He’s in, he’s out! He’s in again! No, he’s out.
Nope, now he’s definitely in. Amidst a veritable frenzy of activity over the past few days that found him circling, passing on and then reconsidering the project, KICK-ASS director Matthew Vaughn will officially enroll in Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters and handle Fox’s X-MEN: FIRST CLASS.
And it’s probably a good thing Vaughn is already quite familiar with the mutants (he famously bailed on X-MEN 3 and left it to Brett Ratner), since he’ll have to make it snappy — Fox already has a release date of June 3, 2011. This puts it almost right between Marvel’s THOR (May 6) and CAPTAIN AMERICA (July 22), but just two weeks before DC’s hero GREEN LANTERN (June 17).
Word is that it took some chatting with the movie franchise’s originator (and FIRST CLASS producer) Bryan Singer to bring Vaughn around. Singer had this to say: “I’ve been a fan of Matthew’s since LAYER CAKE. He has a deft hand with multiple characters and storylines, and a great love of the X-Men universe. I feel the combination of this story and his vision will make for an exciting and original X-Men film.”
The official rundown: X-MEN: FIRST CLASS, following the classic Marvel mythology, charts the epic beginning of the X-Men saga. Before Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr took the names Professor X and Magneto, they were two young men discovering their powers for the first time. Before they were archenemies, they were closest of friends, working together, with other Mutants (some familiar, some new), to stop the greatest threat the world has ever known. In the process, a rift between them opened, which began the eternal war between Magneto’s Brotherhood and Professor X’s X’Men.
UPDATE: Heat Vision claims that the project may even be looking for actors already. As they state: “Word among the Hollywood community is that Singer has been using JACK THE GIANT KILLER’s casting process as an opportunity to look for potential X-Men, vetting actors who may be qualified to play a young Cyclops or young Jean Grey. In a way, he is casting two movies simultaneously and earning the title of multitasker of the month.”
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