August 15, 2005
X-Men cast, story and gossip updates
There's more X-Men 3 news over at Comic Book Movie. Let me summarise without too many spoilers:
1. Bill Duke is in (Predator, Mac "Anytime") as a scientist
2. The Sentinels are in
3. Focus on Dark Pheonix
4. Claudia Schiffer says hubby Matthew Vaughn didn't direct for more reasons than just his family. A suggestion that perhaps he didn't like the movie!
Now, here's the quotes.
Bill Duke (Predator, Commando, The Limey) will reportedly play a scientist (Trask) who created the Sentinels in X-Men 3......The storyline reportedly will revolve around the Jean Grey/Phoenix storyline and reports say the producers want to fast-forward to the Dark Phoenix saga in the same film, according to the Web site...
...Claudia Schiffer told the Guardian that..."Actually, there were several reasons he turned it down. We would have all traveled together and lived wherever was necessary. We would have made it work if he had loved everything else about that project, but he didn't," she said.
Considering the original rumours were sounding so negative, however the idea that they're going to focus on Dark Pheonix is a ray of light in the darkness of rumour. Doug and John are 1-gazzillion percent right on the latest Audio Edition, if they did it right it would gush money for them, yet they're just on the road to murdering it - check out their comments ("keep Alan Cummings", oh I giggled!).
Posted by at August 15, 2005 02:18 PM
Comments
Posted by: David Blue at August 15, 2005 03:54 PM
IGN has confirmed that Duke is in X3, but not in the role stated above. He's going to be one of the President's cabinet advisors, and Oliva Williams (Sixth Sense) is Moira MacTaggert, which seems to strengthen the plot of the Legacy Virus.
Posted by: darren seeley at August 15, 2005 09:54 PM
This is like a superhero version of Lord Of The Rings, if Peter Jackson had walked away to do something more profitable after The Fellowship Of The Ring and The Two Towers, leaving The Return Of The King to be completed by anyone who wanted it, or just left undone.
Other reasonable comparisons might be the third and forth Superman movies and the third and fourth Batman movies, the Joel Schumacher ones. But I think those comparisons fall short. because the X-Men series has always had much more fidelity, integrity and structure, so that the upcoming movie beckons for a sense of completion; and because the playing pieces that are about to be moved onto the board are so big. It's like if they'd held back Doctor Doom and Galactus for the third Fantastic Four movie.
Also, so many characters are coming in, all of them need a sense of origin.
By leaving so much of what will define the X-Men in movies - the really big stuff, the Sentinels and Dark Phoenix - for later, Brian Singer has bequeathed a great gift on those who follow him. This is the big cash-in.
Storm control may well turn out to be the miracle ingredient that gives all these things structure and purpose, by focusing on a central character. I'll be very happy if it works.
Alternately, we can all wait a few decades and hope that someone rustles up an all-new cast and starts filming X-Men Begin. We might even get a short Wolverine next time. (grin)