TNMC

Plot: Unknown.  Presumably picks up shortly after the end of X2, the ending of which would seem to indicate that the next movie would tackle the Dark Phoenix storyline from the comic.

Directed by: Matthew Vaughn
Written by: Zak Penn?
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Alan Cumming
Produced by: Avi Arad
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: June 30, 2006

26 March, 2005

FilmForce is reporting that, despite producer Avi Arad's comments earlier in the week, the main villain in X3 will in fact be Dark Phoenix.  She just won't be the main story.

Huh?

Here's how they describe it:

Well, there's a reason why 20th Century Fox is developing a Wolverine spin-off and not a Jean Grey spin-off. X2 had Wolverine (a relative outsider to the Xavier Institute) finally becoming more of a team player and acting as a guardian of and leader to  the younger mutants who fell under his care. Expect X3 to continue down this path by exploring Logan's growth as a vital member of the X-Men.

Clear?  We don't think so either.  Frankly the whole thing has sounded a little scary since Singer left.

24 March, 2005

Producer Avi Arad talked to Empire a fair bit about all the latest rumors and news on the second X-Men sequel.  First off is the selection of Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake) to direct.   “We are incredibly excited about Matthew,” said Avi. “We love his sensibilities. I thought Layer Cake was incredibly stylish, with a lot of characters. In some ways he had stylistically the look of X-Men, it was very crisp.” 

Concerns that Vaughn lacks sufficient experience don't concern Arad.   “It’s no less a leap than it was for Bryan [Singer, previous X-director, now shooting Superman Returns]. With movies of this size, it’s hard to wing it. He’s very confident, that’s what I like about him. ‘Yeah, I can do that!’

“Just when he had started,” continued Avi, by way of example, “we had some conversation about one of the characters and he says ‘I know how to introduce him’ and I said ‘let’s hear it’ and it was a really smart thing that’s going to be in the movie. It’s a love-fest.”

As for new characters, Arad didn't offer much beyond this comment about Angel.   “It won’t be a female Angel. I don’t know where that came from, maybe because he looks angelic,” he laughed. “There will be interesting characters that will be introduced. It just has to move forward. Obviously we have Wolverine, and Magneto, Professor X, Storm, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Rogue, all these characters, but then you need to freshen up the story and make it new.”

Naturally they asked about the plot, particularly the much rumored Dark Phoenix storyline, but at this Arad grew cryptic.   “It should never be this one story. The main characters are more important than Jean Grey,” said Arad. “This is a bigger story. Everybody’s expecting Dark Phoenix, but Dark Phoenix would never be the main show. She’ll be one of the characters, that’s it. There are a lot of stories to tell.”

Okay, then what about Sentinels?   “It’s funny because when we sat with Tom Rothman [Fox bigwig], he said ‘this has to be an action drama’ and it was music to my ears, because that’s what X-Men is. That opens the door for a concept for this movie that will be disturbing and fascinating and controversial. It will be an interesting debate – should we or shouldn’t we?” 

Is that a yes?   “All I can say is it’s going to be a very interesting dilemma. It’s a very intelligent movie. I think it’s contextually going to be the best. We are so excited.”

Could you by any chance talk in broader terms, you know, try to be more vague?   “We needed something that is very big,” said Avi. “In movie two, it was mutants against humans. In movie one, it was trying to understand. In movie three, it is probably philosophically the most interesting and provocative for all of us.”

There you go, straight from the horse's mouth.  Whatever it is he's talking about.

Alan Cumming is probably now in the enviable position of being only slightly behind Hugh Jackman in the hearts of X-Men fans.  His wonderful portrayal of the mutant teleporter Nightcrawler was an instant hit with the fans.  So his take on the recent defection of director Bryan Singer to Superman is an interesting one.  He told FilmForce,  "No. I'm not disappointed; I cannot deny that. I think he's really talented and I'm very proud of the film and I think it's a great film. I didn't enjoy working with him on the film."

As for where things go from here, Cumming isn't so sure.   "I signed for two films, so I'm going to [do another one]. The last I heard is that we're starting on the 20th of June, but they don't have a script or a director yet… So that may be pushed a little bit. But they have to release it in May of 2006 for some reason, so it's gonna be shot in the summer… It's one of these things that I sort of, I kind of just want to know I'm going to do it 'cause it affects your whole life. You can't do other things cause you know that it's a large amount of time; I'm going to a show on Broadway, which I moved to January of next year just to make sure I finished X-Men… Every film you do you have to tell them just in case they're going to get it together really fast. You're under some options. It's quite weird."

17 July, 2000

X-Men absolutely dominated the box office in its opening weekend, raking in an estimated $57.5 million. That ranks as the fourth largest total of all time for a three day openining weekend. It was the largest opening ever for a non-sequel. The huge opening should prove a shot in the arm for sequels. Fox is hungry for a franchise and it looks like they've got one now. Two sequels are already in the planning stages and the major actors are already under contract for them.

As a result we're going to immediately add pages to this site to cover the planned sequels.

During a live video chat hosted by the official site, Famke Janssen, who played Jean Grey in the original movie, expressed a desire to do a sequel based on the Dark Phoenix storyline.

1 March, 2000

Director Bryan Singer talked about making the movie at the Script to Screen conference last weekend. He made mention of a sequel.

"In doing X-Men, what's appealing to me, is not just that's its more complex and odd than most of these comic books tend to be, but it's also the first. So you can kind of explore, you can say this is mine, for better or worse, there'll be something original in this at least for you."