X-Men: First Class


X-Men: First Class is an upcoming superhero film based on the comic book superhero team. It is the fifth film of the X-Men film series and a prequel to the first three movies. Matthew Vaughn is directing and Bryan Singer is producing, and the film is scheduled for release on June 3, 2011. It concerns the early years of
Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr, and their dealings with The Hellfire Club.

James McAvoy...Professor Charles Xavier

Michael Fassbender ... Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto
Rose Byrne...Dr. Moira MacTaggert
January Jones...Emma Frost
Kevin Bacon...Sebastian Shaw
Jennifer Lawrence...Raven Darkhölme / Mystique
Nicholas Hoult ...Hank McCoy / Beast
Jason Flemyng... Azazel
Oliver Platt...Man in Black
Lucas Till...Alex Summers / Havok
Caleb Landry Jones...Sean Cassidy / Banshee
Edi Gathegi...Darwin
Álex González...Janos Quested / Riptide
Zoë Kravitz...Angel Salvadore
Ray Wise...Secretary of State





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Monday, January 31, 2011

Lucas Till on 'Havok'


"For X-Men: First Class, my routine is a lot different. Portraying Alex Summers, I want to look as athletic as his character is in the comics. My trainer, Ed Chow, is one of the nicest people on the face of the earth, which is deceiving, because he is damn good at what he does."


http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/MarvelFreshman/news/?a=29092

Patrick Stewart comments on the new Professor X


When he was informed that James McAvoy was playing the role of Professor X he said:

He is? He’s doing it? I had no idea! I must say that it is nice to see a role that you created go forward with someone you admire."



http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/joshw24/news/?a=29086

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Saturday, January 22, 2011

James McAvoy speaks to Collider.com


What is it like to do X-Men: First Class and have such a quick turn-around, since the film is due out on June 3rd?
James McAvoy:
I don’t think I’ve ever made such a big movie, in such a short period of time. It’s nuts, really. But, we’re getting it done. No movie has ever got enough time. It doesn’t matter how much money you’ve got, and it doesn’t matter how much money you’ve not got. You never finish on time. You’re always up against it and you’re always working up until the end. To get three days off the schedule to come and do [press for Gnomeo & Juliet] is a nice break ‘cause it is just [non-stop], all the time. But then, that’s what it is with every single movie I’ve ever been on. It just feels like the usual. It’s more about whether they can get it ready in time for the release date. They’re working on the editing now, and they’re working on the special effects now. They’ve got a big department working 24/7 on it.

From what you were told about the film to how it’s turning out, how does it compare?
James McAvoy:
It’s pretty much what I thought it would be when (director) Matthew [Vaughn] took me through it all. He really wanted to play off the ‘60s setting of it, and play off the style of that, visually, in the design of the costumes and all that, which we totally got. And, he wanted us to be really free, in terms of characterization, and was confident in taking it as far away from the original characters, not as we could, but as we thought was right. We’ve really done that quite a lot. Otherwise, there’s no point in doing a prequel, if they’re just the exact same people. They’ve got to be very different, otherwise there is no journey. This story is all about that journey to showing the seeds of how they are in the other X-Men movies, and to show what could have been between Erik and Charles – or Professor X and Magneto (Michael Fassbender) – and to show why it couldn’t be.

What’s been the toughest part about playing such a popular character?
James McAvoy:
The toughest part is probably that I’ve got a great superpower and, if you had it in real life, it would be amazing, but in a movie, everybody else is bouncing off the walls and shooting fucking beams of light out of their chest and doing crazy stuff and making things fly around, and I’m [putting my finger to my forehead]. It just feels a little bit like, “Oh, god!” But, what’s nice is that it means I have less CGI and stunt work to do, which means I have more time in my bed. That’s the thing. I look at all the other people using their superpowers and I’m like, “That would have been fun!”

What’s been the best part of this gig?
James McAvoy: The best part about it, for me so far, is that I really love the cast. The cast has just been incredible. We’ve had a lot of fun, actually. I’ve loved working with [Michael] Fassbender. I think he’s great. I’m so glad that we got to collaborate on something. But, just from top to bottom, the cast is amazing. Having Kevin Bacon play your baddie is great. It’s a great, slightly left-field piece of casting as well. I don’t think anybody expected that. Hopefully, that’s a clue as to what the movie will be.

http://collider.com/james-mcavoy-interview-x-men-first-class-gnomeo-julie/71964/

James McAvoy speaks to Screen Rant

 
Screen Rant: One thing people are wondering is how Professor X is going to be depicted in terms of combat, as he trained for it in the comics.
James McAvoy: He’s not too combat savvy in this film, it has to be said. He doesn’t do too much, he’s sort of a consultant with the combat guys. But he does get involved in a few little bits of fisticuffs, I wouldn’t say that he comes out well in any of them, but I wouldn’t say that he gets his ass kicked either. Yeah he’s not particularly combat ready.

SR: So it will be more about the mind control.
JM:
Yes.

SR: Will he end up in the chair at the end and will he end up bald? Because that is the current rumor.
JM:
You’ll have to wait and see, you’ll have to wait and see. It’s actually quite satisfying when you get to say that: ‘I’m not allowed to say.’ Because nobody’s actually told you that you’re not allowed to say, but it’s sort of implied.

SR: Ooooookay. What if anything did you take from Patrick Stewart’s portrayal?
JM:
I’ll tell you what I did take – I looked at all of the things that he did the hardest. I looked at all of the things that came out the strongest in his performance and we said we have to go the opposite way. Simply to validate why we were making this film, because if they were just the same there would be no reason to make it, we have to show how different he is. We have to show a journey – so he clearly has to start in a different place. So the main things that we looked into are the fact that he is ego-less, selfless, a very good person, he’s sexless – he’s sort of like a monk. We thought of what the opposite of all of those things would be – so now he drinks a lot, chases women quite a lot, and doesn’t mind sort of abusing his power to get ahead. He’s definitely got an ego, and he’s definitely a little bit selfish. So that’s where we start with him, and so he’s now got to grow towards –Sir Patrick.

SR: So it’s the experiences of this film that make him who he is as a character ultimately?
JM:
Yes.

http://screenrant.com/james-mcavoy-xmen-class-interview-professor-x-rothc-97608/

Director Matthew Vaughn says 'imagine Bond'...and 'Twilight'


ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How would you describe First Class to the uninitiated?
MATTHEW VAUGHN:
The best way of describing it is X-Men meets Bond, with a little bit of Thirteen Days thrown in for good measure. It’s set in the ’60s, and I basically molded a young Magneto on a young Sean Connery. He’s the ultimate spy — imagine Bond, but with superpowers.

If Magneto is Bond, then what about Charles Xavier?You’re seeing Xavier become a professor. For me, Magneto is the good guy in the film, but he’s a sort of a good bad guy. He literally kicks off the movie, and Xavier goes along on the ride trying to figure out what the hell is going on, and trying to persuade Erik that you don’t have to kill everyone.

I know you’re under tight restrictions about what you can reveal regarding the plot, but, well, what else can you say?In the beginning of the film, no one knows that mutants exist, and all the mutants don’t know that each other exist. They’re all in hiding. Kevin Bacon plays a very megalomaniac mutant [Sebastian Shaw] who decides that he can take over the world and that mutants are the future. Erik and Charles then meet each other and hook up with the CIA to try and prevent World War III. You find out everything about what went on between Erik and Charles.

And there are flashbacks with Erik and Charles as young children?They’re not flashbacks — we start there. It starts in 1942, and then works its way up to 1962.

Did you have any concerns about how, no matter what you do, you may anger some of the die-hard fans?Yeah, but I could tell those fans that they’re wrong. One thing about the X-Men world is that, if you know your X-Men universe, every writer reinvented the storyline. I did my research, and none of the histories of the characters make any sense. Each writer just totally changed the history to make their plot work. So I can quite safely say that X-Men has a history of reinventing its history for the sake of the plot.

Is the movie related at all to the First Class comics?Not really. There are a lot of nods to the X-Men world and the X-Men movies, but it’s definitely its own beast.

You were going to direct X-Men: The Last Stand and then dropped out two months before filming started. The story is that you thought you weren’t going to have enough time to see your vision through…That’s true. It was as simple as that. In retrospect, I probably would have had more time then than I do now, which is highly ironic. But I also have more experience now than I did then. And I had no idea how big-budget filmmaking worked, so I was just applying small-budget independent-style logic to the wrong equation. And when I saw the film, I realized that Fox would have given me all the tools I needed. I was just stupid enough not to take them. But we both decided to cross the bridge together again. I definitely had burned a bridge. But they asked, so we met and we both kissed and made up and went off to make the film.

How did you settle on James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender as Professor X and Magneto, respectively?Professor X is a very hard character to cast. Out of all the characters, he’s the dullest if you really think about it. He’ll be in a wheelchair eventually, and he’s sort of a sanctimonious preacher half of the time. Patrick Stewart brought so much to that role, and I needed to get an actor who could do the same — who could give him a fourth dimension that’d make him sparkle. James was literally at the top of the list, and he said yes, so I got my first actor very quickly.

Magneto was a juicier role. I’ve been watching Fassbender for a long time, and I knew the guy was going to pop as a movie star. He read it and knocked it out of the park, and the rest of the cast just fell in around them. What makes me laugh is, by this time next year, half of my cast is going to be extremely popular and famous. Jennifer Lawrence [i.e. Raven Darkholme/Mystique] is going to pop. Nicholas Hoult [i.e. Hank McCoy/Beast] definitely is. People are going to find Kevin Bacon a revelation, and January Jones [i.e. Emma Frost] has got huge star potential.

And, please, one more story tease?It’s got a lot of teenage angst. The Twilight girls will like it.

http://insidemovies.ew.com/2011/01/22/x-men-first-class-matthew-vaughn/

Thursday, January 20, 2011

January Jones On Emma Frost, The Hellfire Club, Sequels And More!


"I was very excited to do something so different and so iconic and be a part of a franchise like that. But also there was a huge weight of responsibility, too, to portray that character. There are so many fans of the comics and the movies that -- inevitably, I'm going to disappoint someone, but I just wanted to really do my research and still have fun with it. It's been a blast so far. I just hope all the fans enjoy it as much as we have."
 
"Well, we're still shooting it. When I heard it was coming out that quickly, I had a lot of questions. They're editing as we go, doing the visual effects as we go. Obviously, I have a lot of faith in the people we're using for those things. I didn't have to do any wire work, but there was a lot of wire work involved for some of the characters and there are times when you're imagining this is going to be happening behind you so you react to that, which was my first experience with that sort of thing and which was fun. It was like coming to work and being a little kid and using your imagination and times feeling kind of silly, but embracing the fact that it's going to look awesome. And from what I've seen it looks amazingly incredible. Just Emma Frost's diamond form alone I've never seen anything like it."

"I don't want to give any of that away as far as their relationship, but I can say that it doesn't feel like a period movie. There's obviously historical aspects in the storytelling and some of the props and stuff, but I think it feels very modern. It does take place in 1962. One of the things that's brought in from that time, the Hellfire Club aspect especially, is that it's pretty -- I dunno, the Bunnies and the Playboy clubs. It's really cool. You'd think Sinatra was there. The sets are really cool and the vibe of the whole thing is really neat."

"We don't go into too much of the backstory. Not really. it's more of a mystery about the relationship she has with Shaw and her past and why she reacts certain ways to certain things. I think the fans of the comic who know her history will understand why she does certain things because they know her, but I don't think it'll be confusing to audiences who don't know her backstory either. Well, she's on the side of the mutants. I have hard time defining who is good guy-bad guy in this because everyone's pro-mutant. It's just whether you trust the humans or you don't. So I can't say whether she's a bad guy or a good guy."

"Yeah, I'd love to do another one. I've had a great experience on this one. It's been really, really fun and just an exciting place to go to work. Just a lot of great talent and also we just get to play. It feels like being a kid again, although my outfits are not. (laughs)"  

Matthew Vaughn Talks Leaked Photos


“I freaked out on them yesterday. I don’t know where the hell that came from. I don’t think it’s a Fox image. It’s not a pre-approved image. When I found out, I said, what the fuck is this shit, and Fox is running around trying to figure out what happened as well. I agree. It’s like a bad photoshop, which maybe it was by someone. It didn’t reflect the movie. I was shocked when I saw it. I was like ‘Jesus Christ’…"



“I’m a fan of X-Men. We’re not bastardizing X-Men, I’m trying to get them back to being whole again."

"The costumes are blue and yellow as well, because fuck it, lets take it back it the original. Also, by the way, those costumes are hardly in the movie. The main costumes are like these cool 60’s James Bond…”

http://www.slashfilm.com/exclusive-matthew-vaughn-reveals-magneto-professor-xmen-class/

New Photos of Professor X and Magneto


Teaser Poster




A Report from the Set

Matthew Vaughn

I’m at that stage where I feel like a boxer against the ropes,” the director said as his crew prepared for the next shot on a location set in Long Beach. “I’m just throwing punches and taking them as they come and making sure I don’t hit the canvas.”

We’re filming at the moment, we’ve a lot to get done,” said a weary Vaughn. “I’ve never worked under such time pressure. The good thing about the independent world is I never even knew if I was going to get distribution. I’m used to finishing a film and then crossing your fingers that someone is going to like it. This is totally doing it the other way around. We’ve definitely got a release date and we’ve got to make it.”

Asked if he’s concerned about the glut of superhero film competition this summer — with “Captain America: The First Avenger,” “Green Lantern” and  ”Thor” – Vaughn said that, if anything, it’s the other guys who should be nervous. “With ‘Green Lantern,’ I don’t know about that one, I couldn’t get my head around the trailer, to be honest … look, I will say the following: X-Men as a brand is bigger than Captain America, Thor and the Green Lantern, all put together.”



James McAvoy

“This isn’t a reboot, so I’m not replacing anyone, in which case you might want to try to be as different as possible and stay away from what had been done before,” James McAvoy said on Monday during a break from a rescue scene that required water-tank work. “This is a prequel, so I’m the same character, just younger, but the challenge for me – and for Michael — is to show the same person in a different place in their life; to show someone before they’re this bad guy, before they’re this saint. Charles wasn’t always a … monk, this selfless, sexless monk that he becomes.”



Bryan Singer

It is an excellent cast,” Bryan Singer said. He added that no one is more aware of the high-bar set by McKellen and Stewart. “I’m very sensitive to it. Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy are two of the best actors working today and that was needed to fill those shoes. Short of digitally recreating Patrick and Ian in their 20s I cant think of anyone who would be more equipped for this than these two guys. The challenge of that is what attracted James, I’m sure of it. That’s why the guy who starred in ‘Atonement’ would want to play a comic-book character in the first place because it was a role established by a really fine actor.”

The biggest challenge is introducing an audience to these characters in a different time – characters the audience is familiar with but now see played by younger actors and in a story taking place in a different time. We have to establish this universe. We had the challenge with the first ‘X-Men’ film, which came at a time when there were no comic-book movies [of this sort] and no template to launch from and yet you’ve got to do that. You have to put your characters out there and introduce them to a quizzical public that sort of recognizes them. But that very thing is the exciting part of it.”

http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2011/01/19/x-menfirst-class-three-exclusive-photos-and-a-report-from-the-stressed-out-set/

Cast Photos

 James McAvoy (Professor X) and Michael Fassbender (Magneto)

Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) and Emma Frost (January Jones



Caleb Landry Jones (Sean Cassidy), Michael Fassbender (Magneto), Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique), Rose Byrne (Moira MacTaggert), Nicholas Hoult (Hank McCoy), James McAvoy (Professor X), Lucas Till (Alex Summers)


http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2011/01/19/x-menfirst-class-three-exclusive-photos-and-a-report-from-the-stressed-out-set/

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Kevin Bacon on 'X-Men: First Class'


Moviefone: What can you tell us about your character, Sebastian Shaw, and how he figures into the plot?
Kevin Bacon: You don't see much [of his backstory] in the movie, but he's kind of a self-made man. He lost his father as a young man, made his first million by the time he was 30 and first billion by time he was 40. He's a very powerful billionaire and also, as it turns out, a mutant. He's the leader of the Hellfire Club, which is a nightclub for the rich and extremely powerful. And he has a plot to take over the world, so that's really fun. He's incredibly good at manipulating people and at taking whatever kind of energy or ability they have and using it to his advantage, like if he's talking to a German, he's fluent in German. He's very charming and able to get whatever he wants.

Moviefone: Why did you decide to take on this sort of role?
Kevin Bacon: I was a big fan of 'Kick-Ass' and someone told me I should go read the script and meet with Matthew Vaughn and like that, I was in 'X-Men.' I liked the script, thought it was such a fresh look at the franchise, but also the comic book movies in general and certainly it's a great character. He's definitely the character I was interested in playing.

Moviefone: Is your look changing for the film?
Kevin Bacon: My look is very different from the guy in the comic books. We decided pretty early on that that was not going to translate to film. But there's a certain kind of style to the suits that I wear, but I don't have anything extreme in the makeup department. When you first meet me -- I don't want to spoil it -- but when you first meet me, I look a little different.

Moviefone: Were you an X-Men fan?
Kevin Bacon: Oh yes, definitely. Not so much from the comics, because I didn't read that many as a kid, but I really liked the movie. I liked the notion of being different and the metaphor for judging people by their external qualities and the idea of racism and it plays very heavily into the themes for this movie. And is there the opportunity for people who are different to assimilate or to even relate to other beings that are different from them? In our realm of the world, we have humans, various versions of that and animals and plants and nature and they're introducing another element to that and I just think that's kind of cool.

Moviefone: Who's your favorite X-Men character?
Kevin Bacon: I always thought that it was great that you had Professor X in his wheelchair. That's really fascinating -- right from the beginning to have a lead character bound to a wheelchair is super interesting and Patrick Stewart was great in the role.

Moviefone: Are you signed on to more than one film?
Kevin Bacon: I am, but whether or not I end up in any more remains to be seen.

Moviefone: Matthew Vaughn was planning a big action scene in a rotating room, but scrapped it after he saw 'Inception,' and said he needed to go bigger. How has he topped it?
Kevin Bacon: I'm trying to think what scene that was. I remember hearing something about that, but I'm not sure if that was online or actually from Matthew. But we do have a really, really super cool scene in a hall of mirrors and that's going to be really spectacular.

Moviefone: What's the craziest-looking mutant or mutant power that will get audiences talking?
Kevin Bacon: That's hard to say because when you do a movie like this, so much of this stuff is happening in post. There were some practical things, like it's no secret that Magneto has the power to move and bend metal and the way that's handled right from the first scene in the movie is going to be really cool. It's something we haven't seen in any other movie so far.

Moviefone: The movie is set in the '60s: Is Vaughn going for a swinging '60s, James Bond look?
Kevin Bacon: There is an element of that, certainly to my character. I've got some pretty nice pads and I'm kind of slick in that way. I don't think it's visually, in terms of camera moves, it's not trying to recreate that. But it has an element of that. The set design is fantastic. I've only seen the sets that I've been on and they are really interesting and very '60s modern and super cool, and beautiful. I have one set that's kind of like an inner sanctum and then I also have a submarine; the inside of the sub has elements of my other set. I have my own set of style and wanted to translate it over to my board room and stuff. It's great. I love the way it looks.

Moviefone: Since descriptions of the movie's setting have mentioned JFK, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, are there any cool bits of real history that are used in the story?
Kevin Bacon: The backdrop is the Cuban Missile Crisis, so it's a little earlier than the Civil Rights era. I don't think JFK is a character in the movie, but the idea of the possibility of thermonuclear war in our own backyard is there.

Moviefone: But there is an element of the racial tension of the times (which inspired Stan Lee in the first place)?

Kevin Bacon: Yes, definitely. And also the fallout from the Holocaust is still there, which you'll remember is in the first film.

Moviefone: What's the coolest part of the film?
Kevin Bacon: That's hard for me to say, not having seen the movie. But I think the youth of the movie, that is really exciting. You've got Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique) and Zoë Kravitz (Angel) and James McAvoy (Professor Xavier) and all these young actors who are about to explode. When you see them become what we know of as the X-Men, to me, that's really cool. The visual stuff, I can't say, until I've seen the effects. But from a plot standpoint, watching the creation of that kind of elite squad and yet they're all in this college dorm room kind of atmosphere, where there's romances and drunken parties and people become friends and then they have a falling out. I think all that stuff is going to be really cool. All of these movies deliver something other than just another airplane blowing up because there's interesting stuff going on between the characters.

Moviefone: Why should X-Men fans who are worried about a Wolverine-less X-Men movie stop worrying?

Kevin Bacon: I didn't know that X-Men fans were worrying about that.

Moviefone: So X-Men fans will be completely entertained, even without Wolverine?
Kevin Bacon: Absolutely.

Moviefone: What was the most fun part of playing this character?
Kevin Bacon: I have a really newfound appreciation for those actors, Heath Ledger, Johnny Depp, Robert Downey Jr., and Hugh Jackman, that are able to work within this kind of genre with all the green screen and create great, memorable performances. It's very difficult; for me the most fun is always connecting on a scene and working with another actor to try to make that scene work. There was a scene near the end of the film between me and Michael Fassbender (Magneto) and the scene was okay, but I don't think either one of us was figuring it out. So Matthew let us spend a weekend up at his house and really figured it out from an acting standpoint, what this moment really means between these two. And that's the fun stuff. Hanging from a crane is fun too, but not as fun as actually connecting with another actor.


http://blog.moviefone.com/2011/01/19/interview-kevin-bacon-x-men-first-class/

Michael Fassbender Talks Magneto In 'X-Men: First Class'



MSN: What drew you to play this character and take on the challenge of assuming a role established by Ian McKellen?
 
Michael Fassbender: Hopefully I won't disappoint the fan base out there, because I know that what Ian McKellen did sort of latched onto a lot of imaginations and was very successful. But what drew me was the script and Matthew Vaughn and the fact that James McAvoy was going to be playing young Xavier. I thought it was a fresh take on the whole story. I've never been a big comic book enthusiast, but I thought it was an interesting concept to go back to when they were both friends and initially came together.

After you signed on for the role, did a box come in the mail packed with hundreds of "X-Men" comics for you to peruse?
 
Yes, it did, and I got knee-deep into them once I got involved. That was all my source material, because it's all there in the comic books in terms of a backstory and formulating the character. I did also watch the other films and took notes from those, but took most of my references from the comic books.

As someone coming to this from a sort of open perspective and not really being a fan, what did you learn about this character?
 
He's such a complex character, really, and the idea of him being a villain is interesting considering his history (Lehnsherr is a Holocaust survivor who lost his family in the camps, and later lost his wife and daughter) ... he's a very solitary individual, and the pain and grief that's gone on even before we meet him in this film is an interesting pool of information to draw from, in coming up with this Machiavellian character for whom the ends justified the means. You can see where he's coming from. Human beings don't have the greatest track record in what they've done throughout history, so his point of view is, "Well, we are the next stage of evolution -- (humans) are to us what Neanderthals were to Homo sapiens."

He's always been a fascinating character because he's not completely wrong, but thinks that everything he does is right, no matter what the cost.
 
He's an extremist, and that's always a dangerous place to be. By the time we leave him at the end of this movie, he's become very clear about what he wants and his decisions and his game plan.

Early word on the movie's story line draws parallels between Xavier and Lehnsherr and Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X in terms of the methods they use to achieve their goals. Did that comparison come out for you while making the film?
 
You don't set out to play these things that way, but it's a good parallel to have in the back of one's mind, as something to take from real life as a reference. I didn't study any Malcolm X videos or anything like that. But it clarifies where both these characters are coming from. Hopefully by the end of the film, the audience is like, "Damn, why didn't these two guys stay together?" They have enough in common and not in common to keep each other in check, and hopefully the audience will feel like they could have worked together for the greater good.

The words "reboot" and "prequel" are thrown around so much these days, and are sometimes even used interchangeably. Is this a reboot of the entire "X-Men" franchise, or a true prequel where you could watch this and then sit down and watch the three earlier films and see a connection?
 
I think the fundamentals are the same. The main thread of the story is still the same. I don't really know how to answer the question because I haven't seen this one yet, so I haven't had a chance to watch it side by side with the other ones and see if they're relative to each other. Hopefully they are, I think, but also we want to do something fresh as well and open a whole new chapter with this without totally betraying what was laid down before.

One of the criticisms of "X-Men: The Last Stand" (2006) was that a lot of mutant characters were jammed into the film, introduced and then never developed. There are a lot of mutants in this film as well, but from your perspective are they handled better here?
 
The cool thing about this movie is that I think it does deal with each individual mutant, and the ones they've chosen are all very much individuals and unique personalities with unique gifts. What's interesting is that we've gone back to a period where the mutants don't know that there are other people out there like them. They just think they're freaks and outcasts from society ... all of these new characters are fearful of their gifts and uncomfortable and misplaced in society, so hopefully when they all sort of come together and realize they're not alone and feel more comfortable in their own skin, that's a discovery for all the characters that you experience.

The film is set in the '60s and Vaughn has said he wanted to capture a certain look -- specifically referencing the James Bond films of that era. He has also said that the costumes will be more like the comics' versions and not the black rubber look of the other "X-Men" films. Can you comment on both of those ideas?

There's a scene where they just sort of transformed this hall in London into Buenos Aires Airport, and I just looked around this mock airport and said to myself, "My God, I've just had a feeling of being in the '60s." From the colors to the costume designs to the production design itself, there's a sort of nostalgia in the air when you look around the room. It's just from my own perception of the '60s, and all that came with it in terms of the music and the fashions and so forth, but all of that comes across in the visual references that we all have. All of that is there to encapsulate the feeling of that era, for sure.

As for our costumes, we went back and forth on so many things. We added things that worked in the comics, took them away again, and stripped them down again. ... When it came to the Magneto suit, you know, there's various stages of what has been done with it, but you will have something that is traditional to the comics. There is a helmet (laughs), which is of course essential to keep Charlie-boy out of my head, and the colors are also kept traditional to the comics, that sort of red and purple. I don't know if I'm giving you too much, but I'll say it anyway (laughs).

Fans of the "X-Men" franchise were not completely happy with the way that the third film, "X-Men: The Last Stand," was handled, even though it was financially successful, and there were grumblings about the "Wolverine" film as well. Is there a sense that you've set out to earn back the fans' trust with this one?
 
I certainly hope so. My face is gonna be up there and my name is gonna be attached to it. I've got a lot of faith in Matthew, and everyone is very passionate and working very hard to earn back any trust that's waned a little bit from the last film.

This interview is one of the first of the early stages of prerelease publicity for the film, which has been kept very much under wraps until now. Any other thoughts that you want to get out there about the movie at this point?
 
Well, I just hope that this and some of the photos that are being released will whet the fans' appetites for the summer. Hopefully they'll be excited.

http://entertainment.msn.com/news/article.aspx?news=623079

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Cast Photo - unauthorized

Michael Fassbender as Magneto, Rose Byrne as Moira MacTaggert, January Jones as Emma Frost, Jason Flemyng as Azazel, Nicholas Hoult as Beast, Lucas Till as Havok, Zoe Kravitz as Angel, Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique and James McAvoy as Professor Charles Xavier.

http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/rorschachsrants/news/?a=28247



**** UPDATE **** Photo is unauthorized **** UPDATE ****
Fox has indicated to MTV News that this is not an authorized image from the "X-Men: First Class" movie.
http://splashpage.mtv.com/2011/01/18/x-men-first-class-cast-image/

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Possible Trailer Details!


Possible Trailer details:

The trailer opens with the 20th Century Fox logo which pans up as the two spotlight beams cross and form a white "X" on the left of the screen. A white circle goes around the "X" forming the X-Men logo, as Magneto's helmet comes up on the right.

Patrick Stewart and Ian Mckellan voice over the opening lines about destiny and which side will you stand for as scenes of each in their previous X-Men movie roles flash until the entire screen flashes from white to black.

A very young Xavier and Erik meet for the first time, followed by a different angle of the scene from the opening of X-Men in the concentration camp.

Camera pans outside of an old castle-style building that greatly resembles the X-mansion. McAvoy and Fassbender are seen walking through the halls. The words "One wanted peace" flash by Xavier.

Scene transitions to Erik yelling dramatically as metal tables in the room begin to float around him. Xavier and Mags shake hands with a tall man in a lab coat introduced as Dr. McCoy.

The words "The other was too far gone" flash as a very pissed off Erik storms through a hallway killing guards as he passes them.

Cut scene to what appears to be a red Nightcrawler with swords taking out a room full of people; the close up reveals Azazel's face.

The Hellfire Club stand next to Xavier on a bed as Emma goes into diamond form. Olver Platt and Kevin Bacon were next to Emma in black aristocratic clothes, with Emma wearing the exact same outfit from the Wolverine and the X-Men cartoon.

Mystigue on a bed with her skin turning black; Beast is shown transforming, with his feet growing and toes webbing and fur growing.

Havok shoot a red beam of energy (looks almost exactly like cyclops's eye beam, but larger) from his chest (SIDE NOTE: Havok's powers in comics have always had a blue energy).

It then shows Beast all blue and furry (looking almost exactly like Kelsey Grammer in make-up) in the pilot seat of a crashing jet, followed by several rockets flying towards an island.

Xavier's face goes all CGI and his head begins to go bald as he mentally pulls a large ship that was sinking out of the water, as well as some smaller boats around it (he's telekinetic now?).

Back to Xavier (with hair) telling Erik he only wanted peace for him, and he replies there was never a chance for anyone to have that.

Final scene: Erik picks up a black helmet, then he is shown from behind wearing a black and red suit (no cape or coat though) and the helmet. Screen cuts to black and the X-Men: First Class logo shows up (the one described above), then the release date.


http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/MarvelFreshman/news/?a=27617

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

January Jones copes with sexed-up, ‘insane’ costumes


When January Jones was initially cast as mutant telepath Emma Frost in “X-Men: First Class,” she was eager to for the chance to break out of the retro 1960s world of Betty Draper, her character on “Mad Men.” Imagine the actress’ surprise when she learned that prim Betty and the vixen Emma could be partners in time.

When I heard that this installment of ‘X-Men’ was gonna take place in the ’60s I was like, ‘Oh my God, you must be kidding me!’” Jones said. “But I read the script and familiarized myself with the character of Emma Frost. She’s so, so far from Betty and from ‘Mad Men,’ and it takes place in that time but it doesn’t feel like a period movie.

"The costumes are insane,” Jones said. “It’s a lot of very body-conscious stuff. If you look at the comic book, she’s barely dressed. She’s got quite the bod, which is very intimidating.

Jones, who said she is encouraged to avoid the gym while shooting “Mad Men” to maintain a body typical of the period,  flew to London to start shooting “X-Men: First Class” the day after her show wrapped.

I’m thinking, ‘I’m supposed to be doing crunches on the plane,’” she said. “How am I gonna get buff in one day? I’m a petite person, so I didn’t want to go into a strict workout and eating regime. I would have disappeared entirely, and she’s very busty, very voluptuous, so I didn’t want to get rid of any of my curves.” The workout-averse Jones lifted some weights for the role, but otherwise struck flattering poses and hoped for the best. She did have some advantages over the other actors when it came to costumes. “I don’t have to do all the crazy prosthetics,” Jones said. “When I morph into my diamond form, it’s all done on computer.

Emma was a bespectacled, mousy child who had this power when she was young that she couldn’t quite harness, the telepathy, the mind-twisting stuff,” Jones said. “She had a falling out with her father and went her own direction.

It wasn’t just learning Emma’s back-story that was important to Jones, but being able to reach hard-core fans. “Fans of the X-Men comics have a very set idea of these characters in their heads,” Jones said. “I wanted to know as much as I could about her so I wasn’t disappointing anyone. I’m sure I will still disappoint someone.

The film, which opens in June, has about a month of shooting left. For Jones, it’s a welcome chance to branch out from 1960s housewife to 1960s bad girl. “I’m riding around in helicopters, I’m in a boat one day, I’m in all these fight sequences, we’re all over the English countryside,” she said. “I feel like I’m a kid playing mutant.

http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2011/01/04/x-men-first-class-january-jones-copes-with-sexed-up-insane-costumes/