Matthew Vaughn's 'Kick-Ass' co-writer is re-writing 'X-Men: First Class' for him
Definitely a good sign regarding the film's potential
Jane Goldman made international news with her dress at the "Kick-Ass" premiere, but it's her work on a word processor that makes her Matthew Vaughn's secret weapon.
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The first hint that this might be happening came, as so many hints do these days, from Twitter.
Jonathan Ross, or @wossy, is the outspoken English TV host and comic book/movie supergeek who happens to be married to the charming and wicked-smart Jane Goldman. She was Matthew Vaughn's co-writer on both "Kick-Ass" and "Stardust," and based on my time watching the two of them together on-set, I'd say that she's a key collaborative part of Matthew Vaughn's process. The script that the two of them wrote for "The Debt," a Helen Mirren film that is still looking for a release date, is probably the strongest thing they've written together yet, and a clear indication that they're capable of far more than just post-modern comic book riffing.
About the same time that Matthew Vaughn was confirmed by Fox as the director of "X-Men: First Class," Ross posted something about how his wife's new job would keep her busy for the next ten weeks.
Hmmmm...
I tried to verify the news through the regular channels, but before I could even get a response, Ross did it himself. Today, he posted that his wife is away from home working on "X-Men 4." Okay, then. Unless we hear that they've broken the team up so Goldman can write a future X-Men film with Matthew's working on "First Class," I'm going to take this as confirmation that Vaughn is indeed customizing this movie as he works to get it ready for a mid-summer production start.
This is great news, frankly. No offense to anyone who has worked on the script already (Josh Schwartz was the first guy to take a crack at it, and then Jamie Moss took a crack at it, and "Thor" writers Zack Stentz and Ashley Edward Miller also had a turn), but for a director to have any hope at actually making a film like this coherent and personal in any way, they need to figure out a way to bring it all together. Matthew Vaughn is a filmmaker who likes to work with the same crew, the same cast, the same people around him. He and Jane share a sensibility, and they have a similar approach to outrageous material. I'm sure there's good material in all of the drafts that already exist, but I'm also sure that after something's been through that many hands, you start to see fingerprints on it, and it stops being something that feels like a cohesive whole. Having Goldman's voice in the mix, working with Vaughn in the two months or so between now and the start of the production, could be exactly what the film needs to work.
Now if only they'd hire Michael Fassbender as young Magneto...
"X-Men: First Class" is due in theaters June 3, 2011.
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Login or create a HitFix account Login SignupBugKiller
May 10, 2010 at 8:06PM EST Reply to CommentThis all sounds good Drew...
... right up until Master of Suckatude and Douche Bag of the Decade Tom Rothman gets his hands on this film.
Because you know that mofo is out there somewhere, lurking, and waiting to ruin this film, as he ruined X3, the horrible Fantastic Four flicks, and his neutering of Daredevil.
It's hard to get ANY good feelings about this flick as long as FOX continues to employ that supreme a-hole.
blue_flames Amen to that BugKiller. I so want to be excited about this but I just can't get behind it because of TR, and I'm still surprised that MV decided to take the job TBH, I'd like to think if was in his shoes I would've held out for a Marvel Studios gig rather than taking a job at Fox.
May 11, 2010 at 1:22AM ESTI'm trying to be optimistic (even tho it doesn't sound like it here) but I'll be 0% shocked if it turns into a typical Fox clusterfk.
Brent
May 10, 2010 at 8:43PM EST Reply to CommentIs the current script even the same one that Schwartz and Moss worked on? I thought that was tossed out and the current script by the "Thor" writers is based on a new story treatment from Bryan Singer?
Richie Tenenbaum
May 10, 2010 at 10:50PM EST Reply to CommentFassbender as Magneto is an AWESOME call. I know nothing about this particular comic property, and thus know nothing about the age range and likely cast of characters involved in First Class. Are we talking about young Storm and boring stuff like that? Or is this a chance to "reboot" wasted characters like Cyclops and Beast? Curious and somewhat excited about this...
washington
May 11, 2010 at 12:22PM EST Reply to CommentSort of ironic that JoBlo is swiping your scoops without credit while they are going after that dude on YouTube for plagiarism.
McNulty
May 11, 2010 at 2:17PM EST Reply to CommentI feel kinda bad for Schwartz, I too was under the impression his script was more about a whole new class of young X-men not a reinvention of the previous characters so I imagine his script was pretty much done away with.
Personally I don't really think this was the right comic book project for Schwartz. I really think his grasp of teenage angst and dry humor would work much much better on the Spiderman reboot. People can rip on the O.C. and Gossip girl if they want but the kind of lines he wrote for Seth Cohen on the O.C. would play pretty well coming from a pubescent Spiderman.