X-Men 3 (Hopefully not Rush Hour 3 with Mutants)

The X-Men and Spider-Man movies where the turning point for the comic-based Hollywood movie. Before those we where subjected to various low-budget attempts like Dolph Lundgrens Punisher and the somewhat watchable Swamp Thing. X-Men paved the way and showed that a comic movie could make big money and at the same time satisfy the already in place rabid fan base. Then X-Men 2 came out and it was in some ways better than the 1st movie. We were treated to more character building, a beserker Wolverine and the awesome, yet brief, appearance of my favorite character Colossus. Again it made big money for the studio and they jumped right into planning for number 3.

But then the unthinkable happened, Brian Singer, the director who was the driving force behind both movie left to direct his dream film, Superman. Not only did singer leave, but he took the screenwriting team with him. This was a devastating blow to to the production and a frenzied search began for a new director. Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake) was attached for about 3 weeks until he left for personal reasons. Now we have Brian Ratner (Rush Hour) at the helm, working from a script he has had no input on. I think 1 of the reasons the other movies where so good was because Singer was a comic fan, he knew the characters and their backgrounds. Ratner is new to the whole idea and is not as knowledgeable on the subject.

Casting has also been a rollercoaster ride. One day someone is in, the next they are out again. It appears now that most of the main characters have signed on for the 3rd movie. Halle Berry is officially back as Storm, with the agreement that her character will have more lines and a more prominent role in the story. Hugh Jackman (now a producer) will reprise Wolverine. Partick Stewart, Ian McKellen, James Marsden and Rebecca Romijn all return. Femke Jansen is also being listed in the credit as Phoenix. Kelsey Grammer (Fraiser) will be Hank McCoy/Beast and Vinnie Jones (Snatch) will be Juggernaut. Maggie Grace (Lost was first attached to play Kitty Pryde, but now she has left and appears to have been replaced by Summer Glau (FireFly). One of the biggest surprises is that Alan Cumming will not be back to play Nightcrawler. Nightcrawler was a awesome edition to the 2nd movie, his first scenes in the White House set the whole tone for the movie. It is unknown right now if another actor will take the role, or if he will be left out completely. It is also unkown if Daniel Cudmore will return as Colossus.

Filming is set to begin in August. That is unless Ratner decideds to jump ship like those before him. It has been said that he did not even have a copy of the script in hand for audition, so he was having actors read from copies of Joss Whedons' Astonishing X-Men comic. I really want to see another good movie come from the franchise, but it still looks like rough waters ahead. the release date is set for May 26 2006. They do have 3 off-shoot movies planned to go into production after X3. A Wolverine solo story, a Magneto origin and a story of a younger group of mutants at the school(ala New Mutants). I am sure that these are going to hang in limbo until it is seen if the new movie will live up to its predecessors and make enough money to warrant the others.