Fox has closed a deal with Matthew Vaughn to direct “X-Men: First Class” and has set a date of June 3, 2011, for the film.
Vaughn’s involvement had been on and off, with negotiations resuming yesterday thanks to the involvement of producer Bryan Singer. Another factor had been Fox’s desire of wanting to have a finished film for next summer, making the search for a director who can deliver a quality film a priority.
On top of that, Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz, who worked on Marvel's "Thor" movie, did a rewrite on the "First Class" script that convinced execs that making a movie for next year was possible.
Singer, who conceived the story for "First Class" and was to initially direct the movie before choosing to focus on “Jack the Giant Killer” for Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures, is producing along with Lauren Shuler Donner and Simon Kinberg.
According to Fox, “First Class” will “chart the epic beginning of the X-Men saga. Before Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr took the names Professor X and Magneto, they were two young men discovering their powers for the first time. Before they were archenemies, they were the closest of friends, working together, with other Mutants (some familiar, some new), to stop the greatest threat the world has ever known. In the process, a rift between them opened, which began the eternal war between Magneto's Brotherhood and Professor X's X-Men.”
The June 3 date sets “First Class” in a boxoffice battle with DreamWorks Animation's “Kung Fu Panda: The Kaboom of Doom.” Warners’ comic book movie “Green Lantern” opens two weeks later, June 17. And the sequel to “The Hangover” opens June 5.
He certainly was the best choice they could conceivably get, and coming off of Kick-Ass, he has my support...
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