As I told you yesterday, I was relatively certain that the script was definately not anything like where the script is today. And here is someone who broke the nocominbac law and will be beaten severly if he is caught. He/she/it feels that it taint too likely there will be anywhere near this many characters in the final project. Which begs the question. How many X-MEN and Evil Mutants/Robots must there be in an X-MEN film. Personally I figure ya just have to have a team's worth. You know, at least 6 or so X-MEN and if Magneto is there, it kinda begs for the Brotherhood... right? This film is going to be expensive, it's going to have tons of effects, because it has to. It's about multiple characters, how those characters interact in a society that won't interact with their kind. Personally I'm a huge fan of the first 200 issues of the X-MEN, and would be overjoyed to see a film that just focused on the yellow and blue uniforms, with the initial 5, set in the 1960's, and fighting the Sentinels. Of course there's always that whole Dark Pheonix bit... Anyway here is Raggedy Andy's views on what was posted yesterday...
First time writing and I'm a big fan of your site. I just wanted to put in my two-cents worth. I have a feeling that your source on the X-MEN script got a "fan authored" script. I've seen a number of those floating around conventions and memorabilia shops.
Now, I will admit that I haven't read a draft of it since the '96 version by Laurice Ellewhany (brutal: actually had TOAD!! as a villain!) but I'd be amazed if at any point this was a real draft he's referring to.
As a 'BLANK' with a deal at Fox, I can say for a certainty that:
(A) no one in the executive ranks would allow anywhere NEAR that many characters into the script. The word from the first draft the Donners got on was to make it leaner and meaner.
The casting and the FX needed to make that many characters happen instantly make it cost prohibitive (contrary to Cameron inflation, Singer is NOT going to get anywhere near the budget that it would take to cover all those characters);
(B) that they would front-load ALL the elements like that -- the X-men, the Brotherhood AND the Sentinals all in the first 50 minutes?? Come on, Harry. We both know better than that.
Add to that the fact that, even in the '95 and '96 drafts, most of the characters were on a "first name" basis (ie: Logan instead of Wolverine; Kurt instead of Nightcrawler, etc..) and that Singer and Solomon both have said that THEY were taking that avenue, too, well...
I'm not saying it's IMPOSSIBLE. Just very, very, VERY unlikely that that is a real script he's read.
