Although the region 1 DVD is only being released in a bland old single disc release (with varying outlets spicing it up with their own special "exclusive" promos), the X-Men: The Last Stand DVDs are simply flying off the shelves. Industry numbers say X-Men has moved 2.6 million units, including significantly higher than usual sales to rental agencies. However, all may not be well in retail sales land: X-Men Film News, a great fansite, is claiming a semi-major error in production. Apparently, an unknown number of the single disc sales shipped with 21 deleted scenes, while the standard disc should have only included 10. The rest, according to an insider tipster, were meant to be held until the special two-disc feature sometime next year. There's no rhyme or reason to the delivery as far as anyone can tell; you just roll the old dice when you pick up a copy and hope you got a winner. X-Men Film News also points out the Fox sales poster may be quietly admitting to the error (if the tipster was correct, they knew about it pretty quickly), as the promo posters claim "Three alternate endings, two menu viewing options, and several deleted scenes." See it for yourself here. (Why did I suddenly have a flashback to Willy Wonka and his golden tickets?)

Regular readers will know I was greatly disappointed by the severe lack of Gambit in the most recent X-Men movie ... or in any X-Men movie to date, for that matter. This most recent film seemed to pack in mutants at every possible opportunity, including some pretty crazy ones, and still didn't manage to bring me Remy LeBeau. Gambit is not my favorite mutant, but he ranks reasonably high on the list (when he's not busy being Death, anyway). Simon Kinberg, one of the primary script authors for X-Men: The Last Stand recently made some comments explaining why they chose not to bring Gambit on board, and they at least make some sense.

Kinberg basically said "We wrote a cameo for him, and then really felt like it was better to save Gambit and give him a major role in a future X-Men movie, rather than give him a cameo where fans would be saying " ... that's all I get of Gambit?"" And he's correct in this matter, I think. Had they chose to cram him in somewhere without giving him a place on the team I probably would have been just as disappointed as I was by his not existing at all. The question now seems to be... future X-Men movie? I thought we were all pretending the franchise ends here. ...

A day before they make their big screen return, the X-Men will be making their radio debut, thanks to a clever team-up promotional with the folks over at XM Radio. The pay service satellite radio will feature an X-Men "takeover" on May 25 involving a full eight channels and almost a dozen cast members from The Last Stand. Some of them, like Halle Berry and Kelsey Grammer, will be taking on solo roles as radio hosts for the day, discussing whatever they want to about the film while spinning their favorite genre hits for whichever station they've claimed (did you know Patrick Stewart has a thing for classical British music?).  Others will be joining the regular hosts for Q-and-A sessions about the upcoming movie, with as many as three cast members in the same interview. You can dig the full schedule here for all your mutant radio freedom needs.

As far as quirky and unusual movie promotions go, I think this one is actually pretty sweet. Radio interviews are pretty standard, but a full-on takeover (while silly) is a rather amusing idea. And really, I want to meet the guy who isn't interested in hearing Patrick Stewart host his own radio show.