X-Men: First Class is intended to be about the young Cyclops, Jean, Beast, Storm and others who attended Xavier's school with them. Zak Penn revealed he was offered to direct the spin-off in 2007, which he explained, "The original idea was to have me do a young X-Men spin-off, a spin-off of the young X-Men characters. But someone came up with a pretty interesting idea [...] it was this guy who worked with me named Mike Chamoy, he worked a lot with me on X3. He came up with how to do a young X-Men movie which is not what you'd expect." Penn later compared the idea to the comic book series X-Men: First Class, and in July 2008, Fox filed the title X-Men: First Class with Production Weekly. In May 2008, Josh Schwartz joined the project. Lauren Shuler Donner and Simon Kinberg will produce. First Class will be greenlighted depending on the success of Magneto.
Bryan Singer later signed on to direct "X-Men: First Class" in December 2009, returning to the series that he started with X-Men and X2: X-Men United. Singer was quoted as saying, "[t]his is the formative years of Xavier and Magneto, and the formation of the school and where their relationship took a wrong turn ... [t]here is a romantic element, and some of the mutants from 'X-Men' will figure into the plot, though I don't want to say which ones. There will be a lot of new mutants and a great villain." Jamie Moss, the writer behind the 2008 Keanu Reeves movie Street Kings, has also come on board to pen a new screenplay for X-Men: First Class.[citation needed] In March 2010, Singer reiterated that the film will find its axis in the relationship between Professor X and Magneto and the point where their friendship soured, while also detailing the beginning of the school for mutants, with younger incarnations of some characters with new actors in roles of Cyclops, Jean Grey, the Beast, etc. When asked if Hugh Jackman might appear as Wolverine, Singer only shrugged. Also during March 2010, Fox revealed Bryan Singer is producing X-Men: First Class instead of directing, because the studio wants the film to start production as soon as possible in order to release it in 2011, and Singer is unable to do it due to his commitment to a Jack the Giant Killer adaptation. |
