake of it.

We knew scripts had been written and in November of last year we reported on the plot synopsis of the Magneto origins story. Whether or not this movie will get the greenlight however, depends on the success of Wolverine’s solo spinoff. SCI Fi Wire asked Donner if the reaction to the Wolverine movie will affect the Magneto spinoff:

“I think this is partly to do with it, yes. And then we have First Class, which is based on the X-Men comics’ first class and is very literal to the title. It’s the first class in Xavier’s school. But that’s just being written. I haven’t even seen a first draft. And I’m producing that with Simon Kinberg.”

Last year, it was reported that Josh Schwartz (The OC, Gossip Girl and Chuck) was hired by Fox to write the script for the First Class film which would tell the story of the original five X-Men characters (at least in the comics) when Xavier’s school for the gifted first started up. Donner was asked what interests her about the First Class movie and it as a potential franchise:

“I like kids. I did produce Pretty in Pink and St. Elmo’s Fire. I do like those kind of teenage movies; I really do. Part of it takes me to my roots. It’s action. There seems, to me, to be more humor, or more potential for humor. I really like that idea. The relationship … I don’t want to get into what the script is about, but it provides a bit of a lighter touch to the franchise.”

I like the idea of a more focused X-Film with a 5-mutant team but a kids movie? Is that what the next X-Men films will be? I’m not sure what the fans of the comics or previous X-films will think of that.