It looks like 20th Century Fox will be continuing the X-Men franchise not just with solo spin-offs. The studio signed Josh Schwartz this week to write X-Men: First Class to bring the franchise to a younger generation.
Josh Schwartz is the creator, writer and producer of the television shows The OC, Gossip Girl and Chuck and this will be his first shot at developing a project for the big screen. You can probably guess who the target audience will be.
The film will undoubtedly follow (at least in some way, shape or form) the general idea and story from the X-Men: First Class comic book which Marvel debuted in 2006 as a mini-series, later continued as an ongoing series. The book follows the original five X-Men (for the most part) in their teens working for Professor X as it was when the X-Men comic began back in the 60’s.
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That being said, the comic may have no bearing at all on the film… in fact it probably won’t – we all saw what happened with X-Men 3 and pretty much all the other Marvel properties they own rights to. They don’t seem to pay homage to the continuity of the source material at all – so I would not be surprised to see the First Class team feature characters that definitely do not belong. Just look at X-Men Origins: Wolverine; it has Gambit captured and as part of Weapon XI program, which makes no sense at all to anyone familiar with the comics.
My fear is that Fox will just randomly pluck any X-characters who they think are popular and throw them on the same team without regard to who they are and where or when they are from. And it’ll be a shame if they do that since the X-Men are badass in their own right and they don’t need to be screwed with to sell.
I’m a big X-Men fan myself and I’m always up for seeing more feature films about them. However I wish they could just turn some of the millions of stories already written (and illustrated) for them and adapt them for film, rather than just using the brand and character names for whatever they want. There’s a reason the X-Men comic has been around so long and has spawned so many books, games, merchandise and television programming – you don’t need to make up stuff to substitute for that.
I have no idea what to expect from Schwartz, other than the project obviously being targeted as a teen drama for teens. Apparently there’s also a possibility of him directing which makes it even more unpredictable.
You know my thoughts. What are yours?
Source: Variety
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53 Comments
I have to say that I am scared that Fox will screw this up again. I could definately see something like Pyslocke or Bishop appear in the film just to get the charecter out like Gambit. I’m glad we finally get to see him but its not true to the comic. Stay true to the comic Fox or we’ll have another x-men 3.
Rob do you see the shift that’s taking place here.
Everythings going tween…
Rob, I couldn’t agree with you more. I’m hoping that FOX figures out by seeing the take from The Dark Knight that remaining true to the spirit of the original is the way to go. Hopefully, they will be savy enough to know that the X-Men have a built in fan base that are rooting for them to do the right thing. If it were up to me, I would place the movie in the 60’s with the original five characters…perhaps even shoot the sucker with the existing film techniques of that time in order to take us back to the period. Jeeze, how great would it be for them to capture the original look and spirit of such a cool comic.
Keeping my fingers crossed, and thanks for the write up! Well done, sir.
I agree 100% with your take on the whole thing Rob. The big problem is that no matter what the take on the first class is. Its almost a guarantee that people like myself (huge X-Men fan) and you and everyone else that loves everything X will be there to see it. They know this, so they will make it how they want. Its sad really.
totally agree
what a waste
I’ll be there when it opens … even though I have no faith in FOX.
While I really enjoy Chuck, I totally see this becoming a superhero OC. FOX has lost all it’s credibility with X-3 and Spidey 3 and I can not wait until the X-Men franchise is back in Marvel’s hands. I am NOT a big stickler for comic book canon, but lately FOX has been doing things that make no sense at all. WHY did we have to have SO many villians in Spidey 3? IT would have been a great story with just Sandman and Harry! They could have then used Spidey 4 as a full-fledged Spidey vs. Venom flick! Instead we got a hodgepodge of 3 characters. I see this new X-Men feature going the same way because of the cash that both X-3 and Spidey 3 hauled in!!
sony does spidey but your right either way
I read about this story on another website as well and they quoted someone, perhaps Schwartz as to who would be in it and among others, Colossus, Rogue, Jubilee and Shadowcat were mentioned. None of which were orginals so why call it the first class, its already off on the wrong foot
Jubilee?? Really?? Thats awful!!!! She is farthest from the first class that you can get. Ugh, I am gonna be sick.
I wish Marvel would buy back the rights to all their comics and make decent films about them, like they are doing with all the Avengers, like Iron Man, Hulk, and soon-Captain America!!!(but not soon enough!) Let the comic people make the comic movies-because they do it best. The movie people just make the movies for the money, not the fans.
@ Jeremiah,
That was probably Coming Soon where you saw it. In it they say it’ll like draw from the comic of the same name and likely will feature those kids who had roles/cameos in the film so far
“Iceman, Rogue, Angel, Colossus, Jubilee and Shadowcat, who have appeared prominently or made cameos in prior pics”
But there is no basis for that other than the fact some of the younger actors have contracts for additional X-Men installments – although they didn’t reference that.
@huntthejest
Whatever deal or contract they had with Fox has to expire which I think is soon so Marvel will have rights over X-men and I think spidey too. Correct me if im wrong.
I’m a big comicbook fan but would rather not see any comic tv shows than see bad comic tv shows. Mutant X is not forgiven!
yeah it sucks really a guy who focuses on teen dramas x-men is my all time favorite superheroes i remember watching the cartoons when i was little and now the movies suck the first 2 were allright but not enough action and the third one just killed the x-men franchise bret ratner should never direct a movie ever. i hope they do make and x-men 4 and make some of the characters more badass like rogue she is a badass not a victim which they always seem to make her out to be. im excited for the wolverine movie other than that im not seeing any other movie of x-men besides the 4th one hopefully marvel buys back the rights from fox its worth it can they even do that?
It would be easier if they just made a movie with some of the lesser used characters like Iceman and colossus without trying to make it an origin story and/or prequel. It just seems like Fox wants to make more X-men movies without the hassle of its high priced cast.
I think the actual title will be Xville.
I have faith in Josh Schwartz… having watched the OC, and seeing the numerous comic references he had Adam Brody doing.
@Jess: while I thank you for that glimpse of hope, its not likely Fox’ll let it expire soon now that they’re about to have a huge smash with the Wolverine movie. Hugh Jackman’s in bed with them and won’t get out until he squeezes it dry. Make an X-men live action TV show that’s part Heroes, part 90’s cartoon, and 0 parts O.C. and it’ll be awesome. I posted this on another board a second ago, but thought it might be worth mentioning on this one. The first six episodes should feature the origins of Xavier and the First Class, then a Magneto origin, then have them battle Magneto across several episodes, finally defeating him at the end of the first season. The end of the season finale can have the new recruits(Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler and Wolverine) show up at the mansion for a few seconds, and people will go ape-$#!+
God, I hope its not the Rogue, Shadowcat, Colossus roster (the living members of the Last Stand). Brett Ratner really screwed up a perfect opportunity make an awesome movie and diluted the touching Dark Phoenix story with the unnecessary Cure. If they make a First Class movie I hope its the original five X-men, and I hope Jean can levitate more than a paperclip.
am angry that they are going to make an men movie, with all kids!!! can they please just make a continuation to
X-Men 3..please i wnt their to be an
X-Men 4 with the original actors!!!
I wish that they would quit with the prequels and spinoffs. Cant they just make a continuation of the 3rd movie with Profeesor coming back to life and some how jean grey back in it.
I agree ice man was one of the original x men but you don’t see him in action until the 2nd movie it doesn’t make any sense to me and this Schwartz guy will just mess things up even more.
That’s true Alphonse. My guess is that the First Class roster will include very different characters from what was in the Marvel continuity.
There is a young Cyclops in the Wolverine movie so perhaps he and Gambit will be two of the characters (as Taylor Kitsch has a three-movie contract)
@ Mike
i know i’m a bit late, but i would prefer dimension films to make this film, and probably all other marvel movies. i just think that fox is too child sensitive when it comes to movies that should not be child sensitive.
First things first, I must say that I am more of a movie fan, as well as the cartoon fan then the original comic book. So in retro-spect, you guys know more about the comics then I do. But here is the thing you have to realize. All of the people that are involvied with any of the movies, know very little about the movie before they get involved, then, they reserch it, but only the parts that they want to research. Not agreeing with them, but they look at who is popular, who will make money, and who will make good drama and action. Marvel, DC, as well as all the other comic books have so many charicters in it, there are way to many to choose from. So they try and go with what will work. So they compermise, not realizing that when doing so, they compermise the heart of the storyline. But they figure that they want something new, they dont want to go with the old, because it has already been done. They change what they want, when they want to. i.e. Mystique was nightcrawers mom. Juggernaut was Professor X’s step brother, etc. But they dont want sub-plots, they want fast action stories that sell. And what they are doing does sell, No matter what we think about the movies, we will go see them, we will buy the blue-rays, DVDs, merch, etc. All in all, at least they are doing something, and they have great tech. to make it look good. It may not be great, but it is really good.
Rob, I will say this as well, I think that the roster will include the base main charicters, because they know that they will sell, they may include or have cameos of charicters that we all know dont have anything to do with the first class, but wolverine, cyclops, beast (might not be blue), etc. maybe even storm, hard to get better actors then whom played them, but they will try.
i think the movie might not turn out well. but perhaps working on the rise of Apocolyse movie might interesting and seeing the transformation of the Angel to Archangel would be cool. A movie based on on supervillain would be different.
the issue is that marvel should buy back the rights and do this movie right as they did with the hulk and ironman which i thought they could not pull off. im not a DC fan but the dark night made up for the sins cast down on us by some of its producesors. plus last time i checked didnt gambit get introduced with storm???
I agree with many of the above posts, they really need to stick to the comic version a bit more.
That being said, I recognize that making an X-Men Movie is almost impossible. Every character has been portaryed differently by different authors and artists over the years, at times there’s an insane lack of continuity in comic characters. Even if they took one of the comic sagas and focused on that story, the technically accurate portrayal of the character in that context may still be wildly different from the character we know and love having read the other stories they’re involved in.
To me, the X-Men was never about the individual characters, they were subject to too much change, evolving erratically from one issue to the next. It was about the interactions between these characters. How the villans were so close to heroes and vise-versa, the only real mark of good vs evil was subject to the situation the character was put in, not the characters themselves. Villans like Magneto were capable of the noblest acts, and the benevolent Prof. Xavier was capable of unspeakable atrocities. What separated them was a fundamental difference in ideologies, but their actions could cast them equally as good or evil. A character like Wolverine could be a loose cannon and kill without hesitation or remorse if the situation called for it. Yet other times he was cast as the most rational character, a “father figure” for many of the younger characters who to spite his savage nature, were able to completely trust and feel safe with.
No hero was beyond fault. No villan was beyond redemption.
It’s that character dynamic that kept people reading the comics. Ultimately each person, regardless of their powers, affiliations or morals became less significant. There was a greater story to be told, which we experienced indirectly by observing how each character experienced it. The back-stories simply provided an explanation as to why each character
would respond differently than the others when faced with the same circumstances. We, the fans see the reactions of these characters. We find one who makes choices that parallel the choices we would make, and a bond forms between the reader and that specific character.
Superman comics were about Superman. Batman comics were about Batman. Spiderman comics were about Peter Parker. The X-Men comics were about humanity in general, and coping with a drastically changing world. The characters while thoroughly engaging, and unbelievably interesting in their own right, were incidental.Take away any one of them and the story being told still stands on it’s own. You can’t say that about the other comics.
What good are the “Origins” or “First Class” movies when the greater story is completely absent?
It is my belief that a broader focus on the overall theme of the comics, rather than a specific story line or character would engage a greater audience. Instead of the writers giving us an in-depth look at a handful of selected characters, give us a glimpse of many and let each person in the audience find the one they can relate to.
The only real problem is taking that idea and making it marketable to those who are less familiar with the characters.
My proposal: A TV series that focuses on a single scenario. That Scenario is relived in each episode, but told through the perspective of a different character. Some of the characters may overlap, others may not ever meet. Each episode would be filled with sub-plots specific to that character, and where stories overlap, pieces of another character’s back-story may be filled in while telling the story of this week’s feature.
I admit the production costs would be higher, but following a release schedule that more closely matched that of the original comics would enable those stories to be retold accurately. It would still never appease the hardcore fanboys, But if done properly, such a an endeavor could easily build a cult-like following with future movie potential and tons of merchandising opportunities. More than enough to justify the expenses of such a venture. The downside… The movies have with a few exceptions, done an amazing job with casting. The costs of casting the same headliner actors for a series would get prohibitive. The few we could all agree were bad choices for the movies would likely be the only ones such a production could afford to keep.
If we must stick to movies, let’s not desecrate the major characters again like in x-men 3. Instead, take one of the hundreds of stories that ran in parallel to the x-men story. Tell that with a new cast and maybe a few cameos. I could see a Cable movie doing incredibly well, even spawning sequels of it’s own. His story can be told either tightly interwoven with the x-men story, or almost completely removed from it.
@ ALEJANDRO,
The problem is that Marvel can only finance up to two films a year, with hopes that they can do up to three after this set of films passes the Avengers movie in 4 years.
So, if Marvel had all the film rights, we wouldn’t see most characters get their own movies (sadly that would be a good thing in a few cases).
What we really need is for the other studios and producers to pay tribute to the source material and what made them successful and worthy of a major feature film in the first place (at least, as best they can for a live-action adaptation).
@ Vlatro,
Well said
gambit was in weopon x so was storm and a few others
Can i just correct one minor missconception above, in the origins film, gambit is not in weapon x, quite to the contrary. A teenaged gambit is approached by wolverine to help him break into the weapon x facility, which i think fits nicely into the whole gambit persona we have all become accustomed too.
when will there be auditions for x-men first class film?
Well, Im pretty sure that the movie is set to come out in like 2012. so not for a while. Thinking about auditioning, for which charictor?
I will say this, I think they did a really good job with X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and I could see them doing alot more with the franchise
on the internet,it says it will be based on the pupils who attended xaviers school including jean, cyclops, beast, storm etc
Well, thats were Fox kind of screwed the pooch on. The first x-men movie showcased really only jean, storm, cyclops were some of the first members. they didnt really mention (even though we all knew better) beast as one of the first. As well as, Angel and shadowcat also being some of the first members. But since Angel and shadowcat were not key members until X3, people whom dont know the history, may get confused. The really cool part about X-men Origins: wolverine, was the fact that it showcases one of those original members and his or hers first contact with Professor X.
I sorry to say to the writer of this article, but Gambit was not apart of weapon-x in the wolverine movie.
I agree with you Alejandro. Marvel should buy back the rights. Not just for X-men, but hopefully down the road, Fantastic Four, Spider-man etc. Though its a long shot at a heavy price. Id like to see a X-men 4 etc. instead of rebooting the franchise and replacing Hugh Jackman as Wolverine unless true fans like me wouldnt care. Id like to see hardcore villains like Mr. Sinister etc. Especially the Sentinels.
This should be the story line for X-MEN 4. SCENE 1. EMMA FROST DISCOVERS SCOTT FROM WHERE JEAN GREY LEFT HIM. THE X-MEN THOUGHT SCOTT WAS KILLED BY JEAN BUT HE WASNT. EMMA FROST FINDS SCOTT THROUGH A PYSIC LINK AND TAKES SCOTT BACK TO HER HOUSE AND NURSE HIM BACK TO HEALTH. BUT SCOTT STAYS UNKNOWN TO THE AUDIENCE.
SCENE 2. MR. SINISTER AND THE MARUADER (VERTIGO,ARCLIGHT,SUN FIRE) SHOWS UP AT ROGUE’S HOUSE TRYING TO KID NAP HER FOR HIS MUTANT EXPERIMENTS. ROGUE MANAGED TO CALL THE X-MEN (ICE MAN) WHILE MR.SINISTER WAS ATTACKING HER FAMILY. SO STORM SENDS ICE MAN AND ANGEL TO GO SPOIL MR.SINISTER PLANS. ICE MAN AND ANGEL ARRIVES AND A INTENSE BATTLE IGNITES. BUT THE TURN OUT EVENT OF THAT BATTLE WOULD BE ICE MAN BEING KNOCKED OUT AND ROUGE AND ANGEL BEING CAPTURED.
SCENE 3. THE OTHER X-MEN GOES TO RESCUE THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES WHILE HE WAS GIVEING A SPEECH ABOUT HUMAN AND MUTANTS CO-EXISTING. SENTINELS WERE SENT TO KID NAPP THE PRESIDENT SO THE X-MEN (STORM, WOLVERINE, COLOSIS,JUBILEE, NIGHT CRAWLER) ARRIVES AND BATTLES THE SENTINELS. NIGHT CRAWLER TAKES THE PRESIDENT AND TELEPORT HIM OUT OF HARMS WAY. WHILE THE OTHER X-MEN CONTINUE THE BATTLE WITH THE SENTINELS. WHILE BATTLEING STORM,COLOSIS AND JUBLIEE ARE KNOCKED OUT AND LOGAN IS LEFTED FACED AGAINST TWO SENTINELS. AT THAT TIME A LARGE ENERGY BEAM SHOOT ONE SENTINEL HEAD OFF THEN EMMA FROST AND SCOTT IS SHOWN AS HE FINISHES OFF THE LAST SENTINEL.
SCENE 4. X-MEN REGROUP AND LOAD BACK ON THE BLACK BIRD WITH THE PRESIDENT. EMMA FROST AND SCOTT HAS A DIALOUG ABOUT HIM BEING ALIVE. THE CONVERSTATION WOULD BE INTERUPTED FROM ICE MAN INFORMING THEM ABOUT THE CAPTURE OF ROUGE AND ANGEL. THE X-MEN TAKES THE PRESIDENT TO A HIDE OUT WHILE HIS PEOPLE CAN FIND OUT WHO SENT THE SENTINELS. THE X-MEN THEN ARRIVES AT THE MANSION WHERE THEY MEET ICE MAN AND THEY HAVE A DIALOUG.
SCENE 5. MR. SINISTER IS BACK AT HIS LAYER WHERE ROUGE AND ANGEL IS SHOWN LOCKED DOWN ON THESE METAL TABLES. THEY ARE ALSO HOOKED UP TO THESE TUBES WITH THIS BLUE SUBSTANCE IN THEM. MR. SINISTER THEN TELLS THEM THEY SHOULD BE EXCITED BECAUSE THEY WILL BE THE FIRST OF MUTANT EVOLUTION. HE THEN STARTS THE ADVANCE MUTATION PROCEDURES ON THEM. ROUGE AND ANGEL SCREAMS IN PAIN. MR. SINISTER ALSO BRAIN WASHES THEM TO THINKING THEY ARE PART OF HIS MARUADERS. ANGEL IS TURNED INTO ARCANGLE AND ROUGE NOW HAS SUPER STRENGTH AND THE ABILITY TO FLY.
SCENE 6. MR. SINISTER MASTER PLAN IS TO CAPTURE SCOTT SO HE CAN ADVANCE MUTATE HIM ASWELL AS OBTAINING HIS DNA. MR. SINISTER ATTACKS A MALL TO BRING OUT THE X-MEN. MR SINSTER AND HIS MARUADERS(VERTIGO,ARCLIGHT,SUN FIRE) ARE BEING SHOWN ON NEW ATTACKIN A MALL IN NY. THE X-MEN SEES THE NEWS AND LOAD UP ON THE BLACK BIRD TO STOP MR. SINISTER AND TO ALSO TRY TO FIND OUT WHERE ROUGE AND ANGEL ARE. THE X-MEN ARRIVE AND DOES BATTLE WIT SINISTER AND HIS TWO MARUADERS IN MID BATTLE ROUGE AND ARCANGLE SHOWS UP AND DEFEAT THE X-MEN. MR. SINSTER ATTEMPTS TO TAKE SCOTT UNTIL NIGHT CRAWLER FOILS HIS PLANS AND RESCUE SCOTT WHILE THE OTHER X-MEN REVIVE TO RUN MR. SINISTER AND THE MARUADERS AWAY.
I think most of the comments have valid points. I can see the new film being a success as so far they have all been. Us die hard x-men fans though need to really let go of the comics when watching the movies and enjoy them for what they are. I personally hated seeing psylocke portrayed so poorly in x-3 as she is one of my favourite characters however, the last stand still remains my favourite movie ever. I think first class will focus on Cyclops, Phoenix, Storm, Beast and Perhaps Gambit hence his introduction during origins Wolverine. Not the original x-men from the comics though it could and probably will work.
Ok so first of all you are sitting here complaining because they made up their own take on it. And personally speaking to anyone who is not so much of a nerd, as to know every single story of x-men the movies so far have been quite amazing. Secondly they said in the very beginning that they wanted to make their own story to x-men. Rather than using the same stories that have been used time and time again for multiple productions.
well it can go one way or another now that disney bought marvel
okay i think everyone is forgetting something crucial. in very first x men movie proffesor x is talking to wolverine, informing him about his first students and he mentions storm. i know i saw x men 1 a long time ago but i distinctly remember that being the case, and even in x men 3, professor talks to storm saying that he hasnt though t of her as a student for many years and that she should take the spot as director (or professoress) instead of scott whos suffering from emotional damage. this is why i believe storm will fill the spot because iceman only had a raw seen in x mens 2 and 3, in number one he was a nobody. also he would be expected to be as old as scott and jean and whatnot but he looks too young in the first 3 movies to cope with their ideas, so he’s out leaving 4 people in the first class (excluding storm from the moment). next is angle. he obviously cant be in the first class movei because he was introduced in the 3rd movie, only saving his dad and asking to become part of the school, not even an x man yet. so he’s out of the running leaving only 3 people (again excluding storm). that leavs only jean grey, cyclops, and beast. while gambit would be a wise choice, they screwed it up in the wolverine movie. they should have had him go with the other kids in the helicopter with the young proffessor x, but since he didnt, the better choice for the movie would be emma frost. this would open up many opporotunities for the first class film (such as there being a love triangle between her an cyclops and jean grey, which also gives her a reason to leave the xmen school and go off alone for a while, which promotes ideas for x men 4, saying that she could have found cyclops and nursed him back to health [if they come back with a whole 'cyclops didnt die thing']) so that would make the cast emme storm jean grey cyclops and beast.
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