First Bryan Singer was going to direct X-Men: First Class, then he wasn’t (he’s gonna produce instead and also conceived the story). Then last Matthew Vaughn was being lined up, but shortly afterwards he was said to have walked away and the studio was talking to various other people. However yesterday it was reported he was back at the negotiating table, and now Fox have confirmed that they’ve wrapped up talks and the Kick-Ass director will indeed be helming the film about the early days of Xavier and Magneto’s relationship.
Not only that, but the studio has given the director a pretty tight schedule, as they’ve announced the film will be released on June 3rd, 2011 (that’s the US release date, although it’s probably safe to assume it’ll be day and date over here too). That means he’s going to have to rev things up pretty quickly, with shooting planned to start this summer, leaving him only a couple of months to preapare – including assembling the cast.
Fox also released an early plot synopsis, which reads: 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.
Hopefully this time Vaughn will actually make the film, as he signed up for X-Men 3 before bailing. However while films that are fast-tracked like this often sacrifice quality for speed, with Vaughn and Singer onboard, they’ll hopefully overcome this. (Via: /Film)