UPDATE: Yes, this is happening, The Hollywood Reporter has the trade announcement this morning, confirming that Singer’s on board to direct. Josh Schwartz’s draft has been abandoned, and Jamie Moss (“Street Kings”) will be starting a new version from scratch, under Singer’s guidance.
ORIGINAL STORY: It’s been rumored for a little while, but unfortunately Bryan Singer appears to have returned, tail between his legs, to the X-Men franchise — he announced on the “Avatar” red carpet last night that aside from his upcoming “Jack the Giant Killer” project, currently in pre-production, he “just yesterday signed a deal to do an “X-Men: First Class” origins picture, which is kind of cool.” This is the long-rumored prequel, written by “Gossip Girl” and “Chuck” creator Josh Schwartz, following some of the original X-Men as teens.
Producer Lauren Shuler Donner compared it a few months back to “later, darker, Harry Potter,” so it seems that it’ll skew (even) younger than the other X-Men movies. We’re in two minds about this. On one hand, Singer clearly has an affinity for the material — we’re not crazy about the the first film in the franchise, but “X2” is probably the best, most entertaining superhero movie to date (yeah, including “The Dark Knight”), and both films have a personal, human subtext that we’re likely to see repeated in this one.
On the other hand, “Saved By The Bell: The Mutant Class?” “Jack the Giant Killer?” We sort of enjoyed “Valkyrie”, partly because it felt like a return to the grown-ups table of “The Usual Suspects” and “Apt Pupil,” but this stuff just seems beneath him. Singer’s always been a craftsman rather than a genius auteur, but is there really nothing he’d rather make? And wasn’t there a fair bit of bad blood between the director and Fox after he bailed to go and make stalker-Jesus movie “Superman Returns?” Time, and money, heals all wounds, it would seem.
Rene Russo In ‘Thor”?
In other superhero movie news, the long-absent Rene Russo, who hasn’t been seen on screen since 2005’s “Yours, Mine & Ours,” or in a good movie since 1999’s “The Thomas Crown Affair,” has joined the cast of “Thor.” The actress will play the amusingly-named Frigga, the wife of Anthony Hopkins’ Odin, and the mother of both the hero Thor, played by Chris Hemsworth, and the villain, Loki, played by Tom Hiddleston.