Matthew Vaughn signs on to direct 'X-Men: First Class' sequel
Helmer's return had been up in the air prior to today's news
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Along with a report today that 20th Century Fox president of production Emma Watts had been signed to a new deal through 2015 came news that Matthew Vaughn, the director who helped propel "X-Men: First Class" to nearly $350 million in global grosses last year, would officially be returning at the helm of the planned sequel to the superhero reboot/prequel. Members of the first film's cast including Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence and Rose Byrne are likely to return given that most if not all are contracted to reprise their roles in future entries.
Simon Kinberg is writing the sequel, with "X-Men" and "X2" director Bryan Singer again attached as a producer.
The story was first reported via Deadline.
It'll be interesting to see how the "First Class" sequel ultimately performs at the box-office. While the film ultimately proved to be a profitable venture when accounting for foreign grosses, it was seen as something of an underperformer Stateside, with its $146 million domestic take making it the lowest-grossing of all five entries in the franchise (including "X-Men Origins: Wolverine").
So, what do you think of this news? Did you enjoy Vaughn's work in "First Class", or would you have preferred Fox bring in some fresh blood for the next entry?
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January 31, 2012 at 1:59AM EST Reply to CommentI'm all for this, but they need to fix Beast. The character looked terrible, and seemed out if place compared to the rest of the production. If they hadn't offered the continuity of the Wolverine & Mystique cameos, I could've tolerated the young actor not having a voice similar to that of the animated series & X3. However, since they did offer up that continuity, the character was wrong all the way through.
gregel
January 31, 2012 at 5:46AM EST Reply to CommentWill Jennifer Lawerence be stuck doing Hunger Games and X-Men movies back to back to back to back for a few years? She needs to be able to diversify...
DefRef Making a movie isn't a year-round job, especially for an ensemble piece like X-Men. It's ironic that you're worried for her when right below is a Moviefone link to a story about a pair of movies she's making with Bradley Cooper. Christian Bale made six and four movies respectively in between his Batman films. Harrison Ford managed to slip Blade Runner in between alternative Star Wars and Indy films. I think she'll be OK.
January 31, 2012 at 9:34AM ESTDave I
January 31, 2012 at 2:25PM EST Reply to CommentI'm glad they brought Vaughn back, and the cast was pretty solid. I still hate that they decided to just make a series chronologically prior to the X-Men movies, and while I find Fassbender better fits the more powerful physical stature of Magneto, throwing away Patrick Stewart as Professor X still bugs me.
Mostly though, I like the last X-Men movie despite what Fox has done to the franchise. Therein lies my problems going forward. We know there is no real threat to the main characters that showed up in the original series. It seems to be tied to a historic setting, which is fine in one sense yet limiting in another. I am not sure how they will advance the storyline beyond the X-Men Origins sort of movies or how long they can expect audiences to show up to those movies. Plus, there are a lot of storylines that seem off the table, for better or for worse. Granted, that may be a positive thing, since they seem to have screwed up things with Wolverine, the Phoenix saga, and perhaps should stay away from some of those loose ends the third movie left. Yet, they also seem to have slammed the door on some of the more widely-known characters and stories. They shoved Wolverine down our throats, yet that would still draw a lot of casual fans to the series. You do not have much of a chance to do anything with the Sentinal storyline. There is no tension for characters like Prof. X, Mystique, Beast, Magneto, or the like since you know they made it to the original series and this takes place in the same timeline. Not that comic book movies typically kill off main characters, yet it does sort of make any threats to their personal safety easily brushed off.
Ranting aside, I am interested to see what Vaughn and Singer can do with a movie. I also think there is a lot of room for them to function in the early years of the X-Men stories and history. However, I think they have cost themselves popularity and box-office by largely throwing away the old cast (Wolverine cameo aside) and continuity, forcing them to dwell in the lands of the not-always-popular historical fiction, and really just the hamfisted way Fox has treated the series. I'll admit, I'm definitively NOT a fan of Fox, yet even if you were there is a lot of evidence that Fox has done a terrible job with the X-men franchise. Vaughn did great with the First Class movie. However, it is still a historical-fiction prequel coming on the heels of two of the most lambasted movies in recent memory that earned a lot of ill-will. That is a sizable barrier to overcome.
-Cheers