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VFX artist Tim Miller lands his first directing gig, Ryan Reynolds still involved, plus a possible title for the film...

Pass/Fail - X-Men Anime

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The X-Men Divided?

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'X-Men: First Class' Update 03.30.11

New interviews, new photos, new posters,this is a big update...

Comic Movie Updates: Superman, Batman, The Avengers, X-Men, and More!

Grizzly Bomb brings you up to speed on literally every comic movie you've been wondering about! Just click the pic to check it out!

Aronofsky Leaves 'The Wolverine'

So does all hope for a good movie...

'X-Men: First Class' Update 03.05.11

New posters, images, and interviews with the cast...

'X-Men: First Class' Trailer!!!

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'X-Men: First Class' Pics Plus Vaughn & Bacon Interviews

The other day Action News showed you the controversial leaked pic of the X-Men: First Class lineup, and while the character shots are real, the pic was completely unauthorized by Fox or director Matthew Vaughn. Which is an epic fail for the flick, because I'm pretty sure this picture did not give the movie the first look it was going for. 


/Film has an interview with Vaughn as well as some shots he released:


“I freaked out on them yesterday. I don’t know where the hell that came from. I don’t think it’s a Fox image. It’s not a pre-approved image. When I found out, I said, what the fuck is this shit, and Fox is running around trying to figure out what happened as well. I agree. It’s like a bad photoshop, which maybe it was by someone. It didn’t reflect the movie. I was shocked when I saw it. I was like ‘Jesus Christ’…


“I’m a fan of X-Men. We’re not bastardizing X-Men, I’m trying to get them back to being whole again.


The costumes are blue and yellow as well, because fuck it, lets take it back it the original. Also, by the way, those costumes are hardly in the movie. The main costumes are like these cool 60’s James Bond…”


It's refreshing to hear him talk about the X-Men that way, because I will say I wasn't impressed by the leaked pic at all. Here's the shots of Michael Fassbender in full on Magneto get-up (kinda) and James McAvoy Vulcan Mind-Melding somebody followed by more of the interview:

“Imagine the Cuban Missile crisis and discovering that mutants exist, both at the same time.” … “The actors are so great. Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart are very very hard to replace. When I’m watching Fassbender and McAvoy you just think, it sort of reminds me of Daniel Craig doing Bond, you kind of forget there were other people playing him. And that’s what I feel about these two.”


“It’s definitely more serious and more realistic, and I think that’s something that had to happen. That’s my feeling about the world we live in right now. I think the glossy colorful superhero film sorta had its day. I think Batman Begins started it, Dark Knight, dare I say Kick-Ass was fun and it had some real pop to it, but at the same time we grounded it in reality as much as possible. I think that’s what the audience wants. And that why that image is more Fantastic Four than it is X-Men. And I say that with all due respect to the Fantastic Four team. That was then and this is now. It’s a different time. I mean, look at me — I’m not exactly mister light.”


You can check out more of the interview at the link above. Here are a few more stills that were released recently:

Speaking of Kevin Bacon, Splashpage has an interview with Sebastian Shaw himself which you can read in full here:

1. Sebastian Shaw will not look like he does in comics.


“My look is very different from the guy in the comic books. We decided pretty early on that that was not going to translate to film. But there's a certain kind of style to the suits that I wear, but I don't have anything extreme in the makeup department.”


2. Asked about “Inception”-rivaling special effect scenes, Bacon recalls one in particular.


“We do have a really, really super cool scene in a hall of mirrors and that's going to be really spectacular.”


3. The Hellfire submarine is a set in the film.


“I've only seen the sets that I've been on and they are really interesting and very '60s modern and super cool, and beautiful. I have one set that's kind of like an inner sanctum and then I also have a submarine…”


4. Bacon puts the prequel in historical perspective.


“The backdrop is the Cuban Missile Crisis, so it's a little earlier than the Civil Rights era. I don't think JFK is a character in the movie, but the idea of the possibility of thermonuclear war in our own backyard is there.”


5. Finally, prodded for the coolest part of “First Class”, the prolific actor describes seeing a mutant team during its drunk and promiscuous college years.


“When you see them become what we know of as the X-Men, to me, that's really cool. The visual stuff, I can't say, until I've seen the effects. But from a plot standpoint, watching the creation of that kind of elite squad and yet they're all in this college dorm room kind of atmosphere, where there's romances and drunken parties and people become friends and then they have a falling out."


So I'm feeling a little better about this movie, but still quite hesitant to get all giddy over it, so we will wait for more. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw a teaser trailer during the Superbowl. Speaking of teaser (Do I say that too much?), this poster was also released over at AICN:

Marvel News: X-Men: First Class Cast Photo, Plus Cap, Thor, and Spider-Man

A lot of new pics and a little news has been released about the upcoming Marvel slate of movies recently, so I figured the best way to properly optimize both your time and mine was to incorporate all the stories into one convenient read for ya.


All right, I'm just feeling really lazy today. Whatever.


Let's start with some of the biggest news that dropped today, one of the first photos from X-Men: First Class was leaked online, but there are a few doubts regarding it's legitimacy. If it's real, this would be a huge leak as it reveals a lot of cast members and costumes I'm sure they weren't quite ready to reveal yet. Topless Robot has the pic:

So I don't know where I quite stand on this pic, as it's still uncomfirmed, and I was pretty distracted by January Jones as Emma Frost to really form any opinions of my own. But Splashpage did:

So here's the deal: The image first appeared at MSN.com earlier today, and though the page where it appeared was subsequently removed, The Hollywood Reporter has indicated that it's legit. Even so, we're still a bit skeptical about the shot, given the strong photoshop vibe coming from the image and how unlikely it would be for the studio to reveal this much of the cast at once rather than teasing out each character.

Until we get confirmation one way or the other, though, it's certainly worth discussing.

For example, what do you think about Azazel's appearance in the promo shot? The image also seems to give us our first look at January Jones' revealing take on Emma Frost — which appears to be quite faithful to the character's wardrobe in the comics world.

And while we're still waiting for word from the studio about the image's validity, here's a quick refresher on the characters depicted in it. From left to right, that's Michael Fassbender as Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto, Rose Byrne as Dr. Moira MacTaggert, January Jones as Emma Frost, Jason Flemyng as Azazel, Nicholas Hoult as Hank McCoy/Beast, Lucas Till as Alex Summers/Havok, Zoë Kravitz as Angel Salvadore, Jennifer Lawrence as Raven Darkholme/Mystique, and James McAvoy as Professor Charles Xavier.

They also added this:

UPDATE: Fox has indicated to MTV News that this is not an authorized image from the "X-Men: First Class" movie.

So, "not an authorized" image doesn't mean that the characters and costumes portrayed aren't real, just that that exact image wasn't approved by Fox. Interesting. Moving on.

Another new shot of Chris Evans as Captain America has been released, and this one's cool because he's running. Plus he's running beside bombs so that's ACTION! 

Followed by a new shot of Chris Hemsworth as Thor, looking all Lion-O. Right? Anyone? Snarf snarf?

And finally, we move on to Spider-Man. The first shot of Denis Leary as Capt. George Stacy was released, as well as an interview segment with Conan where he talks about the accident prone Spider-Man musical:

Conan asked Leary if he’s seen the musical yet, and he answered:

“No, but I’m dying to see it. I’m not big on musical theater, I don’t really go, but if I can go to the theater and be guaranteed that guys are going to smash into walls and fall into the audience . . . that’s like NASCAR theater to me and I’ll pay extra money. I don’t want to see anybody seriously hurt, but I’ll pay an extra $400 if the guys are going to land on the people in front of me. I think it’s great. I think it’s a whole new kind of theater.”

There's also some more behind the scene shots of Spidey running down the streets of NYC as well as a Daily Bugle van, plus a couple more here:

/Film has a video of Spider-Man in action! Well, it's a behind the scenes video of a stuntman in a Spidey suit flipping into the back of a truck which you can view at the link, cuz I can't seem to embed it. Sorry. 

Anyway, that does it for this Marvel Movie Update, and I like it, so expect some more of these coming up, since as I mentioned before, I'm quite lazy. 

'X-Men: First Class' News, Spoilers, and Rumors?

Oh My...

'X-Men: First Class' Set Pics and Synopsis

After the whirlwind of casting news we saw a few months ago, there's been a lot of questions about the Matthew Vaughn helmed X-Men: First Class. Well, recently some set photos came out revealing some possible info about the upcoming prequel(?), I suppose we could call it.


The set photo shows what looks to be a crashed Sr-71 Blackbird, which is the X-Men's jet, natch:

Some of the possible locations suggested were that this might take place on Muir Isle in Scotland, which is a well known place in the X-universe. I like to think of it as the living island Krakoa, one of the first "villains" encountered by the All-New, All-Different X-Men, but since we don't have any clear idea of a story or plot it's all conjecture at this point.


What's that? Oh, well, this just in, they also released the first synopsis of the upcoming film, so maybe we do have an idea of what this film will be about:

X-Men: First Class charts the epic beginning of the X-Men saga, and reveals a secret history of famous global events. Before mutants had revealed themselves to the world, and 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. Not archenemies, they were instead at first the closest of friends, working together with other Mutants (some familiar, some new), to stop Armageddon. In the process, a grave rift between them opened, which began the eternal war between Magneto’s Brotherhood and Professor X’s X-Men.

Nope, still kind of don't know much. The term Armageddon could mean either a world ending catastrophe, or a character in the X-Universe, but I kind of doubt he would be featured in a movie like this.


I'm still on the fence with this one, since I just can't really buy a 'First Class' without Cyclops or Jean Grey, but we'll see how it shapes up. James Macavoy as Xavier and Michael Fassbender as Magneto may just make up for the lack of a true First Class.


Action News Team, are you excited for this flick or still hurt from X-Men: The Last Stand? It's okay to be hurt, just let it out, "Strong men, also cry..."

Darren Aronofsky To Helm 'The Wolverine'

So if you didn't hear the news, the official title for Wolverine II with Hugh Jackman is:


The Wolverine...


You gotta love originality in Hollywood. But for the first time we get some good news regarding this sequel, a director has finally been signed.


Darren Aronofsky (The Wrestler, Requiem for a Dream) has signed a 2 year deal with 20th Century Fox, the studio behind the Wolverine sequel. Splashpage.mtv reports:

According to a press release, Aronofsky and his Protozoa Pictures production company have agreed to a two-year overall deal with the studio, which sees Protozoa developing and producing films for 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight Pictures. Aronofsky's first priority, of course, is directing The Wolverine, which heads into production in April next year.

"We're excited Darren is going to bring his unique vision to The Wolverine," said Emma Watts, president of production for 20th Century Fox, in a statement, "and we take great satisfaction that Fox, irrespective of the size of his films, continues to provide a home for his extraordinary talent."

“Darren’s vision has brought audiences some of the most original and memorable stories and characters in recent motion picture history,” added Fox Searchlight heads Steve Gilula and Nancy Utley. “We at Fox witnessed this first hand with his work on The Wrestler, and Black Swan, and now, on The Wolverine, which will be an exciting take on that iconic figure and on the genre itself. We can’t wait to see what else Darren has in store for us.”

While the comic fans of the world were collectively disappointed by X-Men Origins: Wolverine, I think most people will be happy with the decision to bring Aronofsky on board.

SuperHeroHype spoke with the director about his upcoming film Black Swan and managed to get a little info on The Wolverine:

Easily one of the coolest filmmakers we've chatted with, Aronofsky had long been wanting to do a new movie based on the long-running Japanese manga series Lone Wolf and Cub by Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima, and being that The Wolverine is based on the Frank Miller mini-series and is mainly set in Japan, we wondered whether he might be able to get some of what he wanted to do with that movie out of his system with the new Wolverine flick.

"There's all the samurai elements that are really exciting," he told us. "I'm a big fan of Japanese movies, we're going to try to have a good time." Aronofsky confirmed that he'll be casting a lot of Japanese actors, but is still unsure whether they'll be speaking in Japanese or English. "It's still under discussion, we'll see what happens," he said about that.

Not everyone was a fan of Gavin Hood's previous movie X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which partly suffered from nearly half a dozen writers (not all credited) being involved with the screenplay, but clearly, this movie should be different going by what we were told. "Chris McQuarrie wrote a great screenplay. We're trying to get it into a slightly better place but he's working on it, and I think it'll be easy to fix. Chris is an amazing writer and I'm very lucky to have him as a collaborator." 

Since it can't really be worse than the first showing from solo Wolvy, I am looking forward to this. It's taking from the Claremont/ Miller mini-series where Wolvy really establishes his Japanese roots, so the story material is there. I'm sure we'll get a decent Wolverine movie out of Aronofsky.