Magneto 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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Everybody loves a bad guy. They usually get the best lines, a great entrance, and a hell of a death scene. But our love affair with the dark side is no secret, and as much as we might love the bad boys, we all enjoy a good 'comeuppance', which is usually where our heroes come in. Hell, probably one of the biggest reasons most of us love the world of make-believe is that at least there, the good guys can win. Occasionally, though, you find a villain with qualities that go a little beyond being the 'man/woman you love to hate', and before you know it, that monster has managed to win you over before the credits have rolled -- which isn't always good news for our heroes.

Now this doesn't mean that I think these villains are model citizens, because well, I'm not that psycho. But when these guys are on screen, suddenly the 'hero' of the piece starts to fade away, and when your audience is bummed when the bad guy goes down, you know that you've created a villain who is just too damn charismatic for their own good. These characters can pop up in anything from a comic book flick to a period drama, but the one thing they have in common is their ability to make you think, "Hey, he's nuts, but he might have a point". So that's why for today's installment of our monthly tribute to villains, I've put together a list of my top 5 movie villains with charm to spare.

After the jump; my top five movie villains that will win you over in the end...

Poor Bryan Singer. He may have X-Men and X2 under his belt, but a lot of fans will never forgive him for selling out the mutants in favor of Superman ... and we won't go into the Superman thing again.

But Singer is sorry. Very sorry. In fact, he told Total Film that he made a terrible mistake and that he regretted not directing X3 "before I was watching it, during watching it, after watching it." (Join the club, Singer.) He was quick to amend his longing with praise for a little praise for Brett Ratner, though. "It's weird for me to watch it, because I'm so close to the universe. And also Brett is a good friend of mine. But, of course, I would love to return to that universe." How to return is a problem now that the series has devolved into spin-offs and prequels, and he's understandably reluctant to return through one of the avenues open to him: a Magneto origin story. "The only thing that concerns me about Magneto is that if the prequel were to follow the track I used in X-Men, which is Magneto's history in the concentration camp, then I've lived in that world. Apt Pupil, X-Men and now Valkyrie ... I've lived in that Nazi universe for quite a while. I just might need to take a little break before I do something like that."

Yesterday we brought you a shoddy You Tube-ish look at the new X-Men Origins: Wolverine trailer, but now MySpace has unveiled the cleaner version and it looks damn good. Very dark, very mysterious -- lots of action, lots of people to fight. I guess that's what you'd expect from a Wolverine flick, right? At first glance, I wasn't crazy about a few special effects sequences (for example, the hanging on to the helicopter bit didn't look great), but Liev Schreiber looks devilish as Sabretooth, and some of the quieter scenes really appear crisp and sharp and worth watching. Real interested to see how this flick will hold up against the other X-Men movies. From what I've heard, X-Men Origins: Wolverine is pretty damn dark and daunting, which is something that's worked for other comic films. As previously mentioned, should this movie become successful, we'll see an origins story for Magneto next.

Check out the trailer below and let us know what you think. X-Men Origins: Wolverine slashes its way into theaters on May 1, 2009.




Just Added: Check out over 40 stills from the new Wolverine trailer below ...

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?

No matter how you look at it, one group of dedicated fans aren't going to be very happy about this. In an interview with MTV Movies blog, writer/director David Goyer dropped the hint that his X-Men origin flick Magneto may be taking a back seat to his Invisible Man update -- not the choice I would have made, but maybe Goyer is a little 'Superheroed' out. Goyer tells MTV that Magneto, "may be next," but he wouldn't confirm which film is going to get priority on his schedule, saying, "So it could be 'Magneto,' or it could be 'The Invisible Man' next." -- Gee Dave, thanks for clearing that up.

Goyer's Invisible update is just the latest in a series of adaptations of the classic H.G. Wells story on the big screen. Universal famously adapted the novella in 1933, with Claude Rains as the invisible Jack Griffin, and don't forget about the embarrassingly bad comedy version starring Chevy Chase back in 1992. Goyer told MTV that his story, "involves Scotland Yard getting their hands on the current Invisible Man and basically saying, 'Wow, you'd be a really good secret agent to send into Imperial Russia right now,'" an enthusiastic Goyer said of the plot. "It starts off from there." -- I'm suddenly having flashbacks to The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and that is not a good sign.

So the real question is: What does this mean for Magneto? We all know that there is no danger that the film won't get made (No please, don't bring that dump truck full of money to the studio doors), but his work on The Dark Knight earned Goyer the reputation of 'Patron saint of comic book movies' (well, until Watchmen is released anyway), and it will be hard to top that; you can't blame the guy for wanting a break.

Stay tuned to Cinematical for the official word on which film will cross the finish line first.

Like we doubted it for a second! But I always love hearing from Sir Ian McKellen, he's just so gracious and charming. Empire caught him at the Speed Racer premiere, and made him speak the words to quicken the hearts of all Middle Earth fans. "Yes, it's true," he said. "I spoke to Guillermo in the very room that Peter Jackson offered me the part and he confirmed that I would be reprising the role. Obviously, it's not a part that you turn down, I loved playing Gandalf."

And Gandalf loves being onscreen. "We talk occasionally and he's looking forward to coming out of retirement, yes. Guillermo will be getting around to starting the script in about six weeks when he's finished filming Hellboy 2."

As to how they will finagle two movies out of one book, even Gandalf isn't privy to the inside information, but he's not at all worried. "Well I've read The Hobbit so I've got a good idea of what the story would be. But as to how it's going to work over two films and what's going to happen on screen, well Guillermo has not got down to working out the major details yet – I can tell you it's going to be amazing though."

Rumors, more rumors ... and I wonder what Brendan Fraser is doing for Chanukah ...

According to Lying in the Gutters, plans are currently in the works to send the X-Men universe straight to DVD. Not talking about the highly-anticipated Wolverine or Magneto flicks -- those will remain on the big screen; however, they may take some other, lesser-known X-Men characters (like the one based on me -- Lazy Fat Man) and shovel out a series of lower-budgeted DVDs. Additionally, and this may or may not be related, director Joe Carnahan recently teased readers of his blog with an image of Juggernaut, followed by the line "I'll let you guys go nuts on this one." Could he be in line to helm or produce a Juggernaut DVD spin-off? Or is that his way of telling us Vinnie Jones (who played Juggernaut in the film) was cast in one of his two upcoming flicks, Killing Pablo or White Jazz? Guess we'll know more soon ... [via JoBlo]

It's been rumored for months now that Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (did you see the newly released pics?) will involve some sort of alien encounter. Well, according to Movieweb, they claim to have inside knowledge on the aliens featured, and -- guess what -- we've seen them before. Yup, I won't spoil the entire what-to-do, but let's just say director Steven Spielberg might be looking to pay homage to an older film of his by including the same creatures in his latest adventure. While it's only a rumor, Spielberg is known for doing stuff like this in a number of his films, so I wouldn't put it past him. Question is: Will it turn out to be totally lame, or, even better, will anyone even get the reference? Head over to Movieweb for the complete spoiler-ish rundown. [via Moviehole]

Director Rob Cohen has been pimping out his latest film, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, over on the film's official blog for awhile now; shoveling out images, videos, what have you. And in case you still don't know a thing about the flick ("Doesn't it star Brendan Fraser as a Jewish kid who fights Mummies in Asia?"), then you'll want to check out this brand new synopsis for the franchise's third installment. Here's a taste: "Brendan Fraser returns as explorer Rick O'Connell to combat the resurrected Han Emperor (Jet Li) in an epic that races from the catacombs of ancient China high into the frigid Himalayas." Okay, but what about the part when Matt Damon gets called a prick?