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Lauren Shuler Donner Talks Deadpool & X-Men Prequels

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The wonderful people at Empire have landed a big interview with Lauren Shuler Donner where she foretells the future of all the X-Men spinoffs. Not surprisingly, the majority of their energy is being focused on Wolverine's adventures in Japan, and he'll be seeing production long before Deadpool, X-Men: First Class, and Magneto. While it's heartening to hear they don't plan on straying from the Chris Claremont / Frank Miller story, I'll need an amnesia bullet to forget at all the continuity errors in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, so I'm not going to hold my breath.

The best news belongs to the Deadpool spinoff. According to Donner, you can forget all about the abomination called Deadpool in Wolverine. "I want to ignore the version of Deadpool that we saw in Wolverine and just start over again. Reboot it. Because this guy talks, obviously, and to muzzle him would be insane." Don't look for Hal Jordan to jeopardize the future of Wade Wilson, either. "I don't see it as a problem that Ryan [Reynolds] is also playing Green Lantern. I mean, look at Harrison Ford - he was in Stars Wars and Indiana Jones at the same time and everyone was fine with that. Green Lantern could not be more different to Wade Wilson." Donner promises it will be a "dark, snarky, very funny movie," echoes Reynolds' fourth wall promises, and stresses it may be one of the hardest stories Fox has handled thus far.

Donner also made X-Men: First Class sound a lot more promising than previous stories did, but maybe I'm just softening on the idea. As you may remember, First Class will be loosely based on the comic series and will follow the early adventures and schooling of the X-Men we already know and love.

Go below the jump for more

Fox's Plans for the 'X-Men First Class' Franchise

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Fox's plans for X-Men: First Class became official back in November, assigning Josh Schwartz the enjoyable task of scripting an adventure for up-and-coming X-Men. At the time, it wasn't clear if the film would be based on the comic book series that follows a young Cyclops & Co, or if it would be a sequel to X3 that followed Kitty Pryde, Iceman, and Colossus.

Lauren Shuler-Donner gave the answer during big interview on Fox's Life After Film School show and to the surprise of no one, X-Men: First Class will be a prequel. "It is the first class of Xavier's school, way back when, so it's young Scott, young Jean, young Beast and that'll be really fun. I think [the plan] is to follow some of the characters into their own stories, and weave them back into the X-Men world. And hopefully First Class will become its own franchise and we can follow them as they grow up." Given that a young Cyclops appears in X-Men Origin: Wolverine, the plans are obviously already in motion.

Personally, I was hoping for a series that did follow the "new class," because then we could have a Wolverine and Kitty Pryde match-up. It seems a bit dull to have a series following characters you know survive to become X-Men -- but considering I happily read Wolverine: First Class my argument isn't exactly watertight. At least the transformation from Beast from a man to a furry blue cat would be interesting ... but really, shouldn't Fox be looking forward with their characters, not back?

[via Comics Continuum]

Geek Daily: X-Men: First Class, Wolverine Cameos, and Ramona Flowers

Filed under: Action », Independent », Romance », Paramount », Warner Brothers », RumorMonger », 20th Century Fox », DIY/Filmmaking », Newsstand », Movie Marketing », Comic/Superhero/Geek », Remakes and Sequels », Images »



Rick Marshall was right -- thanks to the major studios toning it down for NYCC, we're getting a lot of nice updates on the "smaller" comic book films from the con. Remember X-Men: First Class? Josh Schwartz confirmed to MTV Splash Page that he is writing the film, but not directing it. They're only just getting started with the script, so he was tight-lipped on who the First Class will be. He did say they won't be tackling Dark Phoenix, but the fact that he even mentions the story-of-all-stories makes me wonder if First Class will be a young Cyclops, Jean Gray, Beast, etc.

Especially when you consider who all is (and isn't) getting a cameo in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Widescreen Vision caught up with Lauren Shuler Donner, who revealed that a Storm cameo had been filmed, but was going to be cut. Which means there's probably a little Scott Summers in this film, as hinted by a character list in France's Climax Magazine -- and that itself confirms rumors we had last year. Despite that everyone you ever met in X-Men is going to be in it, Shuler Donner also revealed the film will be "well under" 2 hours. Uh oh.

Paramount announced that a third Star Trek trailer will be attached to Watchmen on March 6. Considering the Super Bowl TV spot excited no one (and marketing wise, that was really a time to win over the "new audience" this reboot is aiming for) this might be their final chance to kick ass.

TFW2005 has posted more toy images of what is believed to be The Fallen and Devastator from Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. The Fallen kinda looks like an Alien/Predator baby (in metallic form), and hopefully that's a good thing. Devastator, meanwhile, just looks big and bad and powerful. We should warn you of spoilers, and you can check both out by clicking the image below.


'X-Men: First Class' Actually Happening

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The Avengers won't be the only Marvel superteam on the big screen -- the X-Men are returning! According to Variety, 20th Century Fox is kicking X-Men: First Class into gear by hiring Josh Schwartz to pen the screenplay. Schwartz was also offered the director's chair, but he declined, leaving the job open for now. Schwartz's specialty is teen fare -- he's the man behind Gossip Girl, The OC, and Chuck. Happily, Lauren Shuler Donner will be producing, so it should stay on the right track, and not stray too far into silly teen fare.

The studio is keeping quiet on the finer points, but it's unlikely that it will revolve around the teenage versions of Cyclops & Co, as the series X-Men: First Class actually does. Instead, they'll be using the young X-wannabes introduced in the previous three films, like Iceman, Angel, Rogue, Kitty Pryde, Jubilee (if you can call her cameo an introduction), and Colossus. I'd love it if they kept it current to the comics by mixing some of the Astonishing students, like Blindfold and Armor in -- especially if Armor replaced Jubilee.


'Gossip Girl' Creator is Developing a New 'X-Men' Script

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We're already getting a bigger taste of Wolverine with X-Men Origins, and Magneto is also on the way, but now it looks like we're getting another new group picture. Black Book Magazine reportedly spoke with Gossip Girl creator Josh Schwartz, who says he's developing a prequel, but it isn't one like Origins. (What's with the desire for all these X-Men prequels!?)

Schwartz says: "I'm very well aware that I'll be bludgeoned by purists, but I love its mythology, and it comes with a pretty hefty paycheck." His idea for this whole affair is to follow a teen who attends the Xavier Institute. He says he won't be adding any new characters, so the question becomes: Which lucky X-Men character will Schwartz focus on? The writer goes on to diss The Incredible Hulk, saying that it "looks like it's going to be terrible. And why does he look like he's fighting against the monster from Cloverfield?" So, if he can pull this off to his tastes, it should be, at the very least, better than Hulk.

Even after the disappointment of the latest X-Men movie, I'd love to see another movie pop up with more than just Wolverine or Magneto. Unlike most action or geek fare movies, where I fall for the movie as a whole, I really dig a lot of the characters in X-Men and the way the actors portray them. I've spoken before about how much Hugh Jackman rocks as Wolverine, but there's also Magneto, Professor X, Mystique, and my other big favorite -- Anna Paquin's Rogue. But this will be something entirely different, and I wouldn't be surprised if it's a whole different set of actors. So, does this sound good to you, and which character should Schwartz be focusing on?

[via Ace Showbiz]
 
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