Yesterday when covering the news that Alice Eve (“She’s Outta My League”) had joined the cast of Matthew Vaughn’s “X-Men: First Class” as the White Queen, Emma Frost, we listed out the mutant characters in the story so far (Magneto, Professor X, Cyclops, Beast, Frost, Mystique) and said the remaining characters to be cast were Angel, Iceman, Jean Grey and other members of Magneto’s Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.
The qualifier we should have used was “probably” when discussing remaining characters. Despite the fact that “X-Men: First Class” the comic centers around the original core X-Men characters as teenagers (Angel, Beast, Cyclops, Grey and Iceman), this movie adaptation is clearly just using the idea to dig into several eras at once.
Granted, there are “First Class” comics with the second generation of X-Men mutants (Colossus, Nightcrawler, etc.), and continuity is already a cannibalized bear in comics, but an initial movie in this teenage-aged reboot wouldn’t cram all these characters in it, would they?
Well, they might. Latino Review is reporting that 21 year old American actor Caleb Landry (NBC’s “Friday Night Lights”) is the first choice for character Banshee, an Irish mutant with the powers of a wailing voice that can disarm and disrupt opponents with subsonic frequencies; a veritable wall of sound.
The Banshee character (who can also fly for no particular reason — a bad and lazy comic trait, characters flying despite one true gift they name themselves around) is definitely part of the second gen of Mutants and with newer characters like Emma Frost and a rumored Moira MacTaggert, could this reboot possibly even see characters like Storm, Sunfire, Thunderbird or even Havoc taking the screen?
Honestly we’re opposed to it, if this is the case. Its incredibly difficult to get to the heart of myriad characters unless you’re making a three hour film and your name is Robert Altman.
Just like superhero films crammed with too many villains or characters (“Wolverine,” “Spider-Man 3,” “Iron Man 2”), too many characters can prove to be messy; a parade of heroes and super powers (and or winky cameos) and no real story. Maybe we’re giving this project too much credit as it is, but Matthew Vaughn did an incredible job with “Layer Cake” and the visuals/comic book milieu of “Kick Ass” (even though we didn’t love the latter film) and on paper there are exciting possibilities. We’re hyper-curious now. This could go one of two ways. Anyone got a script they wanna pass our way?
Our worries may not be unfounded either. The script has passed through several hands: from Josh Schwartz (“The O.C.”), to writing team Zack Stentz and Ashley Edward Miller (“Thor”)to most recently, what sounds like a newer version by Jamie Moss (“Street Kings”), under the supervision of Bryan Singer (who is now one of the producers). On top of all that, the screenplay received a recent touch-up by Jane Goldman, co-writer of Vaughn’s “Kick-Ass” and “Stardust.” Is that screenwriting by committee? We hope not.
Also, just like “Spider-Man” 3D, expect this teenaged reboot trend to continue. Directors and stars become too expensive, have too many ideas that slow down lucrative productions? Easy, the studio can just find less expensive hungry new talent (and Sony, clearly not 100% confident in Sam Raimi’s desire to make a 4th film had James Vanderbilt working on a reboot script all along).
“X-Men: First Class” shoots this August in the U.K. so we’ll hear lots of casting announcements soon. So far the cast includes Michael Fassbender (Magneto), James MacAvoy (Professor X), Ben Walker (the Beast) and it seems like Aaron Johnson,will probably take a role as well (Cyclops is the conventional wisdom).
Update: Oh and related funny, a professional surfer and bikini model — Erica Hosseini — has tweeted that she’s auditioning for a role. What’s our rule of thumb? If you’re actually tweeting about an audition, chances are you’re not getting the role and or its so small it doesn’t matter. Meanwhile, rumored actor Eddie Redmayne (“Savage Grace”) has denied that he’s up for a role or at least that he’s part of the cast.