X-Men : First Class

[Some Stupid Japanese Name]

[Advocate]

comics are so dumb

Actually in the case of the X-Men ... I fucking agree.

[Advocate]

My first opinion on the film. Fox needs to fucking drop this property. They are ruining the fucking thing. Good director. Okay comic to be translated to film. FUCKING HORRIBLE IMPLEMENTATION AND SCREEN WRITERS WHO DON'T FUCKING GET IT. New news that makes this so fucking horrible. The fucking casting director needs to die.

If Jennifer Lawrence wasn’t young enough to play the younger version of Mystique in X-Men: First Class, a character previously played by Rebecca Romijn in the X-Men trilogy, then how about 10 year-old Morgan Lily? Twentieth Century Fox has beefed up the already large cast of the Matthew Vaughn-directed X-Men prequel even more with a few new casting announcements today.

Over the last two days we reported that Jason Flemyng, Rose Byrne and Oliver Platt had joined the X-Men: First Class cast and today we can add January Jones (Mad Men) as Emma Frost, Zoe Kravitz (Assassination of a High School President) as Angel, Bill Milner (Son of Rambow) as young Magneto in addition to Lily’s young Mystique.

The additions of Bill Milner and Morgan Lily playing younger variants of Magneto and Mystique aren’t that surprising considering we know the story will be delving into the origins of Professor X, Magneto and likely a few other mutants.
The confusion about the casting comes from the additions of January Jones playing Emma Frost when it was previously reported that Alice Eve had nabbed the role, and that Angel will be in the movie. As it turns out, Eve was in negotiations but hadn’t signed yet so Jones has the gig instead. I was in love with the idea of Eve in the part but Jones is stellar in the ever popular Mad Men series and will be a great fit.

On to the topic of Angel, immediate fan response is that of confusion and rightfully so. Zoe Kravitz is a girl and the character is a guy played by Ben Foster in X3. Even more, Angel is a character we thought for sure had no chance of being in the film since he was introduced in X-Men 3 as someone with no prior knowledge or ties with the X-Men. If you’re keeping track, the X-Men: First Class movie currently only sits with two of the five actual original characters from Marvel Comics canon and one arguably shouldn’t be there. That being said, this clearly isn’t the same Angel we know but instead, the character known as Angel Salvadore.

I say Angel shouldn’t be there cautiously since in a previous interview, director Matthew Vaughn hinted at the film acting as a reboot of sorts while still being a prequel to the existing Fox X-Men films. He compared it to J.J. Abrams Star Trek which I think means this will still be in continuity but will feature a story which will allow them to utilize what seems to be a nonsensical selection of characters.

Angel Salvadore is a young mutant whose mutant genetics resulted in her growing wings when she was a teenager. In the books, her history intertwines with Emma Frost, Magneto and Proteus (son of Moira MacTaggert and possibly Professor X).

Here’s some fun trivia for why Kravitz (daughter of rock star Lenny Kravitz) is being reported as playing Angel. She’s dating Ben Foster in real life so perhaps that helped get her the gig playing the other Angel?

Could alternate realities/dimensions play a factor? Azazel, the demonic mutant father of Nightcrawler possesses the ability to teleport between dimensions so that is a possibility. His history also involves him battling against Angel-like mutants. How about time travel? We know the time-traveling future son of Cyclops from the comics, Cable, was (is?) a hot topic in Fox meetings about the X-Men franchise.

With production about to start and no word on who will be playing Jean Grey or Cyclops, are they still in the film? Some have questioned that they won’t be included but I highly doubt that’s the case. With Havok (Cyclops’ brother) being a part of X-Men: First Class, I think Jean Grey and Scott Summers need to be included. When the casting process began, we also heard reports of Bryan Singer using the auditions of his other project, Jack the Giant Killer to also search for actors to play Jean and Scott so it would shock me if they aren’t included in some form.

Keep in mind though that we still don’t know what villain Kevin Bacon is playing other than that he’ll be someone we don’t expect at all, according to Vaughn. We also heard some reports that some of the casting announcements being made could be intentionally misleading on the part of the studio so perhaps some of the unusual character selections may not be those characters at all. Or are really reaching by assuming that?

Any ideas or explanations of the cast so far? At this point, it doesn’t make much sense until we know more about the plot of First Class.

Here’s the rest of the cast of X-Men: First Class as we best understand it:

• James McAvoy – Professor X
• Michael Fassbender – Magneto
• Kevin Bacon – Undisclosed villain
• Nicholas Hoult – Beast
• Caleb Landry Jones – Banshee
• Lucas Till – Havok
• Jennifer Lawrence – Mystique
• Edi Gathegi – Darwin
• Jason Flemyng – Azazel
• Rose Byrne – Moira MacTaggert
• Oliver Platt – The Man in Black

[Space Pirate Roberts]

*Sigh*, why use the First Class title if it's just a random hodgepodge of characters and not the actual original 5 lineup? Oh, that wouldn't match up with the previous movies? Fuck 'em, they suck. Start fresh. And make them look like *superheroes* this time, not Matrix wannabes.

[Rem]

Could alternate realities/dimensions play a factor? Azazel, the demonic mutant father of Nightcrawler possesses the ability to teleport between dimensions so that is a possibility. His history also involves him battling against Angel-like mutants. How about time travel? We know the time-traveling future son of Cyclops from the comics, Cable, was (is?) a hot topic in Fox meetings about the X-Men franchise.

Comics as a rule would be like 95% better if this contrived bullshit was banned. I like the 3 minute expert thing on comic vine where they go through all of the mind bending nonsense that that's been built up from 60 years of continuity and general story circle jerking.

And make them look like *superheroes* this time, not Matrix wannabes.

Can anyone think of a way to do this that wouldn't look unbearably corny and just bearably corny?

[Chux]

You realize every mutant fox uses keeps Marvel/Disney from using them in Movies for at least another 5 years, right?

[Advocate]

Oh I know.

[Advocate]

This confirms this is going to be fucking horrible.

No Scott ... No Jean?

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/46217

Hey folks, Harry here with a great update on X-MEN: FIRST CLASS that just came from Producer: Bryan Singer - who tells me he's been working on X-MEN: FIRST CLASS for over a year now and with the looming August 31st, filming date approaching - he wanted to clarify some of what it is they're doing.
First off - the film takes place in the 1960's. John F Kennedy is the President of the United States. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X are on TV doing marches. There is a spirit of a hopeful future that was prevalent in that time. We will see how Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr met - and how they dreamt of a future with Mutant & Human kind. They're going to be in their late twenties. Xavier - as played by James McAvoy will not be in his wheelchair to begin the film - but we will see how he wound up in a wheelchair. I asked if McAvoy would have a nice shiny chrome dome - and folks. We're going to see Professor X when he still had hair. We'll see McAvoy and Fassbender's Magneto formulate what it is they are attempting by creating the X-MEN.

Now Bryan wanted us to know this is not the conventional FIRST CLASS comic - but rather a new beginning for X-MEN. Set in the 60s - Vaughn is technologically inspired by JAMES BOND's tech of the time. The costumes will be far more comic bookish than we've seen before - and while Scott and Jean aren't here - Cyclops' brother Alex Summers aka Havoc will be, as played by Lucas Till.

With January Jones and Kevin Bacon playing Emma Frost and Sebastian Shaw - we will be getting the HELLFIRE CLUB. I commented that the HELLFIRE CLUB has always felt like something that it would be wrong to modernize, as it felt as though it were something specific to the swinging Hefner era of the 60s... and Bryan said that's exactly why they're making use of the HELLFIRE CLUB... the dress and the costumes associated with that glorious period of the X-MEN... belong in the 60s. I asked if Kevin Bacon would be sporting that little ponytail with the ribbon - Bryan laughed and said, "We'll see".

In regards to the cast, Bryan was especially excited to land Nicholas Hoult as Hank McCoy/Beast. Nicholas was set for FURY ROAD, but their start date shifted which opened up his availability for FIRST CLASS. Also - Rose Byrne is playing Moira MacTaggert, I liked her in KNOWING. And I think she's fairly perfect for Moira. The cast list over on IMDB is correct (with the exception of the Rosamund Pike rumor).

Looks like filming will begin with Xavier at Oxford University in the 60s. And Bryan is excited that the film is going to have a much more international feel than the prior X-MEN movies. They'll be shooting in England & the United States - and they'll be representing other locales around the globe as well, but would only tell me that Russia (aka The Soviet Union... CCCP) will be amongst them. He doesn't want to show all the cards just yet. But the International flavor will give the film a more James Bond vibe... I get the idea that this is going to be something quite special.

How can I say that based on a quick conversation with Bryan? Well... folks, this is the first time that we're going to get a silver age MARVEL story. That's incredibly exciting to me. Hearing Bryan actually saying that the costumes will be far more reflective of what we saw in the comics - well that is exciting. But more than that... I just can't wait to see young vital versions of Xavier and Magneto played by excellent actors in their prime.

But more so... This is the time for Matthew Vaughn to shine. I loved KICK ASS, but it didn't have the namebrand of X-MEN or the scope that those stories have. Here, everything that Vaughn has can be put on display. Having Vaughn work in a James Bond-esque period - that was the period that the X-MEN first came to life. There's potential for something amazing.

There are characters that we're not being told about though. Bryan said so. And we can all speculate as to who they are. We know we're going to have Darwin, Young Raven Darkholme, Banshee, Havok, lil Mystique, Azazel, Emma Frost, Beast, Xavier, Magneto and a female Angel. So... who's missing? Well - I'm kinda hoping for Donald Pierce and Harry Leland - myself. How about you?

Oh, I just remembered, I asked Singer when we can expect our first look at some of the costumes and the look they're going for and he told me to expect something in about a month, if not sooner. So seems like we'll begin to have a clue pretty soon.

[Timber]

I like the idea of setting it in the 60's and using the Hellfire Club, but everything else sounds pretty bad.

[YellerDog]

This is sounding a fuckin' LOT like the "Mutant X" show or thereabouts, except that it's a period piece and Prof X and Magneto are in it. C-and D-Listers all up ins.

Did Advocate not see X3 or Wolverine? Property's already pretty ruined.