Author Topic: Bryan Singer on 'X-Men: First Class': It's got to be about Magneto and Professor  (Read 939 times)

BayGBM

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 19684
Bryan Singer on 'X-Men: First Class': It's got to be about Magneto and Professor X

Through the years, comic-book films took audiences to all the predictable places, including the grim streets of Gotham City and the doomed spires of planet Krypton, but, a decade ago, a new type of comic-book film had the audacity to set its opening sequence in a truly unexpected place -- the gates of Auschwitz, where Jewish families were being marched through mud on their way to death and despair.

From those first moments, "X-Men" set itself apart from the entire Hollywood history of comic-book adaptations and marked the beginning of this current era of fanboy cinema, which has dominated the box office and elevated San Diego's Comic-Con International into something resembling a Cannes for capes.

"The opening, it really was a declaration of intent," producer Lauren Shuler Donner said of that sequence, which showed a terrified young boy exhibiting mutant powers as his family was separated by German guards. "It said to the audience this is a serious film, grounded in the realistic and the historic and somewhat dark. It was so smart. And it was all totally Bryan."

That would be Bryan Singer, the director of "X-Men" and its first sequel, who was sitting next to Shuler Donner in her office on a recent afternoon. The pair both had big smiles on their faces -- they had been reunited by an invitation to reminisce about the legacy of the July 2000 release, which they were happy to do, but the conversation kept veering into giddy plans for the future. Singer is returning to the "X-Men" universe, it's clear now, for a project called "X-Men: First Class"; it's all just a matter of timing.

"I had lunch with Hugh Jackman today," Singer said, and Shuler Donner, after asking for an off-the-record moment, pressed the 44-year-old filmmaker for details. A few minutes later, with the recorder back on, Singer said he is mightily enthused to work again with Shuler Donner, who has produced two X-films without him, the Brett Ratner-directed "X-Men: The Last Stand" in 2006 and the Gavin Hood-directed "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" in 2009.

"I genuinely like the people, and my personality meshes more with this universe than it does with other universes, I think; I see that now at this point," Singer said, no doubt referring to his defection to the DC Comics universe to make the oddly lifeless 2006 movie "Superman Returns." "I feel a connection to the X-Men characters and also the ensemble nature of the films. If you look at 'Usual Suspects'' or my last film, 'Valkyrie,'  I feel especially comfortable with ensemble juggling. In the space between all the characters you can disguise a central thought that's hidden in all the discourse. I missed that with the singular relationship story of Superman. And, well, it always gives you something to cut to..."

More on the future of "X-Men: First Class" in a moment, but first let's cut to the past -- 1999, when the Hollywood approach to comic books was a far different one...

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/herocomplex/2010/03/bryan-singer-and-the-xmen-together-again.html

magicuser

  • Guest
and the holohoax!

BayGBM

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 19684