X-Men: First Class trailer looks kinda classy

The Wolverine movie was a lackluster affair, a ball dropped, a missed opportunity. While we wait for the eventual, an apparently much better, follow up care of Darren Aronofsky, 20th. Century Fox moved ahead with a prequel to the whole damn X-Men universe.

X-Men: First Class hits theatres June 3. The trailer was released today and, in less than two minute of footage, actually looks better than the entire Wolverine movie. Matthew Vaughn -- Kick Ass, Layer Cake -- directs the early days of the X-Men, back when Professor X could walk and he and Magneto were buddies.

That means its a period piece. Having it set against the Cuban Missile Crisis is interesting, and Vaughn has done a fine job of selecting a cast that looks like their older counterparts. If the movie is half as good as X-Men and X2 then we've got a decent movie on our hands.

Enjoy the trailer!

Bryan Singer Makes some BIG Revelations about X-MEN: FIRST CLASS!

Producer Bryan Singer has made some interesting and rather big revelations concerning the upcoming X-Men: First Class movie that will be directed by Matthew Vaughn.

In fact, this is the most we've learned about the movie so far besides all the casting news that have popped up recently.

- The movie will be set in the 1960s and we'll get to see President John F. Kennedy as well as Martin Luther King and Malcolm X - probably on TV.

- We'll see Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) at the time he was at Oxford and before he lost his hair and gets in the wheelchair. In fact, we'll learn what put him there. We will also get to see how Professor X and Eric Lensherr a.k.a. Magneto (Michael Fassbender) met when they were in their late twenties and what they were attempting to do by creating the X-MEN.

- The movie will have a much more international feel, with filming set to take place in the United-States and England, as well as Russia. Singer didn't want to reveal what other locales will be used in the movie yet.

- Scott Summers a.k.a. Cyclops and Jean Grey are NOT in the movie but Cyclops' brother Alex Summers a.k.a Havok (Lucas Till) will be in it.

- Kevin Bacon is set to play Sebastian Shaw, the leader of the Hellfire Club. Singer didn't want to confirm if we would see Shaw with his trademark ponytail and Hellfire Club garb but the guess is that we will. In his opinion, the Hellfire Club belongs to the 60s era and it would be wrong to try and modernize it.

- The costumes will be much closer to their comic-book counterparts than the costumes we saw in the previous three X-Men movies. We'll also apparently get to see what these costumes look like within the next month.

- The technology in X-Men: First Class will be inspired by the James Bond movies set in the 1960s. In fact, seems they want to give the movie a 'Bond feel' to it.

Does that make you confident and excited with the direction Producer Bryan Singer appears to be taking the movie in? Are you now looking even more forward to June 3rd, 2011?

[Via AintItCool]

'X-Men: First Class' Alice Eve OUT January Jones In! and More Cast Announced

More casting news about X-Men: First Class this morning.

Deadline has announced that Alice Eve, who was supposed to play Emma Frost a.k.a. the White Queen in the Matthew Vaughn movie, is now out. The role has been given to Mad Men's own Betty Draper, Emmy nominated actress January Jones, instead.

It also appears that Zoe Kravitz (Mad Max: Fury Road), daughter of singer Lenny Kravitz, will be playing Angel.

This lat bit of news has me going 'Whut'? Angel is a MAN in the comics, going by the name of Warren Worthington III. The role was played by Ben Foster in X-Men The last Stand.

This change, if it's true, is not making me a happy camper at all. Do they really have to change a long-time established character's gender? I feal this is a terribly bad decision and I'm afraid the movie could be heading for a train wreck . . .

Anyone else happy or unhappy about these casting news?

[via Deadline]

'X-Men : First Class' adds Three new Actors to the Cast!

With a cast that boasts Kevin Bacon as the as-of-yet-unrevealed villain, Scottish actor James McAvoy as the young Charles Xavier (Professor X), Michael Fassbender as Erik Lensherr (Magneto) and Nicholas Hoult as Hank McCoy (The Beast) one wonders who else can be added to this already diverse cast? Well how about Jason Flemyng, Rose Byrne and Oliver Platt?

All three actors have just been added to the already impressive list of actors that will appear in X-Men: First Class, the upcoming 20th Century Fox film from director Matthew Vaughn.

Fresh off a recent stint as the villainous Calibos in Clash of the Titans, British actor Jason Flemyng (ITV’s Primeval) will play Nightcrawler’s father Azazel, and his character will indeed be covered in heavy makeup and boast a tail like his famous son. You can read about the character here.

Australian actress Rose Byrne (Troy, Damages) will play Moira MacTaggert, a role that was previously played by Olivia Williams in X-Men: The Last Stand. She will be Charles Xavier's love interest in the movie and is a scientist who specializes on genetic mutations. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the actress is currently in talks for the role but Deadline reports the news as if she's already been cast.

As for Oliver Platt, Deadline reports that the actor is set to play ‘The Man in Black’ a character who is apparently not a mutant. Nothing else has been revealed about him as of yet.

Here is the full list of actors set to appear in Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men prequel:

James McAvoy : Charles Xavier/Professor X
Rose Byrne : Dr. Moira MacTaggert
Michael Fassbender : Erik Lensherr/Magneto
Nicholas Hoult : Hank McCoy a.k.a. Beast
Jennifer Lawrence : Mystique
Caleb Landry Jones : Sean Cassidy/Banshee
Lucas Till : Alex Summers/Havoc
Edi Gathegi : Darwin
Alice Eve : Emma Frost /The White Queen
Kevin Bacon : Unknown but rumoured to be Sebastian Shaw
Jason Flemyng : Azazel

X-Men: First Class is set to open in theaters June 3, 2011.

Do all these casting news have you excited about the upcoming movie?

Source, source, source, source

X-Men: First Class - Young Magneto Almost Cast?

Could we have a new Magneto signed up soon? Heat Vision Blog reports that early discussions between Fox studio and actor Michael Fassbender (Inglorious Basterds, Jonah Hex), for the role of Magneto in X-Men: First Class, have begun.

The movie is getting prepped for a shooting start in august and will be directed by Matthew Vaughn.

If Fassbender signs on the dotted line, he will share the screen with James McAvoy, who has already been cast as a young Charles Xavier.
[Heat Vision Blog]

James McAvoy to Play Young Charles Xavier in X-Men: First-Class

Some really interesting piece of casting news I must say, Heatvision reports that Matthew Vaughn has cast British actor James McAvoy in the role of a young Charles Xavier in X-Men: First Class. Vaughn will direct the movie for FOX.

According to Fox, “First Class” will “chart the epic beginning of the X-Men saga. Before Charles Xavier and Eric Lensherr took the names Professor X and Magneto, they were two young men discovering their powers for the first time. Before they were archenemies, they were the closest of friends, working together, with other Mutants (some familiar, some new), to stop the greatest threat the world has ever known. In the process, a rift between them opened, which began the eternal war between Magneto's Brotherhood and Professor X's X-Men.”

I really like James McAvoy as an actor and I think it's a good casting coup to have him play a younger version of the Patrick Stewart character. However, will he go bald or will he have a full set of hair? Apparently Fox has not revealed anything yet concerning the looks of McAvoy for the movie. I myself am not too keen in seeing him hairless . . . But the main question I guess would be to see how much McAvoy will try to channel Stewart himself or if the young actor will choose to make the role his own.

There's no casting news yet for a young Eric Lensherr a.k.a the future Magneto. I could amuse myself with a casting game by naming names like, oh, I don't know, Benedict Cumberbatch, who does look like a younger version of Ian McKellen. Just throwing it out there.

Bryan Singer developped the story for X-Men: First Class and will be producing the movie along with Lauren Shuler Donner and Simon Kinberg. Production will apparently start soon in London over the summer and the release of the movie is planned for June 3, 2011.

[Heatvision]

What do you think of this casting news? Do you believe McAvoy has what it takes to play a young Professor X? I guess this casting news also rules him out for the role of a certain hobbit . . .