Bryan Singer back on X-Men duty - From Inside the Box - Zap2it

Bryan Singer back on 'X-Men' duty - From Inside the Box - Zap2it
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Bryan Singer, who directed the first two "X-Men" movies before moving on to a different superhero, Superman, is getting back in business with the Marvel Comics mutants.

Singer has agreed to develop and direct "X-Men: First Class," a prequel of sorts to the franchise that follows several characters as teenagers. Jamie Moss ("Street Kings") is attached to write the script, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "Chuck" co-creator Josh Schwartz had taken an earlier pass at the project.

Singer mentioned his involvement with the movie, which is based on a limited-run Marvel series, at the "Avatar" premiere Wednesday night, and studio 20th Century Fox confirmed it Thursday. The comic tells the story of several of the original X-Men -- Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, Iceman and Angel -- attending Professor Xavier's school as teenagers. (In the movies, the latter two are portrayed as younger characters and probably wouldn't be featured in "First Class.")

Singer's return to the "X-Men" franchise comes six years after he directed "X2," then parted ways with Fox to helm "Superman Returns" at Warner Bros. Brett Ratner directed "X-Men: The Last Stand," and Gavin Hood helmed this year's "X-Men Origins: Wolverine."

X-Men First Class Possibly Starting In 2010 | Shockya.com

X-Men First Class Possibly Starting In 2010 | Shockya.com
Written by Costa Koutsoutis (Source: Electrix)
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Electrix is reporting that Tim Pocock, who played a young Scott Summers/Cyclops in the summer smash “X-Men Origins: Wolverine�, spilled the beans that he’ll be reprising his eyebeam-wielding mutant role in 20th Century Fox’s upcoming planned “X-Men: First Class�.

Written by Josh Schwartz, the film will reportedly be loosely based on the 2006 comic of the same name, which told new stories about the young original X-Men, as well as retelling classic early “X-Men� stories.

Pocock recently Twittered that he is working on an Australian TV series up through February 2010 and then was going into “X-Men: First Class�. Backing this up is “Wolverine� producer Lauren Shuler Donner recently having hinted that a new “X-Men� or “Wolverine� movie would be starting production sometime in 2010.

Written by Josh Schwartz, the film will likely draw from elements of the Marvel comic book of the same name, launched in 2006.

Stay tuned to Shockya.com for more “X-Men� news.

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.

Lauren Shuler Donner wants X-Men: First Class to become a franchise | Filmonic

Lauren Shuler Donner wants X-Men: First Class to become a franchise | Filmonic
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In February Josh Schwartz said that he was just getting started on writing X-Men: First Class, so we didn’t expect to hear much at this stage of development, however, promotion for X-Men Origins: Wolverine is gearing up and people behind the X-Men franchise are starting to talk. Lauren Shuler Donner has produced all the X-Men films, including Wolverine, and revealed on Fox Movie Channel’s Life after Film School that she hoped X-Men: First Class becomes a whole new X-Men franchise. She also revealed which characters will be involved.

From Comics Continuum:

“It is the first class of Xavier’s school, way back when, so it’s young Scott, young Jean, young Beast and that’ll be really fun,” Donner said. “I think (the plan) is to follow some of the characters into their own stories, and weave them back into the X-Men world.

“And hopefully First Class will become its own franchise and we can follow them as they grow up.”

She also acknowledged that a Magneto movie remains in development.

I’m glad we finally know which characters the film will revolve around, as there was speculation that it could focus on a whole new bunch of characters. While we will be seeing young versions of Cyclops, Jean and Beast, we have already seen young versions of Iceman and Angel in the trilogy, so the famous original line-up probably won’t happen. There is also the fact that a young Cyclops appears in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, so the chances are X-Men: First Class will take place after Wolverine, and Tim Pocock (who plays young Cyclops) could have a good few years ahead of him, unless they recast for whatever reason.

They will obviously involve other characters, including some we have seen before. We could see a young Storm (we caught a glimpse of a toddler-looking Storm in the first Wolverine trailer, however Lauren Shuler Donner said that the scene won’t make the final cut. This could be so that it doesn’t screw up continuity if they plan on adding a young Storm in X-Men: First Class). As it will be the first class of Xavier’s school Patrick Stewart may end up returning, unless they recast Xavier like they did with William Stryker. I hope they don’t though. I’d like to think that Patrick Stewart will be the man that links the X-Men franchise together on-screen.

I’m happy that Fox have chosen Josh Schwartz (The O.C, Chuck) as writer. If you’re going to make a movie about young adults, you might as well get the guy who knows how to write them well. Fanboys may want people like Christopher Nolan (the current fanboy God after The Dark Knight) to write and direct their favourite superhero’s, but writing for young mutants with young mutant problems might not be one of their strengths. I am eager to find out who ends up directing this. As long as it’s not Brett Ratner i’ll be happy.

Josh Schwartz Will Not Direct X-Men: First Class

From: reelzchannel.com

X-Men: First Class, one of many X-Men sequels hinging on X-Men Origins: Wolverine's success, will be written by Gossip Girl/Chuck producer/writer Josh Schwartz, but he won't direct.

"I would be terrified to have the first thing I direct be a giant franchise movie," Schwartz told MTV at New York's Comic-Con, adding that there was no truth to him turning down the directing job.

As for the movie's plot Schwartz said: "I'm not really allowed to say anything. They're watching me as we speak. It's exciting, it's a huge honor and we're just getting started."

Geek Daily: X-Men: First Class

From: Cinematical.com

Rick Marshall was right -- thanks to the major studios toning it down for NYCC, we're getting a lot of nice updates on the "smaller" comic book films from the con. Remember X-Men: First Class? Josh Schwartz confirmed to MTV Splash Page that he is writing the film, but not directing it. They're only just getting started with the script, so he was tight-lipped on who the First Class will be. He did say they won't be tackling Dark Phoenix, but the fact that he even mentions the story-of-all-stories makes me wonder if First Class will be a young Cyclops, Jean Gray, Beast, etc.

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Young X-Men Get Gossip Girl Scribe?

From:

In some odd Friday evening news, BlackBook magazine talked to Josh Schwartz, the writer and executive producer of shows like "The O.C.," "Gossip Girl" and "Chuck" (soon to be getting his own comic book!) and found out that he'd taken over the job of writing a screenplay for a Young X-Men movie (that title still hasn't been confirmed) which originally was to be written by Zack Penn. What's even odder than that juicy news is that BlackBook then took the story down, even though you can still see the original post at the link below. Thanks to the wonders of the internet, we were able to grab some of the original text which had Schwartz saying some rather unflattering remarks about his superhero peers and predecessors:

Something he can talk about, however, is news that he will pen the screenplay for the next installment of X-Men, a prequel of sorts. "I'm very well aware that I'll be bludgeoned by purists, but I love its mythology, and it comes with a pretty hefty paycheck." Of the project, he beams with excitement about the opportunity to involve lesser known X-Men characters who haven't yet been portrayed on film. It will center on teenage characters at the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. "It's not like I'm adding new characters like Toaster Head, or anything like that." Despite his enthusiam, he's cautious, given the double-edged sword inherent in the seemingly inexhaustible renaissance of the genre. "The Hulk looks like it's going to be terrible. And why does he look like he's fighting against the monster from Cloverfield? I mean, with Transformers, it's not like fans were going to come back saying, 'You used the wrong car.' This, however, is a different story." Of his predecessors and their successes (or failures), he says, "Brett Ratner didn't have a lot of credibility going in to the third X-Men movie, but I think Bryan Singer [who directed the first two installments] got a free pass on Superman Returns because of his work on X-Men."