X-MEN: Days Of Future Past (Casting, Rumors, Pics till release)

[Booji]

The part of the interview that most interested me was the talk of mining the X-Men universe. I had been hoping for something like this.

I would be cool to keep the First Class timeline going, showing early exploits. Then you could have a present day timeline with the original cast, or even solo films like Wolverine. Doing a spin-off like X-Factor or even Excalibur set in the present timeline would also be cool. You could bring back an older version of Havok for X-Factor and get Nightcrawler back for Excalibur.

If done right, as Marvel has to date, they could do some amazing stories and have cool cross-overs. Maybe like introducing Apocalypse in X-Factor in a small role, and then having him be a huge villain in an X5 or something.

 

[RoJoHen]

^That is exactly the reason that I don't read the comics. Too complicated. Too many crossovers and stories happening in multiple titles.

 

[Dick Whitman]

^That is exactly the reason that I don't read the comics. Too complicated. Too many crossovers and stories happening in multiple titles.

I agree COMPLETELY.

Sure in a small restrained way way it could work. But going overboard is going to alienate the mass audience if you need to see every spin-off to understand the main films. Which is why I have stopped reading comics.

 

[Gaith]

It'd be nice, maybe, if DOFP was the last hurrah for the original cast, maybe even including Wolverine. At the end, they could declare the timeline altered, such that a third First Class doesn't serve as a prequel to the original movies.

That way, you could do far out stuff like having Fassbender's Mags build Asteroid M in the 80s...

 

[M'rk son of Mogh]

^That is exactly the reason that I don't read the comics. Too complicated. Too many crossovers and stories happening in multiple titles.

You make it sound like they're pumping out 12 X-Men movies a year that one MUST see in order to understand the other.

1 or 2 a year isn't exactly tough to keep up with, and they don't have to be "must sees" to understand the others, I'm sure.

Did the last Wolverine movie REALLY connect to the last X-Men movie, for example? Not at all.

 

[RoJoHen]

^That is exactly the reason that I don't read the comics. Too complicated. Too many crossovers and stories happening in multiple titles.

You make it sound like they're pumping out 12 X-Men movies a year that one MUST see in order to understand the other.

1 or 2 a year isn't exactly tough to keep up with, and they don't have to be "must sees" to understand the others, I'm sure.

Did the last Wolverine movie REALLY connect to the last X-Men movie, for example? Not at all.

If they're standalone movies (like Wolverine), that's all well and good. I just don't see the need to start having the Marvel universe all over the place in every movie. I just get wary with the term "crossover." There comes a point where it simply gets obnoxious, as if the X-Men don't have enough characters to support their own movies. Just because characters exist in the same universe doesn't mean they need to run into each other all the time. There are plenty of X-Men stories to tell without dragging other teams into the mix.

Especially with all the individual Avengers movies coming out and the Guardians of the Galaxy and Spiderman and whatnot, throwing even more Marvel Universe movies out there is just going to feel like superhero overload.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

I hope they don't go as far as to reboot the last movie just because it might fuck up the Wolverine movie that looks like might be good.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

I don't have as many problems with X-Men: The Last Stand as everyone else does. I think it is a pretty weak and anemic entry in the series, particularly when compared with the Singer & Vaughn entries. But I don't find it nearly as offensive as everyone else seems to. Plus, I don't really see the point in totally ignoring it because it's not like 20th Century Fox is ever going to let Singer get another bite at that apple. They're not going to let Singer, or anyone else, produce a new, Phoenix-related sequel to X2 that just pretends that X-Men: The Last Stand never happens. The Last Stand happened and I'm glad that Singer at least acknowledges that he'll have to deal with it, even if he just does it by using time travel to retcon it away. At least there's still an in-universe explanation for it. (Time travel retcon is also the only thing that prevents me from completely disowning J.J. Abrams' Star Trek movies.)

Totally off topic but after seeing Fassenbender in First Class I totally wanted to see him in a Bond movie set in the 60s.

A girl friend of mine and I felt the same way. Neither of us are big Daniel Craig fans as Bond. When Fassbender sneaks onto the boat in the all black wet suit, that whole scene just screamed BOND.

OT, but as someone else who's been fairly disappointed with Daniel Craig, I'd love to see Fassbender as Bond! (And I've been advocating doing Bond movies as Cold War period pieces for the last 10 years.)

Having McAvoy still playing Xavier past 40ish is going to be tough to buy, even with a shaved head. His babyface doesn't look a day over 30.

Some minor aged prosthetics around the eyes/nose etc would take care of that. Hollywood has been doing that for decades.

I'm very familiar with aging makeup, having done it a few times myself with both 2d and 3d techniques. In small doses it can be convincing on just about any face, but generally you're better off getting someone closer to their older version and aging them down to their younger version(assuming we're talking a decade or two) rather than getting someone young who you'll have to add a decade or two to. In addition, some faces simply don't take to it well because different faces age differently and bone structure is a major part of that. McAvoy, I suspect, would just look like McAvoy in makeup if you tried to add more than a decade to him, and probably show how little he looks like Patrick Stewart in the process.

Fassbender, however, should probably take to the makeup very well. He wears just enough of his age on his face that emphasizing and adding to it would be a cakewalk in comparison to McAvoy.

Yeah. McAvoy has a pretty round face. I doubt that would take to old age make-up very well. I also think his resemblance to Patrick Stewart is strained as it is (although, somehow, he falls into it a bit more naturally than Tom Hardy ever did).

As for Fassbender, you may recall from the making-of docs on X-Men: First Class that the studio was very leery of casting Fassbender in the first place because they thought he looked too old. Making him look older probably wouldn't be a problem.

Or, they could just go the Downton Abbey route. (In universe, there's about a 10 year span between the beginning of Season 1 and the end of Season 3. Yet they made absolutely no effort to age anyone.)

 

[Set Harth]

An X-Men/Avengers crossover movie would be tha shiznit.

But it would have to take place on the moon.

THE MOON!

 

[Samurai8472]

Singer: Days Of Future Past to "fix" The Last Stand

Not only does he not ignore it, HE FIXES IT!

FIX.IT.FIX IT!

[YT]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKFRSL4wpcY[/YT]

 

[Turtletrekker]

I have a small confession-- I've never actually seen X3: The Last Stand.

The spoilers and rumors that I heard gave me serious reservations about the movie to start with, so I decided to wait for some genuine word of mouth. The word of mouth, of course, was awful. Cyclops gets the shaft? Again? Vaporized by Jean, no less? Xavier killed in the same way? Butchered the classic Dark Phoenix saga, that Bryan Singer had so perfectly set up? Lame. So I decided that I would rather not see it at all rather then see one of my favorite stories of my youth done badly.

The funny thing is, I actually own it. It was given to me as a gift. Part of a box set that had the first three X-Men movies, both Fantastic Four movies, Daredevil and Elektra.

But now, with Singer opting to take the movie into account with DoFP, talk of "fixing" things from the movie, The Wolverine picking up from X3, and finally this bit...

, IGN spoke with Singer about the 2014 release and asked him if he was eager to find some way to see Cyclops and Jean Grey appear.

"Who wouldn’t?," he laughed, mysteriously. "Who wouldn’t? That’s all I can say."

...which may just be Singer thrown out red herrings, have all combined to convince me.

I need to watch X3. What the hell, I didn't pay for it. Somewhere out there, Admiral Young is screaming. Wish me luck. I'll see you on the other side.

 

[RoJoHen]

^If you go into it knowing that it's awful, you might not hate it that much.

 

[Nick Ryder]

X3 had some interesting bits - but it wasn't the best really. Just take it for what it is

 

[RoJoHen]

I would love to someday see the Phoenix Sage redone. Especially with the success of Thor and Avengers, it's clear that the movies can easily get away with aliens and more mystical adversaries. As much as I enjoy the first two X-Men movies, I think the series grounded itself a little too much.

 

[Turtletrekker]

^If you go into it knowing that it's awful, you might not hate it that much.

X3 had some interesting bits - but it wasn't the best really. Just take it for what it is

Well, I'm back. That really wasn't very good, was it? Too clutered. Too many characters. Too much going on at once. The Jean sub-plot was a total waste. The movie lost a lot of energy that it never quite regained after Xavier was killed, but that paticular sting was lessened knowing what waited in the post-credits.

But Nick Ryder is right, there were some good bits. In particular-- I liked seeing the Danger Room, I liked Kelsey Grammer's Beast, and laughed out loud and clapped with his delivery of, "Oh, my stars and garters". I liked the Fastball Specials, Iceman icing up and best of all-- Kitty vs the Juggernaut!

But, yeah, not a great movie. Still, with both DoFP and The Wolverine picking up from it, I'm glad I took the time to familiarize myself with it.

I would love to someday see the Phoenix Sage redone. Especially with the success of Thor and Avengers, it's clear that the movies can easily get away with aliens and more mystical adversaries. As much as I enjoy the first two X-Men movies, I think the series grounded itself a little too much.

Honestly, they could've done Dark Phoenix without needing to go cosmic at all. Instead of eating a star and destroying an inhabited planet, she eats a nuclear power plant and destroys a city. Instead of the Imperial Guard, you use the army, or X-Factor, or Freedom Force or some other government mutant agency to bring her down.

If you should ever watch/re-watch the "Dark Willow" arc of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, take note of the fact that it is beat for beat essentially an adaptation of Uncanny X-Men 135-136.

 

[Set Harth]

I think the series grounded itself a little too much.

Yeah, I don't think the precedent set by the first two films implied a rendition of the Dark Phoenix saga that would be anywhere near as far-flung as the comic version. Not without a massive budget increase at any rate.

 

[RoJoHen]

I would love to someday see the Phoenix Sage redone. Especially with the success of Thor and Avengers, it's clear that the movies can easily get away with aliens and more mystical adversaries. As much as I enjoy the first two X-Men movies, I think the series grounded itself a little too much.

Honestly, they could've done Dark Phoenix without needing to go cosmic at all. Instead of eating a star and destroying an inhabited planet, she eats a nuclear power plant and destroys a city. Instead of the Imperial Guard, you use the army, or X-Factor, or Freedom Force or some other government mutant agency to bring her down.

If you should ever watch/re-watch the "Dark Willow" arc of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, take note of the fact that it is beat for beat essentially an adaptation of Uncanny X-Men 135-136.

Oh, I get what you're saying, and I do agree that the Phoenix Saga could have worked within these movies without all the cosmic stuff.

I'm just saying that I'd love to see a big-screen version one day that is more true to the comics. I want to see a big flaming bird that eats stars, and I want to see the X-Men battle the Shi'ar on the moon!

 

[Blip]

Feh, no thanks. If I want that kind of far-fetched stuff I'll go watch Thor. :P

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

One thing I never quite understood was why X-Men: The Last Stand was so short. I mean, it's only a little over 100 minutes long, barely longer than the 1st one. Perhaps the movie wouldn't have felt quite so crowded if it had been at least as long as X2.

I think most of us would agree that X-Men: The Last Stand can't hold a candle to X-Men, X2, or X-Men: First Class. But what I'm wondering is, how do you folks think it stacks up next to X-Men Origins: Wolverine?

Personally, I go back & forth. The Last Stand fumbles one of the most iconic stories in comic book history. But there are some isolated moments that work really well. I think the deaths of Professor Xavier & Phoenix are both given the right sense of operatic treatment. The same can be said for when Mystique & Magneto get de-powered. The big moments work. It's all the lovely little small moments that are missing; small moments that Singer handled so well in the 1st 2 movies.

Wolverine never quite reaches the operatic highs of The Last Stand. But at the same time, it doesn't make any truly egregious missteps either. (Deadpool could have been better, but that's not a big issue for this movie.) There's a mediocre competance to Wolverine that gives it a far more even feel than The Last Stand.

So is it better to squander enormous potential or succeed at lower expectations? I used to prefer The Last Stand, but I've found myself leaning more towards Wolverine in the last couple years.

 

[Admiral_Young]

"X-Men Origins: Wolverine" ranks below "X-Men: The Last Stand" for me. Just was a disappointing disaster IMO. "The Wolverine" from all accounts is the film that Origins should have been.