Bryan Singer’s played a part in two big franchises, leaving “X-Men” for “Superman,” and now that the Warner Bros. doesn’t necessarily want him back for another go-round with Big Blue, could he be interested in returning to Xavier’s School For Gifted Youngsters? The Hollywood Reporter caught up with Singer at South Korea’s Pusan International Film Festival, where he sounded more than simply open to the prospect of rejoining the X-Men in action.
“I’m still looking to possibly returning to the ‘X-Men’ franchise,” Singer said, before adding, “I’ve been talking to Fox about it. I love Hugh Jackman. I love the cast.” This is news to us. Singer’s signed on to start shooting “Jack The Giant Killer” next, and he’s been attached to relaunches of “Battlestar Galactica,” “Logan’s Run” (we suspect this is dead, actually) and “Excalibur.” Earlier this year, actor Tim Pocock wrote on his Twitter that he would be a part of Fox’s planned “X-Men: First Class” and that shooting would begin around summertime- while Pocock is not being considered an official source, Singer finishing “Giant Killer” and then jumping onboard the Josh Schwartz-scripted “X-Men” prequel in late summer does seem plausible.
Unless its another X-project Singer’s interested in. Fox reportedly also remains interested in a “Deadpool” solo film spun off from “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” a project itself which will spawn a sequel. There remain plans for Holocaust-set “X-Men Origins: Magneto” but the studio’s been quiet on that front, and Singer’s a bit Holocaust-ed out, with the prologue of “X-Men” and the entirety of “Valkyrie.” And maybe Singer’s just going to step right back into the franchise he left in the dreaded Brett Ratner’s hands? Producer Lauren Shuler Donner claimed she was meeting with Fox brass soon regarding a straight sequel to “X-Men: The Last Stand,” which is a curious development in this franchise. “The Last Stand” was the highest grossing of all the X-films so far, so why no direct sequel? Perhaps because Fox knew everyone in the cast, particularly Jackman, would request a king’s ransom to return so they killed as many characters as they could.
Singer commenting on Jackman is particularly interesting, since he would by far be the most costly returning member of the cast. Could Fox possibly be interested in breaking the bank to bring the old gang together? A potential roster for a new X-Men film could include Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Patrick Stewart (maybe), Ellen Page, Shawn Ashmore, Ben Foster, Anna Paquin and Kelsey Grammer, with one or two new faces, and possibly Ian McKellan heading up a new roster of villains. That’s a lot of pay raises for some of these guys, most of whom are signed on for multiple sequels. Is “X-Men 4” in any way a possibility? Singer’s involvement, as the architect of the series, suggests most definitely.
Then again, maybe Singer’s just got some serious issues he wants to explore, with the X-Men as his mouthpiece. “The excitement about working in science fiction and fantasy is — the stories, if they are good, are about the human condition,” Singer said. “I like to trick audiences into thinking they’re seeing fireworks, but they’re learning about themselves and listening to what I have to say.” The first two films are considered strong gay allegories, but the third film largely eschewed that, and perhaps Singer wants to put his final stamp on the series and provide closure, as his original intentions were to helm the third film before Fox brass acted too slowly in locking up the creative talent. Maybe this time we’ll see Singer’s initial plans for putting Sigourney Weaver in the supertight lingerie as the White Queen.
If Fox is serious about another “X-Men,” and they do plan a shoot next summer (and the third film had a rushed schedule as well to beat “Superman Returns” to theaters- at the box office, it worked), then they’re looking at a summer 2011 release. We’ve already said this before, but this is going to be a blockbuster warzone of epic proportions. In addition to “Spider-Man 4,” “The First Avenger: Captain America” and “Thor,” WB is sending out “Green Lantern,” the second part of “Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows”and “The Hangover II,” Disney’s got “Cars 2” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” Dreamworks has “Kung-Fu Panda 2: The Kaboom of Doom,” Universal has another “Bourne” movie, Paramount has “Transformers 3” and possibly “Star Trek 2” and “Mission: Impossible IV” and Sony’s got (shudder) “The Smurfs.” Good luck with that, Bryan Singer.