Screen Rant » x-men: first class

SR Picks [Video]: X-Men Fan Becomes Pyro

Rob Keyes — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:52:16 +0000

This is one of those ideas I’d say is very bad but at the same time, it’s pretty damn cool.

Everett Bradford put up a YouTube video to demonstrate what he calls “The Prometheus Device” and since then, it’s been popping up on geek and tech sites all over the web.

The device emulates what we see from the character of Pyro in X-Men 3: The Last Stand, sans his power to manipulate the fire once launching it out of his palm. Check out the demo video for the neat-but-incredibly-dangerous device below.

I’m impressed by both the device, its functionality and the bravery of its user, Mr. Bradford. I expect this dude will easily get a job with this spreading all over the net like wild fire. Get it?

This video went up on Monday and he promises a follow-up to go through the components and its construction so if you’re interested in how it was made, check his YouTube channel in the coming days.

Screen Rant does not endorse the use of technological devices to emulate super human powers.

What do you think of the flame thrower? Maybe he’s gunning for a role in X-Men 4?

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The Next X-Men Films Part Two: Deadpool, Magneto

Rob Keyes — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 23:57:38 +0000

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.

After the financial success of Wolverine’s solo prequel, we saw a quick greenlight for the Deadpool film and knew there’d be a Wolverine 2 down the road. Prior to this, X-Men: First Class, a team prequel to Bryan Singer’s first X-Men was already in the works. So, we all knew those were the three go-to projects for Fox Studios to come the soonest. What I never felt sure about was X-Men Origins: Magneto, since it would involve a recast of title character and wouldn’t tie-in too much with the franchise. That and the fact it would be based heavily during the holocaust made it less bankable as a superhero flick and more limited in playing with other popular mutants of the X-Men universe, especially compared to the other potential films they could create with those resources.

Deadpool

The first thing Donner said about the hopeful Ryan Reynolds starrer, Deadpool, is that it won’t be based on the messed up version of what we saw in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. By that, she means Fox and/or the folks responsible for Hugh Jackman’s solo title admittedly did a poor job of bring Deadpool to live-action.

“I want to ignore the version of Deadpool that we saw in Wolverine and just start over again. Reboot it. Because this guy talks, obviously, and to muzzle him would be insane.”

Yeap. Almost as insane as giving the character lasers that shoot from his eyes or swords longer than his forearm that come out of his arm…

Not the Deadpool we like

The one big issue that came not long after hype for the Deadpool project started to build was the unexpected announcement that Ryan Reynolds would be starring as Hal Jordan in the DC Comics movie, Green Lantern. Why would Warner Brothers choose the lead of an upcoming Marvel-based movie as the lead in their upcoming DC-based movie? More importantly for fans, does this mean he can only do one or the other?

“I don’t see it as a problem that Ryan [Reynolds] is also playing Green Lantern. I mean, look at Harrison Ford – he was in Stars Wars and Indiana Jones at the same time and everyone was fine with that. Green Lantern could not be more different to Wade Wilson. Green Lantern is a guy who finds a ring and is thrust into this world, much like Spider-Man. Wade Wilson is a guy who unfortunately gets cancer, and volunteers for a test that will give him healing powers. He is a bad ass, a wise-cracking mercenary, who will go out and kill anyone for money. But the thing about him is that, underneath it all, and he wouldn’t want you to know this, sometimes he’s not such a bad ass after all. Sometimes he does the right thing.”

As a fan of Reynolds and of his portrayal of Wade Wilson (pre-surgery) from X-Men Origins: Wolverine, I want to see them make a Deadpool flick, especially with Donner, Reynolds and Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld making statements that the project will stay true to the comics, bring his red & black costume, break the fourth wall and bring a ton of attention to why he’s called the “Merc with the mouth.”

With that said, what kind of style and story can we expect from a Deadpool film?

“It’s going to be a dark, snarky, very funny movie. It’s the hardest story to tell, I think. There’s no clear cut villain – though you do have great baddies from the comic-books like Black Tom, Slayback, Blind Al and the Weasel. Blind Al is this blind woman in his house, who he abuses and mocks… it’s terrible. But you find out that she was a convict who did something terrible and he saved her from execution. So he lets her live in his house and she looks after him, but they both torture each other. Anyway, there are good stories and we’re figuring out which ones to incorporate.”

Lastly, Donner touched on where they are in pre-production for the flick and re-iterates that they’re really trying to push new boundaries in the comic book movie genre with this project.

“We’re right in the thick of talking to writers right now, and hopefully by November we’ll have decided who’s going to do it. We need someone really imaginative because we want to do some really innovative, ambitious stuff. Ryan’s mentioned this in an interview already but there are parts where he’s going to break the fourth wall and talk directly to the audience in the cinema. We have to work out how to do that. I don’t know that Fox will agree with all our decisions, but we’ll see!”

Unfortunately, she ended with the statement about Fox’s approval. Uh oh. Maybe we won’t see any fourth wall breakage and maybe they won’t have Deadpool wearing his mask after all. For once, I think fans need to see the folks responsible for production of the film to have more creative control. I’d love to see what the Donner, Reynolds and the writing team come up with if given complete creative freedom.

We’ll have to wait and see.

Click to continue reading about X-Men Origins: Magneto and more!

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The Next X-Men Films Part One: Wolverine 2, First Class

Rob Keyes — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 22:56:42 +0000

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…

Update: Click to see Part Two on Deadpool and Magneto.

To start, they touched on the most definite film we’ll see coming our way in the next fear year: Wolverine 2.

“It’s actually the story we wanted to use for the first Wolverine film, but [Fox head honcho] Tom Rothman preferred to set the character up with an origin story first. This movie will really focus on the relationship between Wolverine and Mariko, the daughter of a Japanese crime lord, and what happens to him in Japan.”

The Chris Claremont-Frank Miller run on Wolverine which saw him on his adventures to Japan is one of the most classic Wolverine tales there is and so it’s no wonder they want to turn that story into a feature film. That being said, I can’t say I disagree with Rothman’s reasoning to want to tell Wolverine’s origin first. We saw hints of his origin scattered throughout all of the X-trilogy so it was a story that had to be told. Although I’d argue that X-Men Origins: Wolverine didn’t do a great job of that, it made sense to do that before seeing Wolverine head to Japan, something not touched on at all in the X-Trilogy. The alternative would have been to do the Japan story first as a prequel to X-Men, followed by another prequel based before it? Nah, that doesn’t work as well.

I wasn’t impressed by either of the last two X-Men movies but I still hold hope that the franchise can turn it around and it looks like they’re going in the right direction with Wolverine’s next adventure. With the hiring of Oscar-winner Chris McQuarrie to write the script, with Donner’s and Jackman’s desire to have this film closely follow the source material, and with the studio seemingly holding back until (hopefully) selecting the right director, I can’t deny that I’m excited to see Wolverine in Japan, especially with what Donner says next:

“We want to make it authentic so I think it’s very likely we’ll be shooting in Japan. Also, by the way, we are looking to have the Japanese Fox executives involved in helping and counselling us, because it’s a different culture and we don’t want to portray the way they speak, dress and act in an inaccurate way. I think it’s likely the characters will speak English rather than Japanese with subtitles.”

Remember when this was a big issue for that other film McQuarrie wrote, Valkyrie? Once we all saw the movie and how they transitioned from Tom Cruise speaking German with subtitles into speaking English along with the rest of the cast, it didn’t really affect the film’s story or characters in the end. Although I admit it was weird hearing a group of German characters on screen with a half-dozen uniquely different non-German accents. I never expected to see the Wolverine sequel mostly spoken in Japanese with subtitles so this is of no surprise and shouldn’t alarm any fans.

Another thing we can expect from Wolverine 2 is Hugh Jackman fighting a lot less with his claws (after the horrible CGI of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, this is a bonus):

“What’s cool about this part of the saga is that Wolverine will be fighting in a different style to what we’ve seen before… There’ll be samurai, ninja, katana blades, different forms of martial arts – mano-a-mano, extreme fighting. We’re going to come up with a new style of fighting. It’s going to be awesome.”

As you can tell, Donner is sure excited about the potential for Wolverine’s next story so let’s hope we get a high quality movie with Wolverine 2.

Click to continue reading about Wolverine 2 and X-Men: First Class…

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Will Bryan Singer Direct X-Men 4?

Rob Keyes — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 18:17:31 +0000

There’s been plenty of talk about the future of the X-Men franchise in recent times leading up to and after the financial success of X-Men Origins: Wolverine to kick off the summer of 2009. That hefty $85 million opening weekend helped push a Deadpool spin-off for Ryan Reynolds into motion as well as the early development of other spin-offs, prequels and even a sequel to the X-Men trilogy. That’s right, an X-Men 4 is in the early stages of planning.

In addition to the speculation of future installments to the franchise, there’s been buzz about the return of one of the folks responsible for helping kickstart the live-action series of X-Men films, Bryan Singer. We know that he’s interested and that X-producer Lauren Shuler Donner is too. But just how realistic is it?

As of this morning, it seems much more likely that this will come to fruition…

At the South Korea’s Pusan International Film Festival this morning, Bryan Singer revealed that he is in fact in talks with Fox Studios about a possible return to the X-Franchise, something that was hinted at back in June when he talked about his love of the franchise and the possibility of doing another.

This is what he said back then:

“I’m eternally intertwined with X-Men now… What takes an audience four hours to watch – the first two movies – took six years of my life. So, to not be part of it….It’s a shame.”

“It’s weird for me to watch it [the third movie], because I’m so close to the universe. And also Brett [Ratner] is a good friend of mine. But, of course, I would love to return to that universe.”

This morning, Singer’s latest words on the subject seemed very promising.

“I’m still looking to possibly returning to the ‘X-Men’ franchise. I’ve been talking to Fox about it,”

“I love Hugh Jackman. I love the cast.”

The director also touched on something that I think is very important about what made the first two X-Men movies stand far above X3. Singer said that with these movies he love to “trick audiences into thinking they’re seeing fireworks, but they’re learning about themselves and listening to what I have to say.”

“The excitement about working in science fiction and fantasy is — the stories, if they are good, are about the human condition.”

Let’s think about which movie Singer could direct if he were to helm another X-Men movie for Fox Studios. We know there’s a Magneto film in development but that will likely be helmed by David Goyer. Singer did a fantastic job of introducing Magneto’s origins as a child whose family was torn apart by the Nazi regime in that powerful opening sequence of the first X-Men.

Click to continue reading about Bryan Singer’s future with the X-Men…

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What We Need From X-Men 4

Rob Keyes — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:24:17 +0000

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!

We’ll go through some topics that need to be addressed, many of which stem from issues we were left with from X-Men 3: The Last Stand, starting with who the villain(s) should be.

A New Villain

Magneto’s reign is over, have him as a guest role to touch on his relationship with Xavier and perhaps have him redeem himself in some way, becoming the friend he used to be when he was the X-Men’s co-founder prior to the events of the X-trilogy.

This would be a nice concluding touch to the story of X-Men: First Class, which I think may feature Magneto working alongside Xavier to build the institute and the Cerebro device. With a possible role in that film and his own origins solo movie, Magneto’s story will be continued in the past, not the future: leave him out of X4.

So who must the X-Men dance with? Mr. Sinister and the Marauders? Apocalypse? Sentinels?! You could make multiple movies using any of these villains, let alone the time-traveling storylines featuring Bishop and Cable, which would allow for some very cool tie-ins to other X-films in development.

The Marauders would offer a good way to showcase a team of enemies and would tie Gambit into X-Men 4, while bringing Mr. Sinister into the mix. His interest in Jean Grey/Cyclops could be a key storyline and his involvement could help branch into existing or new spinoffs in development. Going that direction could also allow for the storyline of Cyclops fathering Cable as a result of Mr. Sinister’s experiments (I doubt it would follow the comics though) .

Give Rogue some Power!

Rogue was the leading lady of the first X-Men movie and then became a completely unused and wasted character in its sequels. Her power is to acquire other powers and she didn’t do that once over the span of three superhero movies. I don’t get it and judging by the interviews I saw for the movie, neither does Anna Paquin, the actress who played Rogue.

Paquin has matured as an actress and she has a strong following with her hit show, True Blood. Bring her back and bring her into the action. Let her fly and smash things.

A more significant (and useful) role for Rogue could also include or setup a possible storyline with her and Gambit; Wolverine star Taylor Kitsch is very interested in doing just that, and many fans would like to see it happen.

Speaking of powers, Iceman finally iced up in the final action sequence of X3: The Last Stand so now he should be a full-fledged mutant combatant and X-Men member. Let him and Rogue dominate in the large-scale action sequences. Ice slides, anyone?

Click to continue reading about Cyclops, Jean Grey and other possible characters of X-Men 4…

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Deadpool Movie Updates & Confirmations

Rob Keyes — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 11:18:42 +0000

Rob Liefeld, the creator of the Deadpool character of Marvel comics was twitter-happy last night, updating fans about some news regarding the upcoming Fox Studios film, X-Men Origins: Deadpool.

He started by mentioning that he’s on his way to a big meeting about the Deadpool movie and then his following four tweets got interesting, making some needed confirmations and suggesting some cool stuff we may see down the road.

Here are Liefeld’s Tweets about the meeting and what was said in them:

“Great Deadpool movie meeting! Lauren Schuler Donner and her team are headed in the right direction!”

“Deadpool movie checklist- DP in costume-check! Breaking 4th wall-check! Loads of killing-double check!”

“Deadpool movie- YES! Ryan Reynolds is on board!!!”

“Also excited to discuss possibilities of Cable in future X-films!!!”

We spoke about Lauren Schuler Donner the day before yesterday in regards to a possible X-Men 4 and New Mutants movies. She’s making a name for herself as “The X-producer”, having produced all of the X-Men movies thus far and seemingly all of the ones in development for the future.

As for the aspects of the film confirmed: Deadpool Costume from the comics and Breaking the fourth wall – we heard Reynolds confirm these before, himself, but it’s great to know that it’s official from the exec meetings.

With the Green Lantern casting which could bring Reynolds into several film projects for WB and DC Entertainment, there was concern over how that would affect the Deadpool solo flick for the Canadian star, but Liefeld was also able to confirm that he’s fully onboard to bring fans what they desire from the popular character.

So far, all of these things we more or less heard before, but act as confirmations. The interesting part here for me is that they’re also discussing Cable in future X-movies. This is something Reynolds mentioned he’d like to see in a Deadpool movie and something I’ve been mentioning quite a bit as a tie-in possibility for many of the X-movies in development. How about a Cable & Deadpool movie?

Click to continue reading about Cable in the future X-Men movies…

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X-Men 4 & New Mutants Movies On The Way?

Rob Keyes — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 01:08:48 +0000

The X-Men franchise has a bright future on the silver screen. With multiple projects in their early stages of development and several given the greenlight after the financial success of X-Men Origins: Wolverine to kick off this summer, there seems to be no end in sight for what the future may hold of Fox Studio’s hot property.

I’ll bet Disney wishes they could have picked up this film license in their acquisition of Marvel…

Aside from solo films for Magneto and Deadpool, and the prequel team-up film X-Men: First Class, we might be getting a movie based on the New Mutants comic line and… a possible X-Men 4?

Producer Lauren Shuler Donner, who has worked on all of the X-films thus far, was in attendance for the Fox press presentation of the X-Men Origins: Wolverine Blu-ray release and fielded some questions from the audience about the future of the franchise, including some from Brendon Connelly of /Film.

One of the first things addressed was the Tim Pocock (young Cyclops) tweet that got out which hinted at X-Men: First Class beginning filming early next year. Shortly after, Pocock re-tweeted a follow-up saying that it was a prank and to retract any news from it.

On that topic, Donner said it’s complete false and that no one is yet signed for the First Class film but did confirm that all of the young mutants appearing in X-Men Origins: Wolverine did have the standard options in their contracts for more flicks should they decide to go that path (which they will).

Here’s where the interesting part comes in: Donner then revealed that she’s been working on plans for even more films than the ones we already know about and she said two of them are X-Men 4, which would bring back the characters of old, and a film based on The New Mutants.

X-Men 4?! That’s major if it happens, but when would they film it? Jackman’s got Wolverine 2 in development which wont be out for a few years, how much can he push his body physically 4-5 years down the road for the part? Assuming of course, he plays a prominent role in the fourth installment…

When could it realistically be made and in what order would the films go into production? There’s Deadpool, X-Men Origins: Magneto, Wolverine 2, X-Men First: Class, a possible Gambit movie down the road, and now two more!

Click to continue reading about X-Men 4 and The New Mutants…

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Screen Rant on The Movie Blog Podcast

Vic Holtreman — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 21:44:28 +0000

Hey gang, yesterday John Campea of TheMovieBlog.com was kind enough to invite me to be a guest on his Movie Blog Podcast. John’s podcast is the longest-running movie podcast on the net (and the third oldest ongoing podcast, period).

Also on the podcast was TMB regular guest Christina Warren of Mashable.com and FlickCast.com. Here are the topics we covered:

Jennifer’s Body
Edward Norton claiming no cameo in Iron Man 2
X-Men: First Class casting
Nic Cage leaving Green Hornet, and the mess that movie seems to be in

We were going to cover a couple more items but we had so much fun just with those above that we ran out of time.

You can download it directly here or you can head over to The Movie Blog to listen to it (but do come back and tell us what you think!).

I’ll be doing another guest appearance on a well-known movie site’s podcast soon!

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The Plan for X-Men: First Class [Updated]

Rob Keyes — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 06:07:59 +0000

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?

According to actor Tim Pocock who portrayed young Scott Summers in this year’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine, he’s currently working on an Austrialian TV show then he’s set to start shooting X-Men: First Class next year. He revealed the following in a recent tweet:

currently shooting Australian TV series till February 2010…then X-men first class

[UPDATE] Tim just posted the following on twitter a minute ago:

victim of cruel prank.last tweet=NOT me.AM filming Aussie show till2010.no official word on XM:FC but am interested.please post retraction.

Is this damage control from his agent or Fox because he spoke too soon? Weird prank that got left for a few days until news was made from it. I still think First Class could be happening relatively soon.

This isn’t too surprising since the film has been talked about for a long time and they’ve had Josh Schwartz on the task of penning the script since last November. But what does this mean for all of the other X-projects supposedly starting up in the next two years as well?

Wolverine 2 is in development with Oscar-winning writer Christopher McQuarrie penning the script that that could film in 2011 for a 2012 release date. We also heard a few weeks back from David Goyer that X-Men Origins: Magneto could start shooting as early as next year as well. And of course, we can’t forget about Green Lantern… I mean Deadpool’s solo flick with Ryan Reynolds.

Don’t stop there! Taylor Kitsch who played Gambit (the non Ragin’ Cajun version) has a three-picture deal and there’s been a tiny bit of talk he could get his own flick. I wrote a while back that Gambit’s solo feature would come a few years down the road, after the franchise establishes some other characters first and after Kitsch has his stardom built up (that’ll come with his lead role in John Carter of Mars which is planned to a massive-scale trilogy). Then, Kitsch could support his own big budget X-movie.

That being said, Gambit could pop up in one of the other movies, the most sensible being this one (X-Men: First Class). However, producer Lauren Shuler-Donner says otherwise since the movie is set to follow X-Men’s first class of mutants and Gambit wasn’t a part of it… I don’t know what that means since Angel and Iceman were part of that first class too but aren’t in the movies.

Click to continue reading about X-Men: First Class, its possible characters and more!

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Brett Ratner vs. Comic Book Fans (A Friendly Response)

Paul Young — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 16:57:34 +0000

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.

The interview is standard fare for the first part – with Ratner praising himself and all he has done. But soon enough the focus turns toward his work on X-Men 3: The Last Stand and all the flak he took from comic book fanboys for helming what many consider to be the worst installment of the trilogy. It is at this point Ratner’s true feelings towards his highly critical audience come out and the confession isn’t pretty. In fact, it should make every person that ever had a critical comment to make towards any of his movies stand up and thrust forth the proverbial finger and say “Spin on this Captain Franchise Killer!”

I’ll start with the question StarPulse.com asks Ratner, give a bit of his answer and then I’ll respond to his remarks. You can head over to StarPulse.com for the entire lengthy interview.

StarPulse.com : “You mentioned X-Men. Is the comic book fan the hardest demographic to please? If you look at the numbers: Bryan Singer’s X-Men made $157 Million, X-Men United made $214 million and your X-Men: The Last Stand made $234 million. Yet that group wasn’t particularly happy.”

Ratner: “Absolutely. Bryan Singer gave me the best advice when I was doing “X-Men 3,” Bryan is a really good friend of mine. Bryan said, “Whatever you do, do not read the Internet.” I’m like, “Why?” He’s like, “First of all, they hated on me the whole time I was making ‘X-Men’ and ‘X-Men 2.’ They said, ‘Gambit should have been the star of the movie’” They’re such rabid fans, they’re so passionate about their comic book characters that they think that their favorite character should be the star of the movie. Someone might be passionate about Iceman being the star. So, you can’t win. Everyone’s going to have their own so just stay away from their opinion and do what you feel’s best.”

Me: First off, I’m glad that Ratner clarifies that he and Bryan Singer are good friends, nothing like a good name drop and “nudge-wink-nudge” to validate the comments you are about to say. Yes we did “hate” on Singer the entire time he was making the first X-Men film but not so much with the second one. Singer needed to prove he could pull off a multiple character comic movie film that didn’t look and feel like Batman & Robin. If Singer had failed (which he didn’t), then all of the other comic book movies that came after might never would have materialized. Before X-Men, the only examples “rabid” fanboys had to look to in the comic book movie world were a handful of bad Batman movies (Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman excluded), a very bad Punisher movie and a made-for-TV Spider-Man flick – so excuse us for being overly concerned about X-Men’s transition from page to screen.

Ratner: I kind of made rules for myself. I said to the writers — Zak Penn and Simon Kinberg — I only want to put scenes in this movie that exist from actual comic books. That way I protect myself. Even though I protect myself they’re still saying, “Why the f*ck did [he] kill Professor X?” He died in five different comic books! People are crazy. “Brett Ratner killed Professor X! How dare he do that!” He died in five different comic books and came back!”

Me: First Ratner calls us rabid and passionate fans, implying that we know way more about the comic characters than he does, and then insults us for allegedly not knowing that Professor X has died on more than one occasion? Superman and Robin also died but I don’t see the other directors killing off their major characters. By the way, nice language to use during an interview.

Am I supposed to be impressed that Ratner made rules for himself and then chose to only follow the one where a character dies? He also killed off Cyclops in a manner that is not consistent with the comic stories. I don’t ever remember reading in the comics that Jean rises as the Phoenix, finds Scott by a lake and obliterates his molecules. One could argue that Cyclops did die in Uncanny X-Men #377 while sacrificing himself to save a friend from the villain Apocalypse (special thanks to Screen Rant’s Kofi Outlaw for pointing that out), and that Ratner simply took creative liberties with said death, but I don’t buy it. I think the “Great Sultan of the Lens” took the cheap way out by tossing Cyclops – a pivotal corner of the X-Universe – on the sideline.

I’m not done with his so called “rules”: Ratner says he we wanted to stay true to the source material from the comic, but then he throws in some throw-away characters and really messes up others. Fanboys gave him mad props for trying to include as many characters as he could – the inclusion of Angel, Beast and Colossus were among our favorites visually, but then he did nothing with them. They were just there to look at and chew up scenery. Some of the worst were Juggernaut, Leech, Siryn and Callisto; he put no thought into translating them from page to screen and for that I call “bull crap” on his “rules”.

(Continue to pg 2. for the “Waffle House” Effect)

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X-Men Origins: Magneto Could Start Next Year?

Rob Keyes — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 23:45:27 +0000

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.

X-Men Origins: Magneto is tentatively set for a 2011 release although there’s been no official push forward in development for quite some time. Goyer is writing the screenplay and will likely be directing the film when it happens, pending his incredibly busy schedule.

He spoke to MTV recently and had this to say about the status of the project:

“They’re still thinking about doing it…They’re definitely looking into doing other X-Men spinoffs.”

“I’ve been in touch with them… I’m sure that project will move forward in the next year or so.”

There’s plenty of potential for the X-Men franchise, although I’d personally prefer them to start over from scratch and follow the comics more, the films have proven again and again to make a ton at the box office. Even with terrible reviews, the latest installment of the franchise and the first spinoff, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, banked a massive $85 million opening weekend and a world-wide money grab of more than $360 million.

Since then, a Deadpool spin-off was greenlit for Ryan Reynolds’ character and we know they’re working on an X-Men: First Class movie as well as another solo flick for Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine. There’s also been talk of spinoffs for Gambit and some of the other actors from the series have their own ideas for more films as well.

So, according to Goyer, they could be getting to work on Magneto next year which would allow them to make the 2011 release date. The Deadpool project is also said to release that year but with Reynolds’ casting into the role of Hal Jordan in Green Lantern which is officially set for a summer, 2011 release, we don’t know for sure when we’ll be seeing that.

Do you want a Magneto solo movie? What characters should appear in it and what do you think the story will be about?

Source: MTV

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Will Brett Ratner Return To The Marvel Universe?

Niall Browne — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 14:32:39 +0000

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.

Speaking to MTV Ratner said:

“The thing with the X-Men universe is, I feel like I’ve already done it.”

However, the outspoken director did mention a few X-Men spin-offs that he’d like to see:

“I heard a rumor that they were going to do a young X-Men [X-Men: First Class] which would be great. I would love to see a Magneto movie personally, because I love the Holocaust backstory. I’d love to see a Storm movie, too.”

As for whom he’d like to follow in his mutant footsteps? Steven Spielberg.

“I’d love to see Spielberg do it. A Spielberg X-movie would be something I’d love to see.”

Considering that Spielberg is now directing a Harvey remake – anything is possible.

Ratner’s 2006 film X-Men: The Last Stand was a much derided installment in the comic book franchise. The film was rushed into production by 20th Century Fox when original X-Men director Bryan Singer jumped ship to helm Superman Returns. Matthew Vaughan (the forthcoming Kick-Ass) was set to direct the film before he too departed at the last minute only to be replaced by Ratner.

Brett Ratner comes under a lot of fire in fanboy circles and his constant attachment to pretty much every film in production doesn’t do much to sooth their fears. However, the main reason that X3 didn’t live up to the first two films in the series was mainly because Fox wanted the film in cinemas for summer 2006. Ratner didn’t have enough prep time and the story wasn’t there because the studio wanted to wave the film in the face of Bryan Singer and his Superman film.

It would also seem that Ratner doesn’t need the X-Men franchise to survive – according to IMDB he currently has 12 projects in development.

So for now, fan boys and girls, you can breathe easy.

Source: MTV

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What Do X-Men Fans Want Most: Deadpool, Wolverine 2 or First Class?

Rob Keyes — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 01:30:03 +0000

In the wake of the financial success of the recent X-Men spinoff film featuring everyone’s favorite nice-guy Hugh Jackman as the overly nice Wolverine, there’s been plenty of talk, speculation and excitement over what the future holds for X-Men film franchise.

That being said, some don’t want that future at all. Not with Fox Studios anyways…

Shortly after the huge box office opening of X-Men Origins: Wolverine film, it was announced that Ryan Reynolds would be getting his own spinoff film for Deadpool – a character that wasn’t utilized right in the movie at all, to the point where they literally ruined him (the character and his life in the movie) to the dismay of many comics fans.

The bright side to that was the fact the Reynolds’ portrayal of Wade Wilson in his few scenes early in the film were spot on and in my mind, were the best part of the movie. Most agree that he was cast perfectly into the role before the movie even debuted and he sure proved them right. It’s unfortunate what they ended up doing with the character on screen out of his control.

What made the idea of Reynolds playing Deadpool even better was the fact that the Canadian actor loved the character and the books and he knew he (Wade Wilson/Deadpool) wasn’t being treated right in the movie. He said multiple times before the film came out that he’d love to make a proper Deadpool film based on the comics and he looked at the situation as an exciting opportunity to 1) play the ‘Merc with a Mouth’ and 2) to get the character introduced on screen in hopes of getting the chance to play him again under better circumstances.

Well, he was right and his movie was greenlit first out of the many X-projects in development over at Fox.

In addition to that, the folks over at MTV Splashpage held a little poll the other week to see what the fans wanted to see most of the potential sequel/spinoffs to X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

The votes pushed Deadpool into the winning spot but only by a bit. It had 32% of the votes with a Wolverine sequel at a close second with 28%. Who knows how many voters there actually were but its interesting nevertheless and it matches my tastes too. The other options were X-Men Origins: Magneto and X-Men: First Class.

For the Marvel Studios-based movies, I’ve made it well known in my writing that I’m most excited for Kenneth Branagh’s Thor film and for Fox’s ill-treated X-franchise, I’m most excited for the Deadpool spinoff.

Continue Reading ‘What Do X-Men Fans Want Most: Deadpool, Wolverine 2 or First Class?’

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Anna Paquin As Rogue In X-Men: First Class?

Ross Miller — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 20:19:42 +0000

Yesterday Screen Rant reported that director Bryan Singer is interested in returning to the X-Men franchise, six years after directing X2. Today we have another member of the X-Men team, Anna Paquin (who played Rogue in the first three movies), showing interest in doing another X-Men movie as well – in this case, the upcoming X-Men: First Class.

In a recent interview with IGN, Paquin talked a bit about the X-Men movies she’s starred in so far, and commented on her potential return to the series. When X-Men: First Class was first announced, Variety reported that the characters most likely to appear in the film would be Rogue, Iceman, Angel, Jubilee, Colossus and Shadowcat, amongst others. So does Paquin see herself returning as Rogue in the First Class spin-off?:

“Absolutely. Yeah… I would hope I could do a little bit more action next time, though. I kind of find it ironic that I did three big action films and did, actually, no action whatsoever. I mean I got some really amazing emotional story moments, but I didn’t really get to do the physical stuff.”

“You know, as much as I loved doing those films I was kind of like, ‘OK, so when do I get to beat someone up? When do I get to steal some powers?’ You know Sookie [Paquin's True Blood character] gets to do more action than Rogue ever did. So I’m just putting that out there. More action please, for next time.”

On top of the possible First Class character roster given by Variety, Screen Rant writer Rob Keyes speculated – based on the information we have about past and future X-Men projects – that the First Class line-up will probably include the likes of Beast, Cyclops, Emma Frost, Jean Grey and Storm. Sadly, according to X-Men producer Lauren Shuler-Donner, the ever-popular Gambit will not appear in X-Men: First Class, mainly due to continuity issues (although as Rob Keyes pointed out in his post, Donner’s reasoning doesn’t make much sense).

Screen Rant also reported on Gambit actor Taylor Kitsch’s suggestion of a possible X-Men spinoff featuring Gambit and Rogue. Kitsch said he would love to work with Paquin, and that it would be cool to have Gambit and Rogue in a film together. However, as Rob Keyes again pointed out, in the continuity of the existing X-Men movies, Rogue is introduced twenty years after Gambit’s appearance in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which would mean (if we follow continuity) a huge age gap between the two lovers.

Personally, I think they should just leave out the Gambit/Rogue relationship, simply because it poses too much of a problem for the established X-Men continuity. Although I’m not opposed to the idea of more X-Men spin-offs (even though Wolverine didn’t turn out as well as I’d hoped), I would much rather them just continue on with the continuity established by the X-Men trilogy. To put it simply: they should forge ahead and make X-Men 4 using all the characters we know already (including Paquin as Rogue) while hopefully introducing a few new ones.

What about you – would you like to see Anna Paquin reprise her role as Rogue in another X-Men movie? Do you think the character could fit into X-Men: First Class?

X-Men: First Class is currently slated for release sometime in 2010.

Source: IGN and Variety

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Bryan Singer Interested In Returning To X-Men

Ross Miller — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 13:52:45 +0000

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:

“I’m eternally intertwined with X-Men now… What takes an audience four hours to watch – the first two movies – took six years of my life. So, to not be part of it….It’s a shame.”

“It’s weird for me to watch it [the third movie], because I’m so close to the universe. And also Brett [Ratner] is a good friend of mine. But, of course, I would love to return to that universe.”

Singer belies the success he’s had as a filmmaker, both with the first two X-Men movies and Superman Returns. He could have one of those “just in it for the money and nothing else” kind of attitudes, but he truly sounds like a passionate director and that’s something we all want from our X-Men helmer.

After Singer’s admission that he’d love to return to the franchise, the question arose of his return taking the shape of directing the Magneto origin movie. He offered a tentative response that suggested the possibility that he might do it, but it was nowhere near any sort of confirmation:

“The only thing that concerns me about Magneto is that if the prequel were to follow the track I used in X-Men, which is Magneto’s history in the concentration camp, then I’ve lived in that world. Apt Pupil, X-Men and now Valkyrie…I’ve lived in that Nazi universe for quite a while. I just might need to take a little break before I do something like that.”

So he’s neither counting in or counting out the idea of doing Magneto. I never actually thought about it until I read what Singer said, but he has been in the world of WWII Nazi concentration camps, cinema-wise, for three of his movies – all that depressing subject matter is bound to take its toll.

Having said that, even with the seriousness of that era and the terrible things that happened (shown at the beginning of the first X-Men when we see Magneto’s childhood in the concentration camp), this is an X-Men movie we’re talking about, so surely it’ll be action-orientated.

As a bonus for Singer fans out there, he made a quick comment about doing another Superman movie. He sounded even less sure about Supes as he did about X-Men:

“I don’t know, I don’t know. There are still issues…I just…I just don’t know. I don’t necessarily…I don’t know. It’s one of those things where…It’s so weird talking about stuff unless I’m about to ramp up and shoot it.”

I know I’m not the only person who’d love to see Singer return to the X-Men universe. Even X-Men producer Lauren Shuler Donner said personally, in an interview with IESB, that, “nothing would please me more than to bring Bryan Singer on for another movie.”

Ah, so it’s not just us fans who want him back, eh?

Singer did a fantastic job bringing the world and characters of the X-Men universe from the comics to cinematic life. Just think for a minute how tough a job that was to adapt from comic page to screen – Wolverine’s costume change, for example, from the black and yellow to what they had in the movie was an element that was necessary to change, but nonetheless ballsy considering the ravenous comic-book purists that are out there.

Singer then went on and improved upon the first X-Men on pretty much every level imaginable. X2 remains one of the best comic-book movies to date (The Dark Knight came along and knocked it off the top spot, for me), and sadly, when Singer left the franchise, the third movie fell way below the level he had set it at.

After Wolverine, the X-Men movie universe really needs to return to the level it once sat at – in my opinion Singer is the most fitting man to do just that.

Do you think Bryan Singer should return to the X-Men universe? Should he return by directing the upcoming Magneto movie?

Sources: Total Film, Coventry Telegraph (The Geek Files), ComingSoon and IESB

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Ryan Reynolds: ‘Deadpool’ Movie Just Like The Comics

Rob Keyes — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 01:51:27 +0000

An X-Men film by Fox that’s just like the comics, you say? Nawwww…

Within a week of the financially (and not so much critically) successful debut of X-Men Origins: Wolverine at the beginning of May, it was officially announced that the long-speculated Deadpool solo movie would in fact be happening.

Before you go any further, you should know that this article isn’t holding back on spoilers from the Wolverine movie.

Normally, this news would have been awesome for all, except it isn’t because of what they did with the character in the Wolverine origin movie, which, let’s just say, didn’t please quite a few fans of the comics.

Ryan Reynolds, the absolute perfect casting choice for the role, played the part of Wade Wilson extremely well – but beyond his control, the folks behind X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie thought it’d be a good thing to deviate from the comics and make him the big bad villain for the final act of the movie. While that itself wasn’t really an issue, they went crazy with the character: Giving him multiple powers from other mutants that Weapon X had been capturing in the story.

Deadpool had his two main abilities in the form of healing and teleportation (in the comics, he has the mutant power of healing and a device that allows him to teleport) but he also strangely had the ability to fire lasers from his eyes (Cyclops’ optic blast power) as well as Adamantium swords that come out from his arms to rival Wolverine’s claws.

At the end of the film, Deadpool is beheaded by Wolverine – but that doesn’t kill the guy. After the credits, there were multiple little bonus endings and one of them featured Wade Wilson still alive, and thus, we have a spinoff for him.

HitFix caught up to the Canadian actor at a press event for his new movie, The Proposal, and asked him about the project. Reynolds said:

“Well, I’m intimately involved with it. We’re just trying to break a story right now and figure out who the villain is going to be and all that stuff. But, it’s going to be just like the comic books. I’m gonna have a messed up face and you may see some flashbacks of Wade earlier in his life, but primarily what you see is what you get in the comics and that’s the goal. And there is no better place to draw material from then the comics which are incredible.”

I wonder if that villain has anything to do with the report last week about Katee Sackhoff researching Typhoid Mary by collecting comics featuring the character. In the Marvel comic books, Typhoid Mary is involved in stories with both Deadpool and Daredevil and that would be a neat idea to tie all the movies together even more. Later, I’ll discuss more on the characters and bridging the films together.

Not only is Reynolds the perfect dude to play the “Merc with a Mouth” for his obvious physical presence and witty humor in all of his movies, but he’s also very knowledgeable of the comics and truly wants to make a film based strictly on them.

You can tell from the many press events leading up to the release of X-Men Origins: Wolverine that Reynolds wasn’t exactly 100% in support of the character’s treatment in the movie. He was surely ecstatic that the character was finally getting into the films and that he was playing him, but when the asked about specifics in regards to the powers, his appearance and what not, Reynolds professionally promoted the movie without being negative about any of it but he was sure hesitant on some things.

He handled it well by saying things like what we saw in the Wolverine story weren’t Deadpool but the precursor to what eventually does become Deadpool. That was a smart thing to say and a good way to quell the fears of the character not sporting his trademark outfit and having powers he shouldn’t… let alone, the mouth being sewn shut (which I still think had to do with the simple reason that Reynolds’ busy film schedule didn’t allow him the proper screen time to develop his character more and by sewing his mouth, the final act could be played mostly by a stunt actor).

On top of that, in multiple interviews he continued to say that he’d love to do a Deadpool film lifted straight from the comics and you can tell from his reactions to many questions regarding his role in Wolverine that he was guarded about what happens to him in that film… The good news is that he will finally be getting his own film as Deadpool and better yet, it sounds like it just may pay tribute to his proper Marvel Comics incarnation.

At least, we hope it does.

Click to continue “Ryan Reynolds: ‘Deadpool’ Movie Just Like The Comics”

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Taylor Kitsch Excited To Give Us More Gambit

Rob Keyes — Sun, 17 May 2009 04:51:42 +0000

Taylor Kitch who played the Ragin’ Not-So-Cajun in X-Men Origins: Wolverine is stoked about the possibility of returning to his character in the Wolverine sequel.

Rotten Tomatoes caught up with the Canadian actor of Friday Night Lights fame at the Cannes Film Festival and discussed what’s next for the mutant character he portrays. RT asked him about the possibility of him returning in the Wolverine sequel which Taylor surprisingly heard nothing about. He laughingly responded:

“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!”

As for his character and what he’d like to do going forward:

“I’m just excited to go deeper into Gambit. It’s a flattering thing when people say that the only sh***y 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.”

While Gambit certainly needed some more screen time in the movie, that’s not exactly the only [crappy] part of the character. If you’ve seen the movie, you probably noticed that Gambit’s trademark accent went from dark with a hint of Cajun, to just a southern teenager accent in the plane scene, to nearly no accent at all in his final scene in the movie.

“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!”

Taylor underwent plenty of physical training to use and fight with his staff, so he’s physically ready. If there’s to be more movies feature my favorite X-character, I want to see done with a little more attention to detail, especially the voice.

If Wolverine 2 is expected to follow Hugh Jackman’s character on his adventures in Japan, I don’t really see Gambit playing a part of that. Could he have a cameo in the confirmed Deadpool spinoff or X-Men: First Class? According to producer Lauren Shuler-Donner, Gambit won’t be one of the First Class roster members and her reasoning is that he wasn’t part of Xavier’s first class… but neither will half of the characters they choose so that’s weird.

The Deadpool spinoff was announced pretty quickly after Wolverine debuted to a strong opening weekend despite very poor reviews. That was expected and in an earlier post, I stated that Ryan Reynolds’ solo film would likely be the first to be confirmed as it is the most bankable. Taylor Kitsch doesn’t yet have the star power to lead his own big budget X-Film so we can expect to continue seeing him play smaller roles in other characters’ movies – Problem is, it doesn’t fit with them.

I love the Gambit character and I love Taylor’s passion about the character. If he dedicates himself to voice training like he does the physical stuff, we could be in for a treat.

Where do you think we’ll see Gambit next?

Source: Rotten Tomatoes

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X-Men Spinoffs: Deadpool, Storm & Gambit With Rogue?

Rob Keyes — Tue, 05 May 2009 13:40:42 +0000

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?

With Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine origins movie banking nearly $160 Million worldwide this weekend, we can expect to see some green lights on upcoming Fox productions in the X-Men franchise.

For now, let’s talk about what the actors want to see in the future. The other day, I wrote about Ryan Reynolds and his desire to not only have his own Deadpool solo movie, but to feature the character Cable as his opposite in the film. I’m all for that idea as I thought Ryan Reynolds as Wade Wilson in the Wolverine movie was one of the best parts (pre-Weapon XI that is).

For those who don’t know the character, Cable is the son of Scott Summers (Cyclops) and Madelyne Pryor (Jean Grey’s clone) who was taken to the future only to return as a much older and hardened mutant. This will certainly not be his origin if he is ever to appear in the movies. At least, not until the X-Men franchise is rebooted in the not-too-distant future.

I also thought that Cable would be a good character to introduce into the X-franchise and I proposed that a good place for his introduction would be in X-Men: First Class as it will bring back major characters Cyclops and Jean Grey back into the mix (and possibly Emma Frost). That way, Cable would known by audiences by the time Deadpool is made.

So, out of the solo possibilities, Deadpool seems a more likely choice than Gambit, if not for the fact Ryan Reynolds has significantly more star power than Taylor Kitsch.

As for Gambit, he is one of my favorite characters from the comics and of the classic nineties animated series. In the movie, he does not earn such praise from me.

While Gambit is a cool character and Taylor Kitsch a good actor, together they do not meet the basic needs of what many fans of the character want. Gambit needs his Cajun accent and his French catch-phrases – that is essential.

In the comments section of Screen Rant’s review of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, you may have seen my review of the movie where I discuss a few of the characters. In it, I talk about how Gambit came off as some cocky southern kid and didn’t have the coolness or suave that the real Gambit puts forth. He wasn’t a bad character in the movie; he was just a weak character who could jump 50 feet high and nothing like the Marvel versions.

Regardless, Gambit is one of the spinoff possibilities. What does Taylor Kitsch, the actor who plays him want in a Gambit spinoff? In speaking to MTV before X-Men Origins: Wolverine hit theaters, the Canadian actor of Friday Night Lights fame said:

“I would love to go darker… [Gambit] in Vegas was fun, but I want to go into the Thieves Guild part of his story.”

“How cool would it be to see him stealing things to survive because the stakes are so high?… Of course, as an actor, I’m always going to the darker side, but for him that would just be way more intriguing.”

“Come on, Fox… Let’s do it.”

Click to continue “X-Men Spinoffs: Deadpool, Storm & Gambit With Rogue?”

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Wolverine Shreds Box Office: $87 Million Opening Weekend

Heath McKnight — Mon, 04 May 2009 16:35:26 +0000

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.

But the one thing Wolverine’s healing factor and near-indestructible adamantium-laced skeleton can’t stop, and that’s the critical drubbing it’s receiving. It stands at an awful 37% rating over at RottenTomatoes.com, though Screen Rant’s owner and Editor-in-Chief Vic Holtreman gave it 3 out of 5 stars. I’ve been reading online that it’s also getting fair-to-poor word-of-mouth ratings from viewers, and that has the potential to hurt the film in the coming weeks.

I’d say a Wolverine 2 is now extremely likely to get green lit (how about Bryan Singer directing?!), and other X-Men movies could see the green light, too, like X-men: First Class and X-Men Origins: Magneto and spinoffs for Deadpool and Gambit.

Add to that another May that’s over-stocked with movies, so something’s going to give and a movie will crash and burn. Iron Man, which opened the same weekend last year, was able to stay invincible because it was a well-received film by fans and critics, while Speed Racer and The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian were both weak films that crashed and burned.

With Star Trek, Angels and Demons, Terminator Salvation, and Disney/Pixar’s Up all coming out in the coming weeks, can Wolverine stay the positive box office course? We’ll have to keep our eyes on it. For now, X-Men Origins: Wolverine has started the summer off with a rip-roaring howl!

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A Deadpool Spinoff? How About ‘Cable & Deadpool?’

Rob Keyes — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 16:43:19 +0000

During one of the many press events for X-Men Origins: Wolverine in recent days, MTV had a chance to catch up with Ryan Reynolds, who plays the character Wade Wilson in the film.

In their brief interview, MTV asked him about what other mutants he would like to see Deadpool face-off against in his own spin-off feature film. Reynolds responded:

“There are all kinds of villains… You’ve got Black Tom — all kinds of characters that you could really make great use of.”

There are many characters indeed, but one stands out in particular for the Canadian actor and husband of other Marvel actor Scarlett Johansson. That mutant he’s talking about is Cable.

“The ‘Deadpool/Cable’ stuff is great… I’ve never really cast that character in my head. He’s such a complicated character.”

In our discussions here at Screen Rant on which characters could be in X-Men: First Class, I made a joke about including Cable in the upcoming prequel as one of the mutant characters that could be introduced. Well, now it makes much more sense to do just that and have some sort of origin for his character in preparation for a Deadpool spinoff. It seems like a great idea to me and another cool way to tie all the movies together as well as prepare future storylines for the idea of time-travel.

For those who don’t know; in the comics Cable is the son of Scott Summers (Cyclops) and Madelyne Pryor (Jean Grey’s clone) who was taken to the future only to return as a much older and hardened mutant. I know it sounds strange and in the movies I’m sure they won’t even get into that storyline. So instead, I threw out the possibility that since Emma Frost is in X-Men Origins: Wolverine and likely in First Class (she’s Cyclops’ current love interest in the comics), it would be interesting to see a different take on the story with Cable being the future son of Emma and Cyclops instead.

There’s not much else they can do since we know what happens with Cyclops and Jean Grey in the X-Men trilogy – so, there won’t be any cloning and marriage going on with the characters. In Wolverine’s spinoff, we see that Fox reversed the order of who Cyclops meets first, having introduced Emma Frost before the X-Men are even formed and before Scott Summers even meets Jean Grey.

Since we first heard that Deadpool was to be featured in the Wolverine solo movie and then later heard that Ryan Reynolds would play the part (a perfect casting choice), there’s been talk and speculation over the character also getting his own spin-off. Those talks have become a very serious possibility pending the success this weekend of X-Men Origins: Wolverine and in recent interviews with producer Lauren Shuler-Donner, she’s continued to relay that Fox is in internal discussions over that potential project as well as a Gambit spinoff.

The character of Wade Wilson, who takes the codename Deadpool in the comics and will do so in future X-films, has a strong following amongst comic readers and hence there’s quite a bit of apprehension over the changes made to the character in the film.

Artwork by Amanda Connor

However, by the end of the film, it is said that in the movie, the character is set up for potential future stories. A story involving Cable would be a pretty neat idea. In the comics, Cable and Deadpool had their own series together that lasted several years until recently where they split from each other as a result of the major Marvel X-Comics event, Messiah Complex. They now both have their own solo series’.

Rob Liefeld, creator of the “Merc with a Mouth” spoke about the possible Deadpool spinoff a few weeks back and said this via his Twitter account:

“Talked to producers of ‘Wolverine’ yesterday and they said that there are definite plans to spin off ‘Deadpool’ if the box office works”

Along with Liefeld and Donner, Reynolds is also fully supporting the idea of getting him and his character their own on-screen debut. As a fan of the Deadpool comics himself, Reynolds dream is to be able to make a movie strictly based on the comics – Having his own solo title would give him that chance.

If you see the Wolverine flick this weekend, stick around after the credits. You may get lucky and get the secret ending involving Deadpool (there are multiple different endings after the credits depending on which prints of the movie your theater receives).

What do you think of the idea of introducing Cable into the movie franchise and having him a key player in the Deadpool film?

X-Men Origins: Wolverine opens tomorrow, Friday May 1st and I’ll be there.

Sources: MTV

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