Mather Vaught to direct X-men first class

Posted in Off Topic

http://www.comicvine.com/news/matthew-v ... ss/141070/

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Well, I certainly didn’t see this coming. Earlier this week, we let you know that KICK-ASS director Matthew Vaughn had turned an offer from Fox to direct X-MEN: FIRST CLASS and that the studio, subsequently, was considering a half-dozen other directors. Word broke out recently that Vaughn did a switchback and decided to accept the job. I was a wee dubious because it seemed like he was on minute, off the next, but if the Hollywood Reporter is saying he’s on, then I’m more likely to believe them.

What really makes this interesting is the release date… June 3, 2011. That’s right, only a little more than a year from now, and two weeks before GREEN LANTERN’s release. As you recall, Fox’s contract with Marvel stipulates, in so many words, that if they don’t keep the X-Men brand active (that is, putting out mutant movies on a regular basis) then the rights revert to the House of Ideas. Couple that with the fact that they apparently don’t have any other big tent pole releases lined up for next summer and you’ll see the reasoning behind this fast-tracking. It reminds me a lot of how Paramount fast-tracked the production of WAR OF THE WORLDS because another project fell through and they needed a tent-pole for summer 2004. That, as I recall, ended up getting that movie the highest greenlit budget ever, because it had to spend more money on top of normal production costs to get expediency.

The comparison to WAR OF THE WORLDS is all-the-more appropriate because Vaughn’s friend and business partner, Mark Millar, described this quick production as “Spielberg” style in a post. Apparently, the nine-month production schedule is what made this so appealing to Vaughn, as he still plans to make a movie out of the secret “Millarworld” comic that’s still in the works with Leinil Francis Yu.

In an amusing twist, casting is actually already under way, because producer Bryan Singer is using his current casting call of youngsters for JACK THE GIANT KILLER to also find leads for FIRST CLASS. Now, that’s efficiency! The script just got a recent re-write from the co-writers of the THOR movie and, if you’re curious about the plot, here’s Fox official synopsis…

X-Men: First Class will chart the epic beginning of the X-Men saga. Before Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr took the names Professor X and Magneto, they were two young men discovering their powers for the first time. Before they were archenemies, they were the closest of friends, working together, with other Mutants (some familiar, some new), to stop the greatest threat the world has ever known. In the process, a rift between them opened, which began the eternal war between Magneto's Brotherhood and Professor X's X-Men.

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