Thursday, April 23, 2009

X-Men: Magneto and First Class


Producer Lauren Shuler Donner admitted 20th Century Fox had channeled all its energies into "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" and hadn't decided which project would proceed next. She added that the success of the "Wolverine movie" would be a factor in whether the franchise continued.

In an interview with Sci Fi Wire, Donner did give some new clues on the possibilities, which include "X-Men Origins: Magneto," about the backstory of the mutant villain played by Ian Mckellen; and "X-Men: First Class," about the earliest students at Xavier's school.

"We have a great [Magneto] script," she said. "Honestly, we have all been just so focused on getting Wolverine out that we didn't take the time to sit down and explore what movies we're going to do next within the genre. We will do that. Magneto is a fantastic script, and hopefully we'll make it.

"And then we have First Class, which is based on the X-Men comic First Class and is very literal to the title: it's the first class in Xavier's school. But that's just being written. I haven't even seen a first draft.

"I'm producing that with [X-Men: The Last Stand co-writer] Simon Kinberg. There seems, to me, to be more humour, or more potential for humor. I really like that idea. I don't want to get into what the script is about, but it provides a bit of a lighter touch to the franchise."

Fox found itself so wrapped up in "Wolverine" that it hasn't focused on its next projects, but with success in the bag for the film ("Wolverine" is currently outselling pre-sale tickets from last year's "Iron Man" 3-to-1) I'm sure more news for "Magneto" and "First Class will be coming out during the summer.

Donner is also involved in producing a sequel to "Constantine." Warner Bros released the first film in 2005, with Keanu Reeves in the title role as occult investigator John Constantine. It was based on the Hellblazer comic book published by DC Comics' Vertigo imprint.

Donner said a writer was being sought for "Constantine 2." Last year, prior to the release of the remake of "The Day The Earth Stood Still," Keanu Reeves indicated that he would be prepared to appear in a follow-up when he told Moviesonline: "I wouldn't mind doing another Constantine."

I enjoyed the first "Constantine" and wouldn't mind seeing another one. I may be biased with Keanu Reeves since I am one of the biggest "Matrix" fans out there.

More news to come! Catch ya' later!

2 comments:

bandito said...

Dude, I am so pumped to see Wolverine. And a Magneto story could be pretty awesome too, if they did it right...3 to 1, that's awesome

Head Hero said...

I concur sir.
I concur.