Penn talks kid X-Men

Regardless of how the actual movies might turn out, Zak Penn has become one of the go-to guys for writing comic book flicks — he’s pecked at the scripts for X2, ELEKTRA, X-MEN 3, the upcoming INCREDIBLE HULK, and a potential AVENGERS movie. He may not even be done with Marvel’s mutants either, as he’s been attached to an X-spinoff since Wolvie last sliced up some folks he didn’t like.

While promoting his new poker comedy THE GRAND at Tribeca, Penn spilled a few tiny cryptic droplets about how the proposed “young X-Men” movie could be changing: “The original idea was to have me do a young X-Men spin-off,” he says, “But someone came up with a pretty interesting idea which I can’t discuss. I was pretty taken by it, as was the studio. I have to give him credit, it was this guy who worked with me named Mike Chamoy — he worked a lot with me on X3.”

It’ll probably be a while until we found out what he means — Penn says he’s “in discussions” but they still have to sit down with the studio to hash it out, and the possible film could be several years away.