Screen Rant » x-men origins

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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The Wolverine Hollywood Premiere… in Tempe, Arizona?

Bruce Simmons — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 20:56:32 +0000

Question: why did X-Men Origins: Wolverine premiere in Tempe Arizona of all places?

Hugh Jackman was said to have originated the idea with the premise of showing appreciation to their fans by having a vote contest as to who might want to have a Hollywood style premiere in their town of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, on April 27.

I voted but no one seemed to care about where I live, but the two top contenders, after the voting was all said and done, were Davis, CA and Tempe AZ, with Tempe barely winning out in the end. Maybe Vic should of had all the Screen Rant readers vote for his town so he could have had his own in-town premiere…

For those who Live in a cave don’t know, X-Men Origins: Wolverine is the first chapter in the X-Men saga, uniting Wolverine with several other legends of the X-Men universe in a battle against powerful forces determined to eliminate mutants. Twentieth Century Fox releases the film everywhere May 1, 2009.

Pulling Out All The Stops

Tempe’s residents, schools, businesses, and a major cinema emporium pulled out all the stops to prepare for this World Premiere of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, at Harkins Temple Marketplace 16.

Harkins Theaters donated the entire complex, 16 auditoriums in all, to hold the event. (You see, now that’s showing a film properly. I wonder how many of the different endings to Wolverine were shown.)

Who showed up ?

From the film: Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Ryan Reynolds, Will.i.am, Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins and director Gavin Hood. Celebrity Guests of the event were Shaquille O’Neal, Matt Leinart, Alice Cooper and comic book legend, Todd MacFarlane.

In the meantime, here are some pictures of the X-Men Origins: Wolverine premiere. It’s as if you were really there. .. Or not.

Hugh Jackman makes an entrance

Hugh Jackman

Liev Schreiber

Actors Taylor Kitsch (Gambit) and Liev Schreiber (Victor Creed)

Wolverine director Gavin Hood

Producer Lauren Schuler-Donner, CEO of FFE Tom Rothman, Director Gavin Hood and producer Ralph Winter

Hugh Jackman signs autographs for the lucky fans

Wolverine cast: Hugh Jackman, Ryan Reynolds, Taylor Kitsch, Liev Schrieber, Lynn Collins and Will.i.am

Not a bad Hollywood-style premiere, Tempe, Arizona.

Do these pics make you wish the premiere of X-Men Origins: Wolverine happened in your town?

Source: Fox Entertainment

Image Source: Getty Images

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Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: November 30, 2008

Niall Browne — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 18:33:55 +0000

Hope you had a good Thanksgiving. This weekend the news wrap up features:

What hit the top of the box office; Oldboy gets a scriptwriter; Genesis: Apes is real; there will be a New Moon in March and Hugh Jackman discusses the end of Wolverine.

Box Office

The box office was dominated by Four Christmases over the Thanksgiving weekend. The Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon film should bank about $46 million over the five day weekend. Ho Ho Ho!

Last week’s number one film – Twilight dropped one place this week, but should manage another $40 million over the five days.

Animated Disney effort Bolt should bark up another $35 million over the weekend, while Quantum of Solace should manage another $30 million over the five days.

Baz Lurhmann’s 3 hour epic Australia underperformed with a five day weekend take of just $20 million. The Hugh Jackman – Nicole Kidman film cost $140 million to produce, and it’ll need amazing word of mouth if it’s going to be profitable.

Transporter 3 starring Jason Statham should manage about $18 million over the five days ensuring that he will keep making modestly budgeted and modestly successful action pics.

Movie News

1. Mark Protosevich will write Steven Spielberg’s adaptation/remake of Oldboy.

Protosevich wrote the original script for Will Smith starrer I Am Legend (which is supposed to be fantastic) and an unmade Batman 5 called Batman Triumphant (back in the Schumacher days) that featured the Scarecrow.

Will this version of Oldboy be any good?

Who knows, but I am intrigued to see how it turns out.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

2. We told you before that an odd prequel/origin story to the original Planet of The Apes was in development at Fox titled Genesis: Apes, but that it might never see the light of day. However it now looks like things are moving along at a relatively nice pace.

Tom Rothman recently spoke about the film on the Fox Move Channel. The executive said this:

“We are very close at Fox on a new Apes script- this one a kind of prequel story before the first story, with a return to the social thematics that mark the first one, but with an entirely contemporary setting – Earth 2009.”

Source: CHUD

3. New Moon – the sequel to smash hit film Twilight is set to go before cameras this coming March.

Kristen Stewart has revealed that the film will shoot (partly) in Italy:

“A lot of the book takes place in Italy, and I think we’re going to get to go to Italy, which is so cool. For a while there, they were like, Oh, we don’t know if we have the money, but now I think we may have the money!”

A pay rise and a Holiday – it’s nice work if you can get it.

Source: Shock Til You Drop

4. Aussie superstar Hugh Jackman has recently discussed de-clawing Wolverine if the character’s solo feature underperforms at the box office.

Speaking to Moviehole; Jackman said:

”If it’s clear to us on May second or third that that’s gone, then I’ll walk away happily. I’m not going to flog something – or flog a dead horse, or try and make movies that people don’t really want to go and see. I have no interest in that. Even no matter how much I love the character. So there are many prerequisites”.

He also said that a return to the character would depend on the right script:

“There’s a few story lines that are running my head which I think would be really cool, but unless the script is right, then I just don’t see the point in doing it. I’m probably at the point in my career where I don’t need it. And the last thing I want to do is just to push it on people, if it doesn’t warrant a full feature movie.”

I’m sure a $20 million pay day might help too.

Source: Moviehole

That’s it for now. See you at the movies.

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No New Batman Script For Awhile; David S. Goyer Is A Busy Man

Kofi Outlaw — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 21:06:37 +0000

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.

Yes, I’m sorry to report folks: David S. Goyer is NOT a Batman-movie-making machine. He (unfortunately) has an existence beyond sitting in a room with no windows, chained to a chair, trying to crank out the next great bat-flick. If you haven’t seen Goyer’s list of credits on IMDB, you need to. You’ll realize (as I did,) that the man has been writing great movies of all flavors, for years now. (Even Jumper was pretty good. On paper, at least.)

So the obvious question is: if not trying to appease rabid Dark Knight fans, what WILL Goyer be using his golden pen for in the next few months? Well, the answers have recently come to light and on the whole, they sound pretty promising.

“I’m writing a new version of ‘The Invisible Man’ for Universal,” said the red-hot writer/director, who was at Comic-Con recently to promote “The Unborn,” a horror flick due in theaters next year. “I’m in the process of doing ['Invisible Man'] right now, and I’m working with some conceptual artists in tandem with writing the script. I’m actually working with one of the artists from ‘Batman Begins’ and ‘The Dark Knight…’”

An Invisible Man movie? Hmmmm… Well the only examples I have to draw upon are a bunch of old TV series, a crap Chevy Chase flick (is that an oxymoron?) and that creepy “what if The Invisible Man was a psycho?” knock-off, Hollow Man. And while hearing the name “Invisible Man” doesn’t quite make me do the Pee-Wee Herman dance with excitement, it does intrigue the mind what Goyer would have in store for the character:

“My take is kind of an extrapolation. It actually deals with a nephew of the first character…It involves Scotland Yard getting their hands on the current Invisible Man and basically saying, ‘Wow, you’d be a really good secret agent to send into Imperial Russia right now,’” an enthusiastic Goyer said of the plot. “It starts off from there… I don’t want to give too much away, but I took what being invisible could mean to the next logical extreme,” he explained. “We do a lot of crazy things in it that are sort of far beyond what anyone’s done with it yet.”

Far beyond Hollow Man 2? If you say so.

Further up MY alley, however, is the report that Goyer will also be writing and directing the second installment in the X-Men Origins franchise, X-Men Origins: Magneto. In the same interview, Goyer stated that Magneto will likely be the first of his projects to hit the big screen, and seemed more than eager to prove that he could direct a blockbuster comic book film, just as well as could work a pencil and paper writing one. (We’ll forgive him for Blade: Trinity.)

Personally, I’ve always thought that opening scene with Magneto imprisoned in a Nazi Death Camp was by far one of the more interesting sequences in X-Men. I would love to see that story stretched out to its full length; though even Goyer will have to walk a tight line to avoid a Hannibal Rising quagmire–i.e., ruining a great villain by trying to “humanize” him through some crap back story. It’ll also be interesting to see how Magneto balances with the continuity of the recently announced X-Men: First Class. (I mean there is a potential intersection when you get to the point where Magneto and Xavier construct the school together. But I’m sure Goyer has a plan for that.)

So which David S. Goyer film are you chomping hardest at the bit for? X-Men Origins: Magneto? The Invisible Man? (Perhaps that long-awaited Flash movie he’s rumored to have turned in a script for?) Or do you plan to keep riding the band-wagon for that next Batman flick? Let us know where you stand.

Source: MTV News

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X-Men: First Class On The Way?

Kofi Outlaw — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 19:30:14 +0000

The guys over at Latino Review put their peepers to good use picking out this little tidbit buried in the many movie titles recently announced on Production Weekly: X-men: First Class seems to be the next film in the series going into production!

I can’t say that I’m that surprised, really. I can only assume that the execs over at Fox, which owns the rights to the X franchise, are peering through peepholes into Warner Bros. studios, trying to figure out how to put together a ma$$ive payday like The Dark Knight has been. While X-Men Origins: Wolverine promises to be a hit, I’m sure Fox knows that to really milk the cash cow would take something truly groundbreaking and unexpected. (After X3, I for one was just WAITING for the other shoe to drop on X4: The New Class. Shudder.)

To be honest, I’m feeling a bit clairvoyant, again. Since seeing The Dark Knight, and re-watching Batman Begins three more times, I’ve been pacing my living room stroking my chin, trying to imagine the kind of films Marvel could make to rival the Batman Begins Trilogy in both tone and quality. X-Men: First Class was one my more promising conclusions.

For those not in the know, “X0″ would cover the early days when most mutants were still “in the closet,” until renowned philanthropist Charles Xavier opened the doors to his school for the “gifted.” His first five students in the comics: Cyclops, Jean Grey, Iceman, Hank McCoy (The Beast), and Warren Worthington (The Angel). Of course, that roster totally throws off the continuity of the current X-Men trilogy, but I’m sure all that will be worked out at the script stage (if it hasn’t been already).

Here’s my personal vision for X-Men: First Class (in 3 acts):

Act 1: Real world setting and tone, modern teenagers trying to tackle the usual hardships like hair in strange new places; Ice and/or wings growing where there wasn’t any before; telepathic voices changing; and laser beams shooting uncontrollably from the eyes when excited. The kids parents freak, even going so far as to shun or abuse their children. (Seeing ‘the real world’ react to the sudden emergence of these ‘freaks’ would be a very interesting take on the X universe. People could really empathize with that.)

Act 2: In steps Charles Xavier with his long time compatriot, Erik Magnus Lensherr. The two build the school, (and the X-base beneath, Magnus’ idea, ‘just in case,’) as a haven for the emerging mutant populace. The first class is enrolled but are awkward with one another, unsure of themselves and their strange new powers. Xavier and Magnus, (in two subtly different ways,) help them conquer their insecurities and embrace their powers –even show them how to work as a team. However, just as the kids come into their own, intolerance and fear amongst normal humans bubbles over. One student pays the ultimate price. Magnus, broken-hearted and disillusioned, gets twisted into the militant terrorist, Magneto.

Act 3: Magneto tries to lure Xavier and the kids over to the dark side with him. Xavier refuses, causing an irrepairable rift in their friendship; the kids stand with Xavier’s ideals, Magneto mockingly dubbing them his “Xavier Men.” Big final battle: the kids manage to stop Magneto from doing any real damage, but another big price is paid: Xavier’s legs get crushed. In the aftermath, humans fear mutants more than ever; new mutants are either forced to, or choose to reveal themselves and be who they are; Xavier’s school welcomes those in need; the first class steps up to become the X-Men; all while Magneto sits lonely, recruiting help where he can, secretly missing the family at Xavier’s school he has abandoned.

Fox execs, I can have a full script ready in a month! (P.S. if my 3-act masterpiece should end up as the official script, remember your favorite neighborhood film clairvoyant over at Screen Rant called it first!)

For now though, let me know what YOU think X-Men: First Class should be all about! (Maybe your idea will end up in the final product, and you’ll walk away without a single cent!)

Source: Latino Review via Production Weekly

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Curious New Set Pics From X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Kofi Outlaw — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 19:25:15 +0000

El Toro over at Latino Review has posted new pictures from the set of the upcoming X-men Origins: Wolverine, from a scene that looks to be set during WWII???

Now, as any fanboy worth his adamantium knows, Wolverine’s mutant-healing factor has the added effect of slowing down his aging process to a crawl. Various storylines in the comics have hinted that Wolvy could be as old as 100, leaving the filmmakers behind Origins a lot of history to play with. And, If these photos are any indication, this film is aiming for a scope much more epic than originally thought. Let’s just hope it doesn’t stretch itself too thin by trying to do too much. Save something for Wolverine 2!

In the meantime, take a look at the pics and let us know what you think.

Source: Latino Review

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