LaurenShulerDonner Tagged Articles at Cinematical

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.

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It's a real non-surprise that mere days after the premiere of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, confirmed sequels and spin-offs have begun hitting the trades. (Of course, they had been basically a go-ahead since filming on Wolverine began, but that goes without saying.) Yesterday, Fox and Hugh Jackman confirmed they were actively developing a Wolverine sequel set in Japan, today the MTV Splash Page got the official word that they were going ahead with a Deadpool spin-off. (Variety and The Hollywood Reporter subsequently confirmed the story, but it did arise on MTV first.)

Of course, if you saw Wolverine -- spoiler warning ahead -- you are undoubtedly wondering how this could be since Deadpool was cleanly beheaded by our feral hero. But those of you who stuck around for the credits and got the Deadpool secret ending saw that he picked up his head, broke the fourth wall to shush you, and went on his merry way. I'm going to assume that a Deadpool spin-off would actually proceed from this point, and not delve into Wilson's background pre-Wolverine. That would also go along with comments Ryan Reynolds made claiming he wasn't playing Deadpool in Wolverine, but Wade Wilson and the creature who becomes Deadpool. Considering what they did to that "creature," fans may be really glad there's some wiggle room in that statement.

Personally, I think they could retcon that, have Wilson stuck rotting in some cell, and pass that Deadpool wannabe off as some kind of clone. Stupider things were done in that film, I could excuse that rewrite ... and as Reynolds has said he wants a film that sticks to the character continuity, there might be some hope for the Merc with a Mouth.

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]

The countdown for X-Men Origins: Wolverine might have already begun, but what about a certain other origin story that fans had been promised for 2009? In an interview with with Empire, X-Men producer Lauren Shuler Donner finally gave an update on Magneto, and the good news is the film is alive and well in spite of the delays. According to Donner, "I think first we wanted to make Wolverine, and then David [Goyer, the attached director] took another film, and there wasn't a lot of time, but I'd like to make that – we'll have to see." OK, it might not be the most definitive answer on the state of the project, but it certainly sounds a lot more reassuring than what Goyer came up with a while back.

Last September, details on the script had been leaked, but now Donner has provided a more 'official' glimpse at the script, saying, "We have a script on Magneto which is actually sort of Magneto and Charles Xavier, it's Erik and Charles in their early, early years." The new synopsis sounds like a bit of departure to what was reported back in '07, but it does fit with the story details that were also reported in Production Weekly. According to PW, "The storyline will heavily involve Professor X -- That character was a soldier in the allied force that liberated the concentration camps. The professor meets Magneto after the war and while they bond over the realization that they are alike in their special powers, their differences soon turn them into enemies."

It has been over almost two years now that fans have been salivating over the prospect of the adventures of a young Magneto in his own feature film. But, with Goyer otherwise engaged, and barely a mention of who might be donning that fetching purple helmet, it looks like it could still be some time before Erik finally gets his moment in the sun -- let's just keep our fingers crossed, shall we?

Fox has not had a good year -- and as with most drama-filled issues, they really have only themselves to blame. Variety points out that they were the only studio this summer that didn't have a $100 million domestic earner. What they did have was a lot of widely-derided flops like The Happening, Space Chimps, and Meet Dave. They also had films that might have done well, had they chosen to actually sell them, like The X-Files: I Want to Believe. They were also dealt a bit of bad luck when it came to X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which was supposed to come out this summer, making it the greatest superhero year ever, but was delayed due to Hugh Jackman's commitment to Australia. (A film which the studio is really hoping bails them out come fall, along with Marley and Me.)

Faced with so much failure and drama, what is a studio to do? Well, turn to superheroes, of course! As you read this, they're holding strategy meetings to dust off or create some new franchises off their comic book properties. They're looking at more X-Men spinoffs, including a young X-Men project that might just be X-Men First Class. They're also looking at giving Deadpool his own movie -- which seems a no-brainer when you have Ryan Reynolds playing him in Wolverine. Why, they're even looking at reviving Daredevil. (Frank Miller and Jason Statham, call on line two.) It's enough to wind up any Marvel fan.

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Replace Rwandan refugees with dogs and what do you get? Don Cheadle's next film. The actor, who earned an Oscar nomination for Hotel Rwanda, has been cast in the similarly titled yet very differently themed movie Hotel for Dogs. It isn't just the title of the new project that reminds us of the earlier film; the synopsis provided by Variety tells us that Hotel for Dogs features a hotel that serves as a refuge and sanctuary for beings that would otherwise be dispose of. Of course, this time they are in fact dogs and not human victims of a civil war in Africa. Last month, when Monika brought you the story of Hotel for Dogs, it was said that Emma Roberts (I'll continue reminding you that she's Julia's niece) would star as one of two orphaned teens who hide stray dogs in an abandoned hotel. We had also learned that it was based on a 1971 children's book by Lois Duncan and that it would be effects artist Thor Freudenthal's directorial debut. The adaptation has been scripted by Jeff Lowell (John Tucker Must Die) and is being produced by Jon Gordon, Lauren Shuler Donner (Unaccompanied Minors) and Jack Leslie.

Cheadle apparently will not be a hotel manager this time. Instead, he will play a social worker who keeps the teens out of trouble. I can't find a plot description of the book, but I have a feeling that his role will not be too huge. Seeing as how he mostly appears in R-rated films (including his other 'Dog' title, The Dog Problem), Cheadle is probably just doing this for his preteen daughters. Despite coming from a book by Duncan, who also wrote the source of I Know What You Did Last Summer, this movie will likely be more family friendly. Hotel for Dogs begins shooting in early November, which is probably just after Cheadle finishes the espionage thriller Traitor and should fill some time while he continues to wait on start date announcements for the biopics about Toussaint L'Ouverture and Miles Davis.

In Hollywood, people win so many awards they apparently have trouble juggling them all. Producer Lauren Shuler Donner (X-Men franchise; She's the Man) was honored at the Women in Film Crystal and Lucy Awards on Tuesday night, and she accidentally dropped her made-of-crystal Crystal Award on the ground and broke it.

The two other winners of the Crystal Award were an overwhelmed Jennifer Lopez and songwriter Dianne Warren (Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing"). Maria Bello received "The MaxMara Award" for the "Face of the Future" and Geena Davis was given The Lucy Award, which is named for Lucille Ball. After accepting her award, Davis made a speech about the gender imbalance still going on in movies and television, saying it isn't getting better.

I think it has gotten a little better, hasn't it? Okay, so there being more female superhero roles isn't a great breakthrough, especially when they're in movies like Catwoman and Aeon Flux. I get it.