With “X-Men: First Class” finally locking its cast down and going before cameras shortly, we thought that things might quiet down on the mutant movie news front. But of course, Fox have a few X-Men spin-offs in the works, and are keen to show momentum on them. With Ryan Reynolds taking on the thriller “Safe House,” “Deadpool” won’t start filming until next year, so it looks like the next batch of mutant mayhem will come from the sequel to last year’s “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” and that project may have found a director.
Vulture are reporting that two directors have been approved by the studio — David Slade, the British helmer of the terrific “Hard Candy,” and the significantly-less-terrific vampire flicks “30 Days of Night,” and “Twilight: Eclipse,” and German director Robert Schwentke, who broke through with the thriller “Tattoo” before going on to make “Flightplan,” “The Time Traveler’s Wife” and the upcoming Bruce Willis action-comedy “Red.”
Star Hugh Jackman is meeting with the pair next week, and is expected to have final approval, but Vulture have been assured by a studio insider that “it’s going to be Slade,” who’s clearly riding high after the success of his tween vampire romance, the highest grossing of the three films in the franchise, despite rumors of trouble during post-production. We’d heard a month or so ago that Fox were looking at Tony Scott and “Let Me In” director Matt Reeves, but with Scott taking on a whole host of projects of late, he’s clearly out of the running, and Reeves may be busy wrapping up his own vampire flick. It’s clear between the four, however, that Fox are looking for strong visual stylists who can handle action, but don’t necessarily have a strong voice of their own.
The script, from “The Usual Suspects” writer Christopher McQuarrie, will pick up from the coda of the first film, which saw our favorite clawed hero in Japan, where he’ll become involved in a a forbidden romance with a local girl promised to another. It’s a familiar plotline from the comics, and should hopefully mean the film won’t suffer from the same over-stuffed feel that the first one did. Jackman dropped the romantic comedy “Avon Man” from his dance card earlier in the week in order to focus on training for “Wolverine 2,” so it’s clearly a major priority for both him and the studio, if not necessarily for the audience…