With all the comic book movies coming out the last few years and with so many more to come, fans probably have questions about them. Fortunately, Fox has decided to do something about that and let fans ask questions directly to the cast and fillmakers of the upcoming X-Men: First Class.

How does it work? Well, read and and we’ll tell you. This new program, called “X-Perts”, starts March 1st and allows fans to submit their questions via Twitter and Facebook. Each week a new cast member or filmmaker will answer them on the “X-Perts” page.

Following the above guidelines, fans can submit questions two ways: Via a Tweet @XMenMovies or by posting on the wall at the film’s official Facebook Page. Now before you go and get too excited you can be sure they won’t be ansering any spoiler questions or anything like that. For those kinds of answers you’ll just have to wait for the movie itself to be released.

Speaking of that, X-Men: First Class comes to theaters on June 3rd.

Were you as upset as the rest of us when we sat through all of the commercials on Super Bowl Sunday and didn’t get a single glimpse at Fox’s upcoming X-Men: First Class? Well good news! If you have Facebook, then Fox is making it up to you!

Starting later today, 20th Century Fox is rewarding anyone who like their X-Men Movies fan page over at Facebook.com/XMenMovies by giving them the first exclusive look at X-Men: First Class. That’s right, all you have to do is like them. Sounds simple, right?

For those of you who aren’t caught up to speed on the film itself, here’s a tidbit.

X-MEN: FIRST CLASS charts the epic beginning of the X-Men saga, and reveals a secret history of famous global events.  Before mutants had revealed themselves to the world, and before Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr took the names Professor X and Magneto, they were two young men discovering their powers for the first time.

Not archenemies, they were instead at first the closest of friends, working together with other Mutants (some familiar, some new), to prevent nuclear Armageddon.  In the process, a grave rift between them opened, which began the eternal war between Magneto’s Brotherhood and Professor X’s X-Men.

X-Men: First Class is set to hit theaters on June 3rd.

One of the big problems with Marvel’s super hero franchises being split up among several Hollywood studios is that continuity and lore goes out of the knowing hands of Marvel and into several different hands, most of which never communicate. So when rumors started floating around that Hugh Jackman was making a cameo appearance as Wolverine in the upcoming X-Men: First Class film, you could imagine the complaints fans had.

Not only does this story take place in the 1960′s, well before Wolverine comes across Weapon X, Adamantium, or anything to do with Xavier’s mutants, but they would have to shoehorn Jackman into a world that he clearly doesn’t fit in. In a recent chat with Coventry Telegraph, Bryan Singer spigave us more of a look into this new take on the classic team of mutants.

Asked about the First Class storyline, Singer explained: “It’s about how Xavier – if you know X-Men universe – how Professor Xavier and Magneto kind of met and became friends and how that friendship turned into something else.

“It takes place in the early 60s and it incorporates some characters I was able to bring back in time that are familiar, as well as some new characters, new mutants.

Continue Reading →

Following tons of casting and recasting news, X-Men: First Class producer Bryan Singer contacted AICN and revealed tons of juicy tidbits about the highly anticipated film. Of course, we’re going to share them with you right here to save you the trouble of clicking that link.

The film will take place in the fitting time of the 1960′s, with civil rights being of high concern at the time and the obvious parallels between the racial and mutant struggles. In addition, Singer implied that Vaughn will also be utilizing James Bond type technology from that era in the film.

X-Men: First Class will follow the young Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Eric Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender)as they plan the futures of mutant kind.  Xavier will not be in a wheelchair in the beginning of the film, but we will witness him losing the use of his legs.

The antagonists of the film will be the Hellfire Club which will include Kevin Bacon as Sebastian Shaw and January Jones as Emma Frost. On a surprising note, he stated that we will not be seeing Jean Grey or Cyclops. Unsurprisingly, he announced that we can expect tons more casting news in the next couple of days.

Singer also explained that even though the costumes in the film will be more “comic booky” than previous films, the film is shying away from the story written in the comic after which the film is named.

Do you think that it’s the right move to delve deep into little known comic book characters, while not utilizing the pre-existing lore? Can an X-men story exist without Jean Grey and Cyclops?

It’s been quite a week for director Matthew Vaughn and the team on Fox’s upcoming X-Men: First Class. Not only has Oliver Platt joined the cast as the “Man in Black”, but Rose Byrne has also joined the project as Professor Xavier’s Scottish love interest Moira MacTaggert.

But even with the new additions, other changes are also being made to the cast with one actor leaving and another taking her place. What am I talking about? January Jones has been added to the cast and will take the place of Alice Eve as The White Queen, Emma Frost.

While initial reports about Eve signing for the role were legitimate, it turns out the deal was not completely done and January Jones will officially fill the role for Vaughn. Most people know Jones as Betty Francis, the recently divorced wife of Don Draper on AMC’s Mad Men.

Jones has found quite a home for herself back in the 60′s, so it will be interesting to see how she can take on playing a British school teacher. Jones joins an already packed cast consisting of James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Caleb Landry Jones, Lucas Till, Zoe Kravitz, and Kevin Bacon.

Principal photography for the film begins in London next week, and we can expect to see more news develop soon as X-Men: First Class makes it’s way to theaters on June 3, 2011.

This week on The Flickcast Chris and Matt are recovering from Comic-Con in San Diego but are still managing to do a show this week. Some of the topics they cover this time around include thoughts on several NBC pilots like Outsourced, The Event, Undercovers and Chase. Also, the boys discuss the new Sucker Punch trailer and director Zack Snyder, potential X-Men First Class casting and a bit more about the fun and some issues with Comic-Con.

They also made some picks this week including Matt’s pick of Blazing Saddles on Blu-ray and Chris’ pick of the Stanley Kubrick film Full Metal Jacket.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, at Facebook and MySpace or via email.

It’s no surprise that director Matthew Vaughn likes to work with people he’s established a relationship with. He used actor Jason Flemyng in Layer Cake, Stardust and even Kick-Ass. Vaughn brought writer Jane Goldman onto Kick-Ass and now X-Men: First Class after they worked together on Stardust. Now he’s doing it again as Kick-Ass star Aaron Johnson has just been cast to play Cyclops in First Class.

It’s really not much of a surprise, given Vaugn’s casting decisions with previous roles. According to a tip received by Aint it Cool, the part is pretty much 100% locked down for the Kick-Ass star.

This would be the second comic book role for Johnson, even though he put down critics who were asking him about doing another film in the genre, saying that “just because I’m doing one, doesn’t mean I’ll do others.” It seems that the right amount on a check made him eat those words.

Johnson will be joining an already star-studded cast of James McAvoy as Professor X, Alice Eve (She’s Out of My League) as Emma Frost, and Michael Fassbender (Inglorious Basterds) as Magneto. Other rumored casting names Amber Heard as Mystique, and Benjamin Walker as Hank McCoy aka Beast.

With the film expected to hit theaters in less than a year — June 3, 2011 — you can be sure we’ll hear plenty of casting news in the days leading up to this year’s San Diego Comic-Con. Of course, we’ll be sure to bring them to you.

With James McAvoy already signed on to play Professor Charles Xavier in Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class, word now comes that the film may have secured the talents of Michael Fassbender to play Xavier’s friend turned nemesis Eric Lensherr (aka Magneto). The actor has reportedly entered into negotiations (well, his agents have at least) to take on the role in the film.

Fassbender, whose previous work includes Inglorious Basterds, Jonah Hex and Neil Marshall’s upcoming Centurion, joins other actors such as Aaron Johnson and Andrew Garfield who are also being considered for roles in the film. While no deal is set, Fassbender is currently the front runner for the job and the top pick of both Vaughn and the studio.

The exact plot of X-Men: First Class is still not known, but we do know it will concern the younger versions of the X-Men and most likely focus on recruitment of younger mutants and the first team to be assembled. It will also have to show the development of the team and eventual rift between Xavier and Magneto which leads to them becoming arch enemies and sets up the events of later X-Men films.

I don’t know about you guys but I think Fassbender seems like and excellent choice to play Magneto. His work in previous films like Basterds and the upcoming Centurion shows his range and skill. Playing opposite McAvoy’s Xavier should make for an interesting dynamic indeed. I hope this deal gets finalized. Then, we can move onto the really important stuff like who’s gonna play Emma Frost.

Okay, we’ve got Xavier and most likely Magneto. Who should play the rest of the young X-Men?

It didn’t come as much of a surprise to many people when Fox announced Matthew Vaughn as director of the upcoming prequel X-Men: First Class. He is a hot commodity right now due to the mild success of Kick-Ass, and they had always had their eye on Vaughn, even back as far as The Last Stand.

With that in mind, it should come as even less of a surprise that Vaughn is bringing on screenwriter Jane Goldman to tweak the First Class script a little bit. Vaughn and Goldman worked together on Stardust and most recently wrote the ending to Kick-Ass (as the ending was unfinished when Mark Millar brought the script to Vaughn).

In a recent tweet from Goldman’s husband and BBC Media Mogul Jonathan Ross, he confirmed the rewrite:

“Also, for those who need to know, my wife IS currently writing X men First Class.”

What could this mean for the X-Men: First Class film is unknown just yet. Last we heard, Chuck and O.C. creator Josh Schwartz, who wrote the original comic, was stepping in to write the script. This could be the same script that’s getting “retooled”, or Goldman and Vaughn could be taking it back to square one.

With a release date of Summer 2011, you can expect more answers to come through soon.  Let’s just hope there isn’t an epic “flying through the city on a jet pack” scene at the end of this comic book adaptation.

This week on The Flickcast Chris is on vacation so Matt teams up with guest host Elisabeth Rappe for all kinds of interesting discussion and debate on lots of different topics. Some of these topics include the new Jonah Hex trailer, Huge Weaving as Red Skull in Captain America, Matthew Vaughn taking on X-Men: First Class and the trailer for a new J.J. Abrams project supposedly attached to screening of Iron Man 2, which hits theaters this Friday.

Matt and Elisabeth also made some new picks this week including Elisabeth’s pick of the Western 3:10 to Yuma and Matt’s pick of the indie Sci-Fi film Moon, featuring Sam Rockwell.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, at Facebook and MySpace or via email.

Less than 24 hours ago, we brought you news that Kick-Ass director/co-writer Matthew Vaughn was in negotiations with Twentieth Century Fox about directing the upcoming prequel X-Men: First Class. It looks like the studio was happy with their meeting, as they have officially attached Vaughn as director.

From Heat Vision:

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. 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.”

So not only do we have rewrites on the film, a director, and franchise helmer Singer’s stamp of approval, but the film also has a release date of June 3, 2011. This means that you can expect casting news to start pouring out over the next few weeks, as principal photography needs to start as soon as possible.

Now that Kick-Ass has been considered to be a financial success (even though it was still toppled by 3D Dragons), it’s inevitable that the film’s director and co-writer of the screenplay, Matthew Vaughn, would be considered a hot commodity and poached by other studios. In this instance, it could be for yet another superhero flick, as Fox is allegedly interested in Vaughn directing X-Men: First Class.

The screenplay comes from Chuck creator Josh Schwartz, who also wrote the comic series of the same title. In the book, the story takes us a few years back, as we follow the very first years of Professor Xavier’s students. This class includes a young Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, Ice Man, and Angel.

This isn’t the first encounter that Vaughn has had with Fox and the franchise, as he was signed to direct X-Men 3: The Last Stand back in 2006 after Bryan Singer left the franchise to direct Superman Returns. Vaughn left the project soon after signing on due to family issues, but not before casting Kelsey Grammer as Beast and Vinnie Jones as Juggernaut (arguably two of the best cast roles in the film).

Now that Singer has been attached as hands-on producer of First Class alongside Lauren Shuler Donner, Fox has Schwartz and Jamie Moss writing a screenplay, and now possibly Vaughn as director, the film seems to be coming along quite well.

We expect 20th Century to make the official announcement about Vaughn and his role in production before the end of the week. Soon after that, information on casting should start rolling in, as the film is currently slated for a 2011 release.