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Comic News Briefs: Captain America and X-Men: First Class

by Ethan Anderton
May 4, 2010

News comes in and out all the time, and while much of it is very reliable, it's always good to have official channels pass down confirmation. That's what these two comic news briefs are all about. First up, Marvel Studios announced today what we'd heard previously regarding some casting for Captain America: The First Avenger as Hugo Weaving has been confirmed to play Cap's arch nemesis Red Skull. The villain, formerly known as Johann Schmidt, was given his intimidating moniker after being drafted into the loyal service of The Third Reich. I cannot wait to see Weaving as Red Skull face off against Chris Evans' Cap!

Next, Variety has finally cleared up all the confusion surrounding Matthew Vaughn and X-Men: First Class as it is now official that the Kick-Ass director will be helming this new X-Men movie, which will hit theaters on June 3rd, 2011. This flick is moving fast too with production beginning this summer. Anyone looking forward to Bryan Singer directing before he departed (due to his previous commitment to Jack the Giant Killer) will be happy to know that he also gave his seal of approval for Vaughn to take over X-Men:

"I've been a fan of Matthew's since Layer Cake. He has a deft hand with multiple characters and storylines, and a great love of the X-Men universe. I feel the combination of this story and his vision will make for an exciting and original X-Men film."

Though we're not sure exactly who is in the "First Class" line-up yet, Variety says that the prequel chronicles the beginning of the X-Men saga, before Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr took the names Professor X and Magneto and when they were discovering their powers for the first time. Close friends at the time, the two worked with other mutants (some familiar, some new) to stop a global threat. In the process, a rift between them opened, which started the eternal war between Magneto's Brotherhood and Professor X's X-Men.

As immensely pleased as I was with Kick-Ass, I'm still worried about Vaughn taking on X-Men. Why? Well, because even though we all bash Brett Ratner left and right for ruining X-Men: The Last Stand, the fact is, all of the terrible story elements including deaths of characters like Cyclops and Professor X (though I guess he's not really dead), the cheap and disrespectful introductions of several key mutants into the mix, and the complete mishandling of one of the pivotal and most highly regarded comic book storylines (Dark Phoenix) were all in place while Vaughn was developing it. I have all the hope for him to make X-Men: First Class an amazing, and somewhat fresh start for the X-Men, but consider me cautiously optimistic for the time being.

Explore tags: Casting, Movie News, Opinions

Dustin Fuston

Agent Smith versus one of the evil exes in Scott Pilgrim........I'm in!
Xerxex

Yeah I'm more interested in Cap, X-Men first class is news I could care less about.
Christopher Roberts

Vaughan was only involved with X-men: The Last Stand very briefly between Bryan Singer's development of the project and Radner's taking over. He had the good sense to leave because there was no time for him to make script changes. Bashing Radner is also stupid because he came in at the last minute. The script was completely developed by Singer before he left to do that awful Superman movie.
PhoenixWright

#3 - The X-Men 3 script wasn't developed by Singer at all. He went to do Superman because Fox left him twiddling his thumbs for over a year after the second film, waiting to get the go-ahead to make a third installment. As soon as he went to make a DC movie rather than stay unemployed, Fox had a fit, threw him off the lot and rushed a third X-Men movie into production to beat Superman Returns to cinemas. Vaughn signed on briefly, but as you say he realised he would not have time to develop a proper script and did not, in his words, want to be 'the first one to make a bad X-Men movie.' It's only the fact that Singer is onboard with story and producing duties that swayed Vaughn, I think. Ratner, unlike Vaughn, just signed on for the cash and clearly had no qualms about making a bad film as long as he was getting rich off of it. If Vaughn has signed on for this now that his stock is at an all-time high, I'm guessing he thinks he could be given the freedom to actually make a good movie this time. Fingers crossed.
DEADPOOL 72

being a long time comic book fan,i'm getting very excited about all these cool comic book movies coming. 1.thor 2.captain america 3.x-men first class. 4.the avengers 5.deadpool 6.green lantern 7.batman 3 8.cowboys & aliens 9.spider-man 10.kick ass 2 (it will happen.) excelllent stuff.
http://www.goseetalk.com Marc

I remember reading that Vaughn didn't want to do X:Men the Last Stand because it would have him spending too much time away from his family. So rather than moving them all close to where they were shooting it, he opted not to do it. I guess now that his kids are older (and this coming right on the heels of Kick-Ass), he's ok with long production schedules? While I love Layer Cake and most of Kick-Ass, I am excited to see what he'll do with the X-Men. However Singer's films are a tough act to follow, especially if we're getting a younger and far less developed class of mutants. Ratner's films was tolerable at best but the series has gone so much further downhill after X-Men Origins: Wolverine. X-Men stock is low and I'd say I agree with Ethan on this and will remain "cautiously optimistic". Not too excited about this film as of now, but I'm interested to see what happens.
Bladed

First, Hugo Weaving better do Red Skull justice. Who the fuck cast him as Elrond? Second, can we just have a fucking ANIMATED movie for chrissakes?!?! I want to see an X-men movie done like the Final Fantasy movie. And I want Chris Claremont to write the screenplay. Louise Simonson can help too. And Bryan Singer's films totally blow. Let's try to name one good one. Alright fine, besides Usual Suspects. UGH Soo sick of comic book movies not doing justice to their respective legends. But, until Dr. Doom and Reed Richards become friends, make mine Marvel!
Xerxex

Bladed X-2 M-Men United was the best of Singer's films.
Zantorian

That's what you get when Fox makes the Movie instead of Marvel. What's the difference? Marvel can say, "No can't CHEEZE on Dark Phoenix that way". Fox can say, "Yes we can we own the X-men." Marvel says, "Fine. Piss off every X-men fan in the world." Fox says, "We don't care it will make money anyhow." Marvel say, "OK. Good Luck", and goes and start wincing in the corner.
Cracky

This X-Men: First Class news is so very uninteresting. With Matthew Vaughn even. I'm just done with the mutants man.