One of the many potential X-Men movies pushed into early development after X-Men 3: The Last Stand was an origins solo film for the master of magnetism, Magneto, played of course by the talented sir Ian McKellen in the X-Men trilogy.

I was always skeptical of a Magneto origins film, thinking it wouldn’t be as bankable as many projects touted, but this trailer (using X-men trilogy scenes and Star Trek music) does make it seem pretty epic. That being said, a lot of that awesomeness comes from the music.

Check out this fan-made concept trailer by YouTube user silverlightsaber after the jump.

A few days back, we put up part one of “The Next X-Men Films” series, our look into the future of Fox Studio’s growing and financially successful movie series based on Marvel’s mighty mutants. This was based on quotes from Empire’s recent feature on Lauren Shuler Donner, producer of all films X-Men related, and today we’ll look at the other two anticipated films she spoke about.

In Part One we discussed Wolverine 2, the most-likely-to-happen solo flick out of Fox’s development slate as well as X-Men: First Class, the prequel to Bryan Singer’s first X-Men which is currently in its writing stages with Josh Schwartz penning the script.

Now, it’s time to look at two other popular character solo movies that are in early stages of development: Deadpool and X-Men Origins: Magneto. One of these is likely to happen, one may not.

The folks at Empire had a chance to speak with Lauren Shuler Donner, producer of all films X-Men related, at the press junket for the release of X-Men Origins: Wolverine on Blu-ray and they discussed the future of the franchise.

The feature that Empire put together on the interview was broken down into four sections for each of the movies: Wolverine 2, X-Men: First Class, Deadpool, and Magneto. We’ll go through and discuss each, passing to you the key things Donner says and giving our thoughts on it and how it relates to what we expected to see from these movies since their inception.

To start, here’s the latest on Wolverine 2 and X-Men: First Class…

Are you a fan of Ian McKellen’s portrayals of Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings movies and of Magneto in the X-Men franchise? Thought so. Well, you’re in luck on both counts!

The guys over at Empire got a chance to talk to the legendary Mr. McKellen at the San Sebastian Film Festival (where he spoke to Rotten Tomatoes the last time he talked about Gandalf) and he gave some more tidbits of info on the status of the LOTR prequel, The Hobbit, and of the planned X-Men solo spinoff movie, X-Men Origins: Magneto.

At the end of July, Robert Sanchez at IESB broke the news that Warner Brothers were looking at James McTeigue to possibly direct a new Superman feature film that would act as a franchise reboot.

A few weeks later, McTeigue sat with MTV and while not confirming or denying any involvement, he did relay his idea of a reboot for Superman should he land the gig. His plan would take the Man of Steel in a different direction and skip through the overdone origins of Clark growing up into the hero we know him as.

Things were looking good for our favorite Kryptonian, up until Diane Nelson, the head of the newly formed DC Entertainment, explained that they do not have another Superman film as part of their current plans.

The news the other day about producer Lauren Schuler Donner hinting at the beginnings of plans for an X-Men 4 movie (and a movie based on The New Mutants) got me thinking of some of the infinite possibilities for the next X-Men installment.

I could go on and on about stories and characters I’d like to see, but keeping to the basics, I’ll discuss some of the issues from the existing X-trilogy that need to be rectified going forward with the next movie, should it come to fruition.

Join us as we discuss what we’d like to see from X-Men 4 and open the floor for your ideas!

The X-Men franchise has proven itself to be pretty much unstoppable so far with four financially successful films in a row, and talk of half a dozen more.

Even if they make a film with unfinished special effects, script issues, major leaks, bad critical response and a split fanbase, the movie will still bring in the crowds interested in seeing some of their favorite heroes on screen… even if they don’t match the characters they’re based on, who they came in to see.

With that in mind, there are many films Fox Studios has in development for the franchise but it’s been difficult deciphering which will come first… Could it be X-Men: First Class?

Have you ever wanted to look deep into the dark recesses of a comic book movie director’s mind – nay – heart? You don’t have to look much further than the interview StarPulse.com recently held with director Brett Ratner. The Q&A session was mostly a junket to build hype for Ratner’s upcoming film The Shooter Series, but also touched on Beverly Hills Cop 4 and his thoughts on comic book fans, and it’s that last part I want to focus on.

There are sites out there (that we are most certainly friends with and fans of) that regularly rip Ratner and his films a new one. So I’m going to preface this article by saying that if you search Screen Rant you’ll find that while we may not be his biggest fans, we haven’t jumped on the “‘Brett Ratner sucks’ bandwagon” in our coverage of him or his films.

David Goyer has been talking up a storm recently. With his fame growing massively after the success of The Dark Knight, which he helped write, he’s been talked about for plenty of other projects in development, most related to comic properties.

Recently, he gave some insight into the future of the Blade franchise and revealed some details on the upcoming Super Max film which would follow DC Comics’ Green Arrow character incarcerated in prison with supervillains for a crime he did not commit.

One project that Marvel fans are looking forward to however, is that of a solo film for Magneto which would tell the story of the character’s origins before the events of the first X-Men film, similar to this summer’s Hugh Jackman-starrer based on Wolverine. The mutant character with the power of magnetism was made famous on screen thanks to the acting of the talented Sir Ian McKellen, but from the sounds of it, he’d likely be played by a younger actor this time around, no doubt with a cameo from McKellen though.

It would appear that X-Men: The Last Stand didn’t just leave a bad taste in the mouths of fanboys – it also soured the taste buds of director Brett Ratner as he has said that he isn’t particularly interested in returning to helm any new films starring the mutant superhero team.

Although, having said that, there are some films that he might be interested in tackling and they do feature a few of the original X-Men.

Those hoping for director Bryan Singer to return to the X-Men franchise can sit up and take notice: Singer has said himself that he would “love” to make a return to the franchise! Those are certainly words that fall gladly on X-Men fan’s ears.

In a recent interview with Total Film, Singer was asked about how he feels looking back on his time making the X-Men movies and if he wished he’d stayed on for the third one. He then revealed his interest in going back to the franchise:

As we enter the aftermath of the opening weekend of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the discussions of spinoffs and sequels hit full throttle.

We’ve heard for a while now about the internal discussions at Fox about the many possible films that can branch out from the series so far. These include X-Men Origins: Wolverine 2, Deadpool, X-Men: First Class, X-Men Origins: Magneto and a Gambit solo.

Well, what’s it going to be?

They call him Wolverine, and he’s the best at what he does, and what he does is shred the box office with berserker rage!  Okay, enough of the Wolverine analogies, but you can’t help but be impressed with the $87 million haul of X-Men Origins: Wolverine!

What a way to start off the summer–with the 2009 box office up over last year, people are still hungry for movies, even in this economy. Fox need not fret any more about the pirated version that leaked out, hurting the box office, because the Hugh Jackman-starrer proved that people love to see movies in the theaters.

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):

In August, Screen Rant reported that David Goyer would be writing and directing the upcoming Magneto spinoff film. The movie reportedly would take place before the X-Men trilogy and would center around the origins of none other than our favorite magnetism magician.

Last week, The Geek Files department of the Coventry Telegraph received the official plot synopsis and here are some key parts:

“The original X-Men film began with a prologue that showed the character as a child being led to a concentration camp by Nazis and that is the period in which the Magneto film will take place. This setup will allow a future villain to at least flirt with the designation of protagonist since the character will be seen almost exclusively in his formative years.”

The whole blogosphere has been going nuts lately, trying to predict which villains and story lines will make it into the next installment of Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins franchise, following the monster success (numbers never lie) of The Dark Knight.

We’ve all heard the rumors, such as “Angelina Jolie is going to star as Catwoman!” or “Johnny Depp is going to be the Riddler!” But unless some of us have developed precognitive vision, it’s all been a lot of wishful thinking, at best, blatant propagandizing at worst. (Count me among the guilty in the latter case.)

Well, there’s one man who definitely isn’t letting all the Internet uproar get him in a tizzy–and ironically enough, he’s the man who truly matters in this case: David S. Goyer, the red-hot screenwriter of both Batman Begins and The Dark Knight will have his plate nicely filled between now and another Batman script.

Welcome to another fun filled installment of Screen Rant’s Weekend Movie News Wrap Up.

This week:

We see who is penning Flash Gordon, we learn some details about Alex Proyas’ Dracula Year Zero, discover what David Goyer is working on, Channing Tatum lines up something for after GI Joe and The Conversation goes to television.

Not a big piece of news but – hey – it’s not about Justice League, so that’s gotta be a bonus right?

Discussing the planned 2009 X-Men spin-off Magneto, writer/director David S. Goyer has revealed budgeting and location scouts for the film have begun, with the plan being to set the story in Europe and Argentina. What struck me as interesting was that he also mentioned the plot will revolve around “the origins of the X-Men with Magneto and Charles Xavier.”

So, then, which is it? A Magneto film or the origin of the X-Men? Could fan concerns about a stand-alone Eric Lensherr film have caused a rethink? Do I smell the distinctive scent of backpeddling?