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X-Men franchise at a crossroads
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November 18, 2009
By Geoff Boucher
With the triumph of comic-book properties in Hollywood today, it's easy to forget how startling Bryan Singer's X-Men was when it arrived in 2000.
Sleek, sophisticated and respectful of its studied source material, the film ran counter to the then-standard Hollywood approach of turning comic-book adaptations into smirking cartoons that insulted loyal fans of the properties.
The $75-million (about R525-million) film made $296m in worldwide box office takings (it finished as the eighth-highest-grossing film in the US that year) and later won over a vast audience that saw it on home video and cable television.
The sequel, X2: X-Men United, arrived as one of the most anticipated releases of 2003 and finished with $408m worldwide and better reviews than the first one.
Singer left the franchise to take on Superman Returns, so Brett Ratner (Rush Hour) was brought in for the third movie, X-Men: The Last Stand, which rolled up $459m at the box office, but suffered some withering reviews.
The challenge: when the credits rolled on The Last Stand, most observers assumed that the franchise (like a good number of the main characters) was dead and waiting to be buried.
The fact that the franchise's central hero, Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), was spun off into a lone-wolf film this year suggested that the Marvel mutant team might be akin to an ageing band that had just watched its lead singer launch a solo tour.
But now producer Lauren Shuler Donner, a key figure in the franchise from the get-go, says a fourth X-Men film remains viable and, more than that, there are efforts moving toward that goal, although they are in very early stages.
That may be true, but there have been plenty of mixed signals when it comes to potential mutant movies; more than a half-dozen different projects have been trumpeted at one time or another, among them a Magneto film, a Deadpool movie, a Gambit project, a New Mutants spin-off and a Wolverine sequel.
It's maddening just trying to keep track of what is (and isn't) happening.
The status: amid all the noise, the most interesting titbit in recent months was a recent report in Variety magazine that Singer was flirting with the idea of directing X-Men: First Class, which would be a prequel based on the popular comic book series and the draft script by The OC creator, Josh Schwartz.
Later, Donner publicly stated that First Class was not the likely next movie, but the linkage of Singer to any Marvel mutant is big news - and may signal an effort to have him back in X-business.
Donner has made a point of saying in interviews that having Singer back would be a welcome idea, and why not?
The director's departure from the X-franchise didn't burn any bridges. Plus, Donner's husband, Superman director Richard Donner, was engaged as mentor for Singer as the filmmaker toiled on a version of the Man of Steel that was a valentine to the Donner interpretation.
Singer's slate of coming projects looks dense, but the Fox studio wants to keep the X-Men properties front and centre, clearly.
The studio's rights will revert to Marvel in 2012 if there is no project in active development.
Donner is looking at the wide mythology of the entire X-Men universe and there is plenty there, of course, but if they go with a First Class prequel, they may have a tough time shoehorning Jackman and his signature character into the film continuity.
A reunion sequel may well be the safer way to go, but that would require reuniting the scattered big-name cast (which would be difficult) and coming up with a deft way to bring back the dead characters (less challenging, if the old comics are any indication).
The prediction: back in 2000, I remember telling one of the top film-coverage editors at the Los Angeles Times that there was a huge potential audience for X-Men and he scoffed.
"Well, Mystery Men tanked," he said. "Why should this be different?"
X-Men was a pivot point in superhero cinema and, with the intensity of its opening concentration-camp scene, it gave a ready generation of filmgoers the heroes they wanted, not the bloated, old-school farce of Batman & Robin, which was a mere three years earlier.
With all that context, watching The Last Stand was akin to torture. X-Men Origins: Wolverine was a bit better, but still not on the level of the Singer films.
Despite the upbeat chatter on both sides, I'm sceptical that Singer will actually return to the franchise - when decision time comes, there will have to be a truly marvellous script to get the Usual Suspects director to circle back to ground he's covered before, especially considering that the lands cape is charred and pitted after Ratner's noisy residence.
No, I predict we instead see more spin-offs of Singer's outsider tale. And (judging by recent history) the directors entrusted with those mutant ventures might deliver video-game plots, flimsy characters and some killer explosions. - Los Angeles Times
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