Love him or hate him, you've got to hand it to Brett Ratner for keeping his career in motion. Variety brings word that the hustling filmmaker plans to take his Rat Entertainment company from New Line, where it first settled in 1996, to a first-look deal with Paramount Pictures. Ratner says the departure of New Line execs Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne in February convinced him it was time to move on. At Paramount, Ratner will probably get bigger budgets and executives more receptive to his blockbuster-ready concepts. Stating the obvious, Ratner told Variety he "will not be pitching art films. I want to make major tentpole movies." You don't say?

Unless you're Scott Foundas, you probably balk at the idea of more Ratner movies populating the mainstream film scene, but the guy does fit the proper archetype of the classic Hollywood powerhouse. A modern day Sammy Glick, he knows how to make movies that bring out the audiences, whether or not they're any good. But maybe that determination means that, one day, Ratner will make a lot of great movies. His planned Hugh Hefner biopic sounds promising -- or at least, appropriate.

Still, that's a little ways off. Encouraged by his experience with X-Men: The Last Stand, Ratner decided he wanted to work on a new superhero franchise, so he's adapting Valiant Comics' Harbinger. Also in his queue: Beverly Hills Cop 4, The Incredible Shrinking Man and The Boys From Brazil. Do these projects get anyone excited? Anyone at all?

Talk about a guy who could use a hug (or three), Joss Whedon is doing his best to glue back together his broken heart following the severe beat-down his ego has received over the course of the past year. After opting not to replace Bryan Singer as director on X-Men 3 in order to dive head first into the shallow puddle that was Wonder Woman, Whedon now finds himself no longer attached to a comic adaptation, and content with moving forward on his next project -- an original flick called Goners, which he will write and direct.

In speaking with Wizard Universe, Whedon immediately addressed those rumors that pegged him as the leading contender to helm an X-Men 4. He says, "I haven't heard the rumor, but there is no rumor that is not swirling. I don't even know, are they even going to have an X4? I had been talking with [Marvel Studios] about X3, but the dates didn't line up. So I took on Wonder Woman, and that worked out great! Oh, no wait, I remember now, not so much." He goes on to admit that he "wouldn't say never," but seems more interested in telling his own stories right now, rather than "doing someone else's thing." After reading the interview (which, might I add, is quite good), you can't help but feel for the guy; prior to his work on Wonder Woman, Whedon had also pitched his own big-screen version of Batman, only to lose out to Christopher Nolan. He notes: "I still stay up late at night thinking how cool my Batman movie could have been, and I liked Batman Begins a lot. I thought it had some awesome stuff I would never have come up with, but I still think about what I could have done. That's the problem when you throw your heart into those things; it just stays there." [Cue Lisa Loeb's Stay -- Fade Out on lone tear sliding down Whedon's cheek.]

Even though I've never found myself attracted to his Firefly/Serenity/Buffy stuff, Whedon's original voice has landed him a pretty massive fanbase. You can sense he's passionate about the stories he wants to tell, if only someone, somewhere finally gives him the opportunity. For much more from Whedon on the Wonder Woman debacle and his new flick Goners, as well his thoughts on the big-screen Marvel vs. DC battle, check out the Wizard Universe interview here.

The DVD version of Brett Ratner's installment in the X-Men franchise, X-Men: The Last Stand, is coming soon to a store near you. However, If you find yourself unable to wait for the scant week remaining, and you just must have some new X-action now, you can surf on over to Comics2Film (make sure you find the posts for September 25th) and check out five new extended/deleted scenes from the upcoming DVD release. It is nothing phenomenally mind blowing, and the DVD will certainly have tons more to offer, but it is new material with Marvel mutants in it, which has to be worth something for the X-Men fans out there.

Oddly, I don't actually own the second X-Men film, and I'm not in a big hurry to go out and purchase part three, either. I enjoyed both of the flicks at least enough to merit an interest in DVD purchasing, but I'm wary of buying them before they launch in a fancy trilogy set which I know I'll desire. Anyone want to place wagers on how long before the X-Men boxed set including all three movies and yet more "never before seen footage" appears on shelves everywhere?

Before I start this post, I just want you to notice that I avoided using the "X-Clusive" pun in the title. It was tough, trust me, but I managed to dodge the bullet. You're welcome.

Okay, there has been general murmurings of discontent since Fox announced that, while they have indeed put together a fancy two-disc feature set for the DVD release of X-Men 3: The Last Stand, it will not be shared with American audiences until they've had time to bleed some extra cash from us by releasing a crappy single disc feature first, in a classic "double dipping" move. However, you can console yourself, if you so desire, by purchasing your DVD at Wal-Mart, where you will be given an extra bonus DVD with 50 some minutes of exclusive behind the scenes footage. It isn't the fancy special edition you know they'll be selling to you later, but hey, it is a chance to spend twenty bucks on a movie you can spend thirty more bucks on in a few months. Aren't you the lucky one?

Patrick Stewart has been vocally leading the way for a fourth X-Men film, loudly and repeatedly voicing his disbelief in the studio's insistence that this is indeed the final film. His fellow actors have chimed in on both sides ... but the studio remains strong in their denial. In a recent interview, Stewart admitted both that he had no actual knowledge of a sequel, and that the film people keep telling him there will be no more -- but he still doesn't seem to quite buy it. In the meantime, he said he has no plans other than his twelve month contract with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Stewart again said the work he has done on the X-films was fantastically fun and he'd love to do it again: "I read piles of comic books. It was the most fun research that I've ever done. I always do a lot of research for roles and all I did was read. The studio just sent over a huge pile of comic books and my son said, 'And they're paying you?'"

So do you think the studio actually finished with X-Men, or do you, like Stewart, believe it's just a clever ploy to milk as much cash as they can from part three? Or perhaps it is somewhere in between. Might the studio be waiting to see the final box office numbers before making an official decision on a return? And don't you wish someone would pay you to read piles of comic books?

Remember, last week, when everyone was all fired up about how The Da Vinci Code, with $77 million, had scored the year's biggest open? And how all the haters were being told to stick it? Well a bunch of mutants went out this weekend and just beat the crap out of Robert Langdon and his stupid code. Ladies and gentlemen, meet the new champion of 2006: after that crazy first 24 hours, X-Men: The Last Stand went on to make $107 million in three days, giving it not only 2006's richest debut, but also the fourth-biggest North American opening weekend ever. Yeah, you could say that the folks at Fox are pretty happy.

Though most studios will send out their official weekend estimates later today, the three day totals have The Da Vinci Code in the second spot with about $33.5 million through Sunday, followed by Over the Hedge with $27.2 million and Mission: Impossible III, which looks to be running out of domestic gas, in the fourth spot with just $6.6 million in its fourth week of release. Though its numbers are down about 50% from last week (a fairly typical decline), The Da Vinci Code, which cost about $120 million to make, is now into profit on US sales alone, with total box office returns over $136 million.

When it comes out, I'll add the four day chart (the numbers on which will differ slightly from these) after the jump. The full top 10 is after the jump.

When Cinematical editor James Rocchi asked for someone completely uninterested in X-Men to do one of our two reviews on the new X-Men flick, I knew it'd be me. It's not that I don't end up enjoying the occasional comic flick if I happen to catch it; they're just not (with the exception of Spider-Man) the first films I tend to see. There are only so many films a busy girl can see, and my movie viewing-and-reviewing hours tend to be more devoted to indies, foreigns, and docs. The idea, I suppose, is to have someone reviewing the film purely on its artistic merits, untainted by any fangirl bias. I'm telling you all this upfront so you don't have to waste your fingers typing, "You're clearly an idiot who knows nothing about X-Men, so why the hell are you reviewing this film?" comments. You're right, I am almost totally ignorant of the world of X-Men, so take this review with that heaping portion of salt.

Because I am not a comic-geek, I wasn't obsessing over whether Brett Ratner would screw up this franchise or how much better it would have been if Bryan Singer had directed, or whether Kelsey Grammar would be at all convincing as the Beast. I saw X-Men and X-Men 2, and the most memorable thing about both films for me is the good cop-bad cop dynamic between Professor Xavier and Magneto and the philosophical issues underlying the evolution of mutants and how society would treat them.

X-Men: The Last Stand opens with a mutant-friendly President having established a Department of Mutant Relations, which actually made me laugh. How typical is it that the government would slap a layer of bureaucracy over a deeply divisive issue and call it done? Pretty damn likely. Things are cruising along pretty nicely for newly-appointed Mutant Ambassador Hank, aka The Beast (Kelsey Grammer), a furry blue mutant wearing the armor of respectability in the form of an ill-fitting suit, whose days are apparently filled by hanging upside down in his spandy-new paneled office waiting to be summoned to meetings. And the next meeting Hank is summoned to is a doozy -- the revelation that a "cure" for mutancy has been developed and is soon to be made available to the mutant public: Not forced on them, no -- of course the government would never do that. Your government has only your best interests at heart, right?

The AP scored an interview with the femme fatales of the upcoming X-Men: The Last Stand at the Cannes film fest. The interview was rather entertaining ... although not always intentionally so. Allow me to share the salient points with you summed up into nifty bullet points.

• When asked if they envied each others' groovy powers, the actresses mostly seized upon the question as an opportunity to complain about how lame they were -- especially Halle Berry. In an answer which made negative sense, Halle in fact indicated that "I envied that I never really got to do my powers until the third movie. Fly and do electricity and spin and make a tornado like I got to do now. I envied that I never got to do what I do." So ... she envied her own inability to be awesome, apparently. Go ahead and follow that logic, I dare you. Anna Paquin, the actress who plays mutant Rogue, complained (probably fairly) that her character survived three full-on action movies without really seeing any action whatsoever, because her character has no combat ability. This is obviously because she has yet to meet and leech Ms. Marvel, but I doubt that would mean anything to Anna Paquin.
• When asked who would win in a fight, the actresses were all right on the money and admitted Jean (as the Phoenix, anyway) was more or less unstoppable. There were some weird arguments about Storm creating a mist for Rogue to use as cover while she snuck up to sap power, but they still agreed Phoenix would triumph. Points for wisdom there, gang.
• There was a discussion about hairstyles. I don't want to talk about it.
• They also each answered a trite question about their individual characters, and gave ridiculously predictable answers. For example, Anna Paquin was asked why Rogue viewed her powers as a curse, and Paquin answered because of the complete isolation it causes. If this is insightful character analysis to anyone I'd be really surprised. He also asked Berry what she thought about Storm's new sense of assertion. I bet dollars to donuts you can predict her answer nearly word for word.
• The interview closed with a quaint little discussion about what sort of super-boy their mothers would like to see them bring home. I swear I'm not kidding you when they decided "Love Man, Honesty Man, Happy Man!" Well, except Famke Janssen, who qualified "No, not Happy Man. Me to be happy. Not a happy man. God, no." Why she wants her man to be unhappy I have no idea, but I suppose that's her prerogative.
  

You can really sum up my entire opinion of the interview with one phrase: "Honesty Man?!"

He's an interesting little bit of trivia from the soon to be released X-Men: The Last Stand. As is standard with all films, more footage was shot than will ever be used in the finished project. Entire scenes hit the cutting room floor in an effort to make the film's flow feel as smooth and seamless as possible. Sometimes, we get to see these scenes as extras on DVD releases, sometimes we never know they existed.

Thanks to the folks over as Sci Fi Wire, we have learned of an interesting scene which WON'T make the final cut for The Last Stand. According to SFW, in the film we will see a tape released by Magneto, showing him hiding in an underground lair, sharing news/threats with the world at large. It will apparently be a clean and composed Magneto in an underground laboratory of some sort -- but initially director Brett Ratner had planned it as a "Che Guevara" scene with Magneto in military fatigues and a long beard due to spending so much time in hiding.

I, for one, am quite glad we aren't going to see Magneto Bin Laden in this flick. I'm sure the idea made Ratner giggle like a schoolgirl, but Magneto is far too dignified to release video footage to the world which would make him look dirty and uncomposed. Whoever made the decision to scrap the crazy trapped terrorist look made a strong call.

If you are a real Marvel Comics fan, I want you to pay particularly close attention to today's column, because I'm going to ask for your help at the end of it. I don't mean you read some comic books and you like the X-Men; I mean you are a True Believer. You know who you are, and I know you are out there. Here's the deal: I'm going to offer up a few thoughts for you regarding the soon-to-be released X-Men 3 film, and when I'm done I'm going to issue a challenge/call for help to you, the reader. The topic? The controversy which has surrounded the new X film since Brett Ratner took over directorial control from the popular Bryan Singer, who departed to make the Film of Steel.

The X-Men film franchise has been one of the most successful comic book story lines to appear on the silver screen, and was in fact largely responsible for the current comic book to movie Renaissance we are living in today. However, It's no secret comic book fans have been very skeptical about the new film -- many of us have been very vocal in voicing our concern for the direction we've seen it heading. Everything from the Juggernaut costume to the disappearance of Nightcrawler to the plot in general has met with snorts of "yep, this one is going to be a disaster."

Am I worried? You bet I am. If nothing else, learning that the very poorly cast Halle Berry will be playing one of the largest roles in the film makes me shudder to the core. The treatment of the Phoenix Saga looks to be ridiculously short-shrifted (it's a tough story line to attempt all in one movie, especially when it has to share the main plot of the movie with another storyline). A large amount of attention seems to be focused on flash and pizazz, which is good -- comic books are chock full of flash and pizazz -- but the threat of a poor story looms large. Naturally, much of the blame for this falls (fairly or not) to Brett Ratner, as he is the most obvious change made between films.

Here's the rub. I've written before about the odd dichotomy that exists within my geeky soul regarding comic book movies. Even when they are obviously terrible ruinations of my precious Marvel books I find myself enjoying them on some level. I mean hey, even if the Fantastic Four film sucked eggs I still got to see the Human Torch out fly a heat sinking missile and DANG was that cool. The existence of the Ultimate universe has proven fans are fully willing to accept alternate versions of traditional stories if they are done well and maintain the "feel" of Marvel comics.

I've also previously written about the possessive feelings we comic book geeks often find ourselves dealing with when it comes to our sub-culture heroes suddenly becoming pop-culture icons. Sometimes, this lends to us becoming more elitist than we already are as a group. Which is pretty elitist, you've got to admit.

Here's my idea, I'm going to throw it out to you and see if it floats. I want to take a quick geek pulse on opening weekend regarding the new X-Men film. To do so, I need the help of Marvel geeks from everywhere. What I'm suggesting is not a "movie review" in any traditional sense of the concept -- there will be legion movie reviews offered for X-Men from people who are much better at it than you and I. Critics will dissect it from every possible film-going angle to determine its worth as a movie offering. What I want to provide is more of a gut-reaction, a true fan-base observation from the people most familiar with the subject itself; but I want to do it in a more organized and even-handed way than your average fanboy message board filled with trolls and spammers. You'll be able to turn to any newspaper in existence for a critical review of the film; I want geeks coming to Cinematical for a true sub-culture reaction. Call it a meta-comic geek opinion, if you will.

The deal is this: if you are willing to help me out with this, you must meet the following two criteria. Do so, and you'll get your thoughts shared with the world via yours truly.

1. You've got to be a real Marvel geek. I really need you to KNOW your stuff. Provide any sort of details you feel will qualify you.
2. You will see the film opening weekend. We've got to be quick about this, after all. We want an instant and honest reaction; not a well-crafted and tailored response after you've had some time for the rest of the world to tell you what you should think.

If you think you qualify, just leave me a comment proving your geek credentials. Make sure you fill out the little box asking for your email when you comment, because that's how I plan on getting in touch with you. I'll select as many qualified applicants as I get, and I'll let you know quickly just what I want from you. Remember, this isn't a movie review, it's just an opinion survey. I want you to be witty, but mostly I want you to be honest and open. I'm really interested in learning how the comics community truly reacts to the flick. Stay tuned ...