"He Who Waits" reports in from the San Diego Comic Con with the following X-Men info straight from Stan "the man" Lee and Brian Singer. Father Geek here has been wanting to see this movie for years, since about 1965 I believe, but after I saw Abyss and Terminator 2, and realized effects had really come of age my geek alarm has been constantly going off. Well, NUFF SAID!
"The way it looks now, X-Men will probably be the next film we have after Blade," said Marvel's Stan Lee, an executive producer on all of the company's film and television properties. "That's a very exciting prospect."
The components are in place for the X-Men movie to happen. There's a studio,
20th Century Fox, and an accomplished producer, Lauren Shuler-Donner.
There's
a script by Ed Solomon, recently polished by Chris McQuarrie.
And there's a director, Bryan Singer, who's already at work with some 50
others in the X-Men production offices in Los Angeles. Singer told the Continuum production of X-Men should start by year's end and
continue into next year. It's unlikely X-Men will be ready by its originally
hoped-for release date of Christmas 1999, Singer said, but the film now
looks
like a summer 2000 release.
"We always knew that could be a possibility," Singer said. "The only reason
I
wanted Christmas was so we could say 'X'-Mas '99."
This year has not been kind to comic-book movies. Both Superman Lives at
Warner Bros. and Hulk at Universal have been back-burnered because of script
and/or budget concerns as Hollywood has become increasingly wary of
expensive
movies. Other Marvel films, such as Fantastic Four, are struggling with
similar situations.
Singer said he's aware of what happened to Superman Lives and Hulk, but
doesn't think that X-Men will suffer a similar fate.
"I'm worried about it, but there doesn't seem to be any signs that that's
going to happen," Singer said. "What happened to those movies is very
specific
to those movies. But here, so far, we're full stream ahead. We've got an
office with 50 employees and artists. We're working.
"You have to realize that I'm a pessimist. I'm always waiting for something
disastrous to happen. But I must say, there seems to be absolutely no
indication that Fox is planning on pulling the plug. And if they have pulled
the plug on other movies I think they've
done it because those movies weren't ready and to sort of make way for this
one.
"It's not an excessive movie; it's not plunging into some overwhelming
budget.
There's no huge cast attached that's weighing the movie down. I'm certainly
not the most expensive filmmaker ever to live, and I certainly don't have a
track record of letting my budgets go out of control."
Singer, whose credits include The Usual Suspects and the upcoming The Apt
Pupil, said he is cautious about revealing too much about the film.
"It's not exactly the origin of the X-Men, but it takes place in the
beginning," Singer said. "Not the very, very beginning, but more or less the
beginning. It deals with a lot of the original characters from the comic
books
series."
Characters in the film will
include Professor Xavier, Wolverine, Jean Grey, Rogue, Storm, Beast and
Cyclops. The villain will be Magneto.
"Ordinarily, villains have a one-dimensional agenda -- economic gain, world
domination, etc.," Singer said. "In the case of Magneto, his intentions for
mutant kind are inherently good. However, they say the road to disaster can
be
paved with good intentions.
"In his case, he takes his agenda, his view of mutant kind's place in the
world, too selfishly. That's what makes him a villain. He's not necessarily
an
evil man. His family was killed in the Holocaust and he has a lot of
resentment toward mankind in general. He sees the coming of a future
holocaust
for his kind and does what he thinks is the right thing.
"Xavier adopts more of a Martin Luther King philosophy of equality, and
their
two ideologies clash." No cast has been attached to the film yet. "We want to get to a place where
we
can start casting, locking in people, but we're not quite there yet," Singer
said.
Singer has been in touch with Patrick Stewart (Capt. Picard on Star Trek:
The
Next Generation) and Angela Bassett to possibly play Professor Xavier and
Storm, respectively. "I've always thought Patrick Stewart was a really terrific idea for
Professor
Charles Xavier," Singer said. "He's not incredibly familiar with X- Men, but
he's become more familiar about it."
"He'd be perfect," Lee said of Stewart as Xavier. "But there has been no
casting yet. You have to have the script finished before doing the casting."
Singer said he was not familiar with the X-Men before this project.
"I had heard the name X-Men and then I was offered drafts of the script," he
said. "I love the comics. I even love the cartoons; I've watched every
episode.
"Before I ever read the comic book and before I knew anything about the
stories from any of the off-shoots, I read bios on all the characters. In
fact, I read bios before I ever met Stan Lee or the Marvel people. I never
read a comic book, but just from reading the bios, I could sit down and
start
to elaborate on story ideas, conflicts and relationships. And they had
already
existed in the comic book! These characters lend themselves so easily to so
much discourse and conflict and drama and fun."
Singer offered his takes on the various characters:
Wolverine: "He's cool. He's funny. He's angry -- a lot. He doesn't know why.
He's got built-in resentment, built into his bones. But he has great love, a
lot of love. But it's all trapped inside."
Professor Xavier: "Xavier is wise, but he's constantly questioning himself
as
all truly wise people do. He's always wondering, 'Am I doing the right
thing?'
He's the one I identify with. He's the leader. Creating a team is like
making
a film. You're convincing everyone to see your vision and work to make your
vision. I get Charles Xavier."
Magneto: "Magneto is passionate, however misguided. Very charismatic,
magnetic."
Storm: "Traditional. Devoted. She tucks her individualism close to her, but
she's got it. She comes from a very proud culture."
Cyclops: "He's got a lot to prove. He's got to be responsible. He's got a
big
wheelchair to fill if, God forbid, something happens."
Jean Grey: "Jean Grey is like the right hand; she's Xavier's legs. That's
how
I see her as -- an extension of him he can't be."
Beast: "Beast is great. Beast is (pause) Spock! You have to understand I'm a
Spock freak. You have to understand Spock is the greatest character."
Rogue: "She's everything that's frightening and tragic about being a mutant.
She's a beautiful, sexual woman who can do anything she wants -- except
touch
somebody."
To prepare for X-Men's special effects, Singer met with James Cameron on the
set of Titanic and George Lucas on the set of the new Star Wars movie. He
also
visited such effects houses as Digital Domain.
"The key is to never let the special effects bog you down," Singer said.
"It's
never about effects; it's about the story. Effects are merely a tool, like
cinematography, like light, like sound. I'm pretty meticulously obsessed
with
the detail in movies as I
am
with acting and story-telling. I intend to be as meticulous with the special
effects and I will make sure I know what the hell I am doing."
The X-Men will wear their costumes in the film, but Singer said he wants to
make sure they fit the movie's tone.
"I don't want to say how we're introducing them," Singer said. "We're taking
this movie very seriously. And that means when you're introducing costumes
and
attach elements that run the risk of becoming camp, you have to do them very
carefully. So that's what we're going to do. It's done very cleverly, the
way
the costumes come in."
Singer said most of X-Men has been storyboarded. Much of the location
scouting
has been done -- Singer said he thinks he's found the proper place for the
X-
Mansion -- and part of the film will be shot on the East Coast.
Obviously, with the top-selling comics and toys and a long-running animated
series, Fox has fertile ground for a prosperous franchise with X-Men.
"It's already a franchise," Singer said. "I think it's interesting enough
and
has enough depth where one movie isn't going to tell everything. So, yeah, I
think about that."
But before sequels, there must first come an initial X-Men movie, which
looks
like it's going to happen.
