All indications have been, up till now, that Bryan Singer was locked up to return to the X-Men franchise he started at Fox by directing their new prequel X-Men: First Class. In fact just a few days ago Bryan was out talking about his plans for the franchise. Now, maybe not. Hit Fix claims they’re looking for some one else.
So what happened? Well if their rumor is accurate, then it sounds like X-Men 3 all over again. Back then, Singer was supposed to direct the third installment in the X-Men franchise to complete the story he started telling in X2 with the death and hinted at Phoenix resurrection of Jean Grey. But Singer got distracted, decided he wanted to do other projects first, and Fox got tired of waiting for him. Now he could be doing it to them again with First Class.
The thing is, Singer is signed to direct a movie called Jack the Giant Killer for Warner Bros., and he can’t get out of it. Fox on the other hand, wants to get moving on another X-Men movie and, maybe they don’t want to wait for Singer. The last time this happened we got the horror of Brett Ratner, who ruined the franchise with his blah third installment. So who will they get to stand in for Singer this time? Nobody’s talking but HitFix claims their list of names will make “fanboys happy”. Unfortunately that rarely ever results in a good movie. When he was first hired for X-Men, Singer wasn’t exactly a fanboy friendly name, but he turned out to be perfect. I’d feel a lot better about this if they focused on finding a good director and worried a little less about what fanboys want. On the other hand, at least they aren’t pulling a Spider-Man.
