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Lauren Shuler Donner Wants X-Men: First Class To Be Dark & Funny

by Alex Billington
October 17, 2009
Source: Empire

We've heard plenty before from producer Lauren Shuler Donner about what to expect for every X-Men movie coming up and other Marvel projects like Wolverine 2 and Deadpool. So at first glance, I wasn't too excited by what she had to say to Empire this time. Then I came across her quotes on X-Men: First Class which seemed to address my exact concerns expressed in some recent articles. Basically she says they want First Class to "not be a kiddie movie" but instead be darker and funny, like the recent Harry Potter movies. Of course, with the most recent one making over $300 million, everyone wants to be like that. Read on!

Before we get to First Class, Shuler Donner first talked briefly about the in-development Wolverine 2:

"It's actually the story we wanted to use for the first Wolverine film, but [Fox head honcho] Tom Rothman preferred to set the character up with an origin story first. What's cool about this part of the saga is that Wolverine will be fighting in a different style to what we've seen before. Mariko's father has this stick-like weapon, so Wolverine will have to fight against that. There'll be samurai, ninja, katana blades, different forms of martial arts — mano-a-mano, extreme fighting."

Actually sounds pretty awesome. Now on to First Class, here's what she had to say about this project:

"We want it to be like the recent, darker Potters. It should not be a kiddie movie: we're in the X-Men world so you can't suddenly change the tone. The First Class comics are really fun — they're funnier than any other comics I've read. Basically in each one the kids are fighting strange villains, sometimes it's aliens, sometimes it's monsters. I want to get a [taste] of that world."

She also went on to talk about how they're not concerned that Ryan Reynolds is playing both Green Lantern and Deadpool, saying that Harrison Ford was in both Star Wars and Indiana Jones at the same time as well. On Deadpool: "Wade Wilson is a bad ass, a wise-cracking mercenary, who will go out and kill anyone for money." And that's why I'm excited to see that movie get made, as long as they find a damn good director who won't screw it up (we don't want another Punisher). I like what she has to say about all of these, but she's a producer and it's her job to sell them, it's just a matter of if they actually turn out that way in the end.

Filed under Hype, Movie News, Opinions

From around the web:

teyhtr

Meh~
heN.rY.

STOP!!!!! please ! all these X-MEN movies were acomplete waste (other than X2) . Too many kiddie shots and always having a cheesey liners ! They want to make these x-men movies worth seeing and being taken serious ? Then stop directing them like cartoons and take pride in your work Hollywood !
jake the snake

funny but not for kiddies? she sounds like an idiot.
zeldaprimed

I say bring'em on!!!!! 20 years from now they'll do reboots again...and then we can all compare and be merry...
Sabes

I don't know....
kaoz1631

When it comes to comic book super hero movies they need to take a note from "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight". Be true to what it is. Audiences will come if you make a film with substance rather then gimmicks
klaus_komix

If the line-up is who is in the above picture I'm not that interested. If its Cyclops, Jean Grey, Iceman, and Beast then I will be very interested. I have no desire to see Onyx in any Marvel movie.
SlashBeast

And there'll be this, and this, and this, and this... Just make the damn movie. Stop loading it with gimmicks and retarded shit. #6 - I completely agree.
sean

They have swung and struck out so many times. No one cares anymore.
kaoz1631

Next they'll be announcing its going to be in 3-D LMAO
Xerxex

dark, funny, one liners, and maybe in gimmicky 3-D, it can't lose!
Tra la la la la di da

First Class comics...so it;s not actually going to be the original X-men 'cause there we no kids in the original X-men. Lauren sounds like an idiot aiming X-men towards kids again 'cause it certainly was intelligent cool older people watching the recent Potter films unless they were tag-a-longs.
Madnezz344

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! please no more
Lazarus from Sparta!!!!

Lauren Shuler Donner should stop breathing...ergo stop making movies with xmen in it...if your looking for someone to blame on the death of this franchise...it's not the directors...its this fat cow! Nuff' said...make mine Marvel!
Fisherr

Deadpool is my first priority.
Lando

yea, Its hard to believe they have crapped all over these movies considering they have 40+ years of EXCELLENT material to work from!!!! that said, this wolvering treatment sounds just like Frank MIllers original 4 story mini series (first wolverine solo in Marvel) that involved his love interest and his conflict with her father. Very heavy dark and action packed, its old frank miller so its all ninjas and kurosawa inspired action..I could go for that in wolverine. but yea, so far all strike outs!
Photojones

They should do a reboot with the original five and should focus more on Cyclops and give this a Harry Potter Tone with Cyclops as the main character. Make Sinister as the main villain so we could explore Cyclops past and his family's History. And they should also explain why Mr Sinister is so obsessed with Scott Summers.
Steven Garrett

They should just rebot the whole X-men movies and start over again with the most popular and well known characters from the early nineties because they messed up pretty much all of them in my opinion. Or just start with the original four.
Steven Garrett

What ever happened to the Sentinal story lines or the going back and fourth in time ie Bishop and Cable to name a few or the Shi'arwho in the comics gives alot of thier technology to the Xmen or Apocalypse. These are all amazing storylines that can be put on film but Hollywood is to lazy.