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'Sherlock Holmes' Screenwriter to Script 'X-Men: First Class' Sequel

by Ethan Anderton
November 4, 2011
Source: Superhero Hype

Since the period set prequel X-Men: First Class made quite a splash as a flashy and well-executed installment of the Marvel Comics franchise, a sequel in situations like this is pretty much a no-brainer. Now it sounds like Fox is making their first move on development for a follow-up as Superhero Hype reports Sherlock Holmes and Mr. and Mrs. Smith writer Simon Kinberg (who also produced X-Men: First Class as well) is being brought in to write the sequel to Matthew Vaughn's initial origin story of Magneto and Professor X. However, one film in Kinberg's filmography might get some fanboys out there a little worried.

In addition to producing the film to which he is now hired to write the sequel, Kinberg sadly also had a hand in the less impressive mutant sequel X-Men: The Last Stand. Of course, when it comes to Fox's franchise films, there are usually a handful of writers who rework the screenplays over a period of time. In the cast of X-Men: First Class, Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz are credited with writing the script, but Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman certainly contributed a lot to the script as well. In addition, these writers were only part of the later writing process. So if anyone is worried that Kinberg could take this franchise into a nosedive, he's likely only writing the first draft, which much more work on the script to come down the road.

What fans will really be wondering about is where the sequel might be headed. An interview with HitFix awhile back revealed how director Matthew Vaughn would start the next film, and that gives us an idea of the kind of conflict we would be looking at. Vaughn says:

"I’ve got some ideas for the opening for the next film. I thought it would be fun to open with the Kennedy Assassination, and we reveal that the magic bullet was controlled by Magneto. That would explain the physics of it, and we see that he’s pissed off because Kennedy took all the credit for saving the world and mutants weren’t even mentioned. And we could go from there, and I’ve got some fun ideas about what other mutants to bring in. I don’t want to tempt fate, though. If the film’s a hit, of course I’d be interested. I really enjoyed making it.”

In addition, unlike the other X-Men sequels, Vaughn says he would only introduce one new character to take care of the mere fact that Magneto needs someone to tangle with now that Charles Xavier is in a wheelchair. However, Vaughn didn't reveal who the character might be. Of course, there's no guarantee that Vaughn would actually come back for the sequel considering his distaste for working within the studio system and on a really tight schedule, not to mention the filmmaker is already working on adaptations of Superior and Secret Service, one of which he might end up taking as his next directing gig. Either way, you can expect the sequel to move swiftly into development, but hopefully not rushed enough to ruin the start of a good thing.

Filed under Development, Movie News

From around the web:

Chad

First class was HORRRRRRRIBLE. one of the worst movies Ive ever seen really. If you're gonna make another x-men movie, please please please, make it a really good reboot with a good director.
- Johnny Reno
  
  You're clearly clueless then, and should stop watching movies...
  - Kaim
    
    He over states how bad it was .. but it was bad. Constant cringes.
  - Anonymous
    
    Hey, it's just his opinion....leave him be. I liked FC quite a bit. But if others didn't, I'll live. "You're clearly clueless then, and should stop watching movies..." ...Then again, I'd love to say this to most film critics and most people who comment over at AICN....
- http://twitter.com/cwdestroy Christopher Dean
  
  LOL, great sarcasm!! .......wait
- http://www.facebook.com/jordiesen Jordan Petersen
  
  GTFO. First Class was great.
- Anonymous
  
  Holy shit you hate First Class and you're actually calling for a reboot. You're beyond retarded.
  - Chad
    
    YEAH! a reboot with the cool shi* like sentinels and maybe the mastermold thing, or like bishop and the future stuff, thats what we want!!! and cool mutants and lots of like mutants showing off there powers in cool ways... The coolest character in firstclass was a GODAMN HENTCHMAN DUDE WTF!
    - Anonymous
      
      Hey, then why not watch the X-Men anime that's playing on G4? It's got a lot of cool stuff...but then again, it's easier to do in animation than in live action. And even if they put in the "cool shi* like sentinels", you'll probably complain that they didn't look cool enough and that the CGI sucked. Just sayin'.
Steven

The only issue with the first was that it didn't make sense at the end and ignored the previous films. There was a flashback in X3 with Charles and Eric, in which Charles was walking, making no sense of the bullet on the beach making him a cripple. Also, they were suppose to be friends for longer as Eric helped to build Cerlebro.....
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=5111584 Nate Carroll

Yeah, this movie sucked. Action was good, sure but as an Xmen movie simply horrible.
- Robbie
  
  Really ? I honestly felt it was better than any of the previous films and it had this brilliant momentum but hey it's subjective.
  - Anonymous
    
    "...but hey it's subjective." True. But I liked FC a lot anyway. Especially the fact that they used the Cuban Missile Crisis as a story element.
Lagoya

Only one new character??!! Come on, I thought First Class was a great film - definitely better than the first three, but only Magneto and Professor X were done well, ALL of the other mutants were utter crap! Azazel was just a clone of Nightcrawler, Black guy dies as usual, Banshee looked like he had downs syndrome, Havoc shoots energy from his a stupid metal tray on his chest instead of his arms etc etc the list goes on. Where is Apocalypse, Mr. Sinister, Sentinels, Bishop, Psylocke, Cable, Forge just to name a few? there are countless better characters to include! Its time to advance the franchise.
- Victoria
  
  You do realize that Azazel is later revealed in the comic books to be Nightcrawler's father and that Mystique is the mother.
David Banner

How many was it? 10-15 timeline errors in First Class? I still enjoyed it, but all those errors.... Our friends at ign.com made this video about all the errors: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hs3C6d-9_tA
http://www.facebook.com/jordiesen Jordan Petersen

As long as Fassbender is Magneto again, I'm in.
Liam

I didn't think the movie was atrocious or anything - it was definitely bad though. The real problem with it however is that it wasn't really X-men. And it certainly wasn't an X-men story that needed or deserved a massive budget. Why spend so much money making this random, arbitrary story when they could have told one of the classic, wonderful and timeless stories from the books? Bizarre are the things that people do with their huge sums of money.
ur_babys_daddy

How many times has the comic rebooted or said he'll with continuity? First class was a good film that stood on its one daring not to have wolverine taking the show. Sentinels would be awesome though in the sequel.
Anonymous

I thought First Class was alright, but I didn't like the ending at all. They should have had Magneto and Xavier remain friends. They're supposed to be really close friends whose friendship is broken by their differing cultural views. One of them wants mutants to be equals with humans, the other thinks mutants are superior and should be in control. The second film should have been where they were driven apart, with a third film being the two groups finally fighting each other. That would have made for a satisfying trilogy that would have had a clear arc of conflict all the way through it while allowing for separate conflicts for each movie. I don't mind them not sticking with the comics. Hell, I'd prefer it if more comicbook movies would throw out the comics and focus on writing a new story that just fit the characters. Basing them on the books results in too many people bitching about shit that got left out or shit that got changed. I think it would be best to just make sure you get the characters right and make your own story that is written specifically for film.
- Steven
  
  totally agree