Although as yet there’s been no official confirmation, there’s been a whole slew of rumours emerging about X-Men: First Class. The first yesterday was Roger Friedman (of pirating X-Men: Origins and getting fired for it fame) saying over at THR’s Showbiz 411, that director Michael Vaughn wanted Fassbender to play Charles Xavier, with Friedman apparently forgetting that James McAvout already has that role
Since then it’s been updated to say the role Fassbender would play is Magneto (which has since been backed up by other sources). He’d be a good choice, as while he was raised in Ireland, the fact his father is from Germany and he’s fluent in German should allow the fact Magneto/Erik Lenscherr is actually from that country to slip through. Incidentally, Showbiz 411 also says Fassbender is being pursued to play the villain in Spider-man 4, but wouldn’t be able to take both comic book parts, so he will have to pick one over the other.
Far less certain is another rumour that Rosamund Pike is being lined up to play Emma Frost in the film. This one really is speculation, based on the fact that Forces Of Geek spotted the actress near the the offices of the casting director Matthew Vaughn works with, while carrying an X-Men comic book. It may mean nothing, and is certainly no guarantee that even if she was cast, she’d be playing mutant telepath Emma Frost.
Finally, and more deinfitely, MTV has discovered a message sent out by the West Michigan Film Office, saying First Class is looking for locations in the area. It seems the whole movie might be shot there, as the location scout is trying ‘to find cafe and bar locations, evoking the Argentinian feel of Bariloche, and an Art Deco Cafe or restaurant overlooking a body of water. Additionally, the movie calls for a Miami styled harbor for yachts. If you know of any locations that seem to match a description, please contact our office.’ It’ll be interest to see if Michigan can indeed pull itself off as South America, which incidentally suggests that in the film, holocaust survivor Magneto might be in Argentina looking for escaped Nazis.