BRYAN SINGER was the man who brought the X-Men to the big screen - and revived the superhero movie genre - back in 2000.

He went on to make X2, which has earned a leading place in the genre as well as among the X-Men films, and is now back with the franchise as a producer on the prequel X-Men: First Class, directed by Matthew Vaughn.

At a recent film screening, Bryan Singer spoke about First Class and his work on the X-Men as a whole.

Among other topics, internet rumours about Hugh Jackman having a Wolverine cameo in the film were addressed. Jackman was reported to be in the vicinity of Jekyll Island, Georgia, USA, where part of First Class will be shot.

Singer also gave his thoughts on the new Superman film and on his planned remake of John Boorman's Arthurian classic Excalibur. In this first part, we'll focus on what he had to say about the X-Men.

Singer explained: "It's about how Xavier - if you know X-Men universe - how Professor Xavier and Magneto kind of met and became friends and how that friendship turned into something else.

It takes place in the early 60s and it incorporates some characters I was able to bring back in time that are familiar, as well as some new characters, new mutants.

The X-Men comic was an allegory for the socio-poltiical climate of the time and it's against that backdrop of discrimination and the fight for equality and freedom that First Class sees Xavier and Magneto enter the scene as emerging mutants.

Singer elaborated: "We've set First Class in a time when the X-Men were conceived in the early 60s, up against political events that were happening - the early civil rights movement - and we have these kinds of events at a time when the world didn't know mutants existed."

Asked if Wolverine would make any kind of appearance in the First Class project, he dismissed the idea, stating: "He's not in the movie, he's in the Wolverine movies."

A Fox spokesman has since told us: "X-Men hasn't started shooting in Georgia yet and if Hugh was in Georgia, it wasn't for this movie.

Singer added that without his success directing 1995's The Usual Suspects, which cemented his status as a filmmaker, he wouldn't have been able to gather such a great cast for the X-Men films.

He also spoke about how he loves ensemble projects, which has allowed him to handle a large number of characters in the X-Men movies.

"I do love having peripheral characters that you can work with, particularly if you can find ways to make them relevant to the picture", he said.

"It also gives you more to cut to, there's more going on. I find ensemble films for me are easier, juggling the characters, than films that centre around a single character because you have nowhere else to go with your story, with the camera, so I enjoy ensembles a lot."

First Class, released on June 3, 2011, is currently in production at Britain's Pinewood Studios, with a cast including James McAvoy as Charles Xavier, Michael Fassbender as Erik Lehnsherr (Magneto), Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique, January Jones as Emma Frost and Kevin Bacon as Sebastian Shaw. It charts Xavier and Magneto's earlier years and events that led to them parting ways and forming the opposing forces of the X-Men and Brotherhood.


Original Source is here