Lauren Shuler Donner on Future X-Men Movies

[Diesel]

If there’s any way a text blog post could be said to be ‘coming live’ then this one is, and from the Fox Blu-Ray press event in Beverly Hills. So far this morning we’ve been treated to a host of presentations centred around the release of the X-Men Origins: Wolverine Blu-Ray, out now in the US, hitting my native UK on October 19th.

First up was Lauren Shuler Donner, X-producer responsible for all of the mutant movies so far, and by the sounds of things, plenty more to come. Though she wasn’t able to stay for a series of extended interviews, she did take some questions from the floor, including mine. The answer is coming up after the break - clarifying just what is going on with X-Men: First Class at the moment, not to mention the Deadpool movie and a couple of other, less expected mutant pictures.

I couched the question as being about legacy casting as Gavin Hood inherited Hugh Jackman as Wolverine from Bryan Singer (and, I suppose, Brett Ratner), and in the cast roster for Wolverine we find not only Ryan Reynolds, now expected to appear in his own Deadpool spin-off movie, and a whole helicopter full of young mutants last seen seemingly soaring off to make up Xavier’s First Class.

Shuler Donner took this as an opportunity to address ‘Pocockgate’. The actor Tim Pocock, who played the young Cyclops in Wolverine, posted a tweet last week that announced:

Since then, he’s requested that everybody run a retraction:

According to Shuler Donner, there’s no truth to the initial claim at all. She announced that the film has no scheduled start date and will definitely not be kicking off in February. What’s more, she confirmed that no actors have signed contracts to appear in the film.

I asked if they had signed the young mutants up for an option on future films, and she admitted that yes, everybody was under option. No surprises there.

As well as the eventual New Class, then - whenever that might be - Shuler Donner revealed that she has been cooking up plans for several other mutant films. The two she named? An X4, reuniting the X-Men and a big screen outing for The New Mutants. X4, she said, had yet to be pitched to the studio, however.

I’m here for another day at least, and there’s a lot more coverage to come - and not only of X-Movies but of Baz Luhrmann’s Red Curtain movies and David Fincher’s rejigged new version of Fight Club all of them in their cutting-edge HD Blu-Ray presentation. As for breaking news, I’ll do my best to post it as fast as I can. We’ll show those big paper-based magazines and their ‘extended interviews’ what we can do, eh?

Stay tuned.

[EricJ]

An X4, reuniting the X-Men and a big screen outing for The New Mutants. X4, she said, had yet to be pitched to the studio, however.

The "New mutants" as in, the affordable teen no-names from the #2 and 3 movies, or Cannonball, Sunspot, Wolfsbane and Mirage?

(And considering they killed off the entire major cast in #3 to save money on actors, have a feeling the X4 pitch is going to be a slooow ball over the plate... )

[vegeta88]

I think they should wait a bit (save for the few spin-offs that don't necesarily affect the main universe) and just reboot. My two cents that I'm sure most disagree with.

[Elbie]

I'm all for an X4!

[RocShemp]

Well we saw Cyclops begin to desintigrate in X3 but we didn't see beyond that. They could make up some BS about how Jean managed to subdue her Phoenix personality and instead locked Scott in a similar energy coccoon to the one she'd been in since the conclusion of X2. As for Jean, they could bring in someone like Mr. Sinister to "resurrect" her. As for Prof. X, we know he survived and is now in the body of his braindead twin brother.

I'm more upset that that useless chick mutant with the purple hair (the one hanging out with porcupine boy) was supposed to be Psylock.

Anyhoo, X4 is very easy to pitch as long as they don't get overly ambitious as they did with X3. They should have made a Dark Phoenix inspired movie or a Mutant Cure movie. Mixing both ended up leaving both stories underdeveloped.

Also, they should take advantage of Jean's/Phoenix' comment to Wolverine of how "the Professor has tamed you". That would be a great excuse to have a feral Wolverine running wild and mostly MIA so that the other characters can have their time in the spotlight. I love Jackman as Wolverine but, given how prominent the character has been in the three "official" movies, I view XMO: Wolverine as Wolverine 4.

Then they can simply resolve Wolverine's feral story in a Wolverine 3 (have the story revolve around Alpha Flight with an axe to grind with Logan and then being forced to team up to take on Omega Red). Then have him back in X5 but re-emphasize his "freelance" status of sorts from X1 and X2.

[Beefbowl]

Originally Posted by RocShemp

I'm more upset that that useless chick mutant with the purple hair (the one hanging out with porcupine boy) was supposed to be Psylock.

+100000

I'm curious as to how many more movies Hugh Jackman will play as Wolverine.

[Wdm81]

Are they doing this because they actually have a story to tell or because if they don't make another "x-men" movie soon they loose the rights back to Marvel (now disney)

either way, lets hope singer returns, he solves the death issues in x3 brings back nightcrawler and we get an amazing X4

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by RocShemp

I'm more upset that that useless chick mutant with the purple hair (the one hanging out with porcupine boy) was supposed to be Psylock.

(Fortunately, as no one else ever found that out, expect that to be retconned back to normal the more that Marvel tries to develop their Captain Britain movie.)

[vegeta88]

Originally Posted by Beefbowl

+100000

I'm curious as to how many more movies Hugh Jackman will play as Wolverine.

Probably as many as they let him; he seems to really love playing the character (who wouldn't).

Originally Posted by Wdm81

Are they doing this because they actually have a story to tell or because if they don't make another "x-men" movie soon they loose the rights back to Marvel (now disney)

either way, lets hope singer returns, he solves the death issues in x3 brings back nightcrawler and we get an amazing X4

To your question: probably both and it is a bankable title. Some of the producers seem interested in making these movies and telling these stories.

They would have to recast Nightcrawler; I think the actor said it wasn't worth all the make-up. I wonder too, if they brought Sabertooth back for X4, who would play him?

[CAB]

They'd have to make all of X4 an apology movie for X3 by magically bringing back Scott and Prof X. If they do this, here's a thought - stop making the X-Men a bunch of 2nd rate mutant candy-asses.

[Diesel]

Xavier isn't gone.

[CAB]

Originally Posted by Diesel

Xavier isn't gone.

He just needs to pull himself together.

[Diesel]

At least he's in a body that can (presumably) walk now

[CAB]

Originally Posted by Diesel

At least he's in a body that can (presumably) walk now

Maybe we can have a character wake from a sleep as we discover that X2 and 3 were just a terrible dream. JR was never shot either. x2

[Diesel]

Originally Posted by CAB

Maybe we can have a character wake from a sleep as we discover that X2 and 3 were just a terrible dream. JR was never shot either. x2

They should wake up like I do every Tuesday

[CAB]

Whatever they do, they have to get Mystique back!

[RocShemp]

Originally Posted by CAB

Whatever they do, they have to get Mystique back!

And nude again.

[jasonicus]

I rather see an X4 than a 1st Class movie. But, they really effed things up, so who knows what they could do. They cannot focus on Wolverine and Storm like they did in X3, that was a joke. Get new people to play them if Jackman and Berry think they are too famous.

[RocShemp]

Jackman doesn't think he's too famous. The only reason he was involved in Wolverine is because he knows it's the role that made him a star. And, as I mentioned before, the two deaths in X3 (we know the Professor is alive) can be easily fixed since one was off screen (Scott) and the other character (Jean) was too powerful to just die like that.

I wouldn't mind a First Class movie so long as it's not a prequel for the sake of being a prequel. I'd like so larger storyline develop there that would eventually climax in X4 and maybe even an X5. In fact, that's what I hoped for the two proposed Origins films as well. Whatever it is needn't take center stage in those films but could be used as a starting point for something grander.

[vega2K]

I would really like to see the Sentinels in an X4 movie, but as huge-ass robots. Who cares that they don't follow all the laws of Physics and are 50 feet tall. Who cares how they can fly and from where they get their powers to capture/destroy mutants. Also, and for God's sake stick to this story period! Don't add two or three other sub-plots. And stick to the main characters (maybe some cameos). Plus, I agree that the other X-men other than Wolverine need to take the spotlight, especially with the Sentinels as the bad guys. I say cut the cost of paying Jackman and Berry (in fact recast Berry - she's too pretty and low key, we need a bad-ass black WOMAN) and throw that cost into demolishing cities and into the CGI to show us fifty-foot Sentinels searching for mutants in down-town NY, Chicago, LA, etc. You pull something like this off and I guarantee we will see many more X-men movies!