Shocking news out of Hollywood: AintItCoolNews is reporting that Matthew Vaughn has dropped out as director of X-Men 3 and has been replaced by either John Moore or… Brett Ratner!
UPDATE! It’s Ratner. And the script sounds awful.
Well, this is shocking and unexpected and I haven’t seen it reported anywhere else. After seeing Layer Cake last weekend I was really intrigued as to the possibilities of a fresh slant that Matthew Clark might bring to the X-Men.
Brett Ratner is, to me, the king of the uninspired, mediocre picture. I’ve seen no better out of John Moore either. Of course, that’s just my opinion.
I say forget Brett Ratner. Forget John Moore. Even forget Joss Whedon! Someone get me Gulager!
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And your opinion is entirely correct. Perhaps we were spoiled by x1 and x2, because now, we’re sauntering into the land of humdrum. Damn.
This is like the moment that Tim Burton sequed into Joel Schumacher.
Stephen Spielberg into the frenchman who did Jaws 2
Richard Donner into Richard Lester. (although I like Richard Lester in some ways…)
Finally, Ron and all X-fans have their moment of terror that the Batfans had to endure.
Also, Richard Donner into Richard Lester is no comparison to Tim Burton into Joel Schumacher. Not even close.
I was in a hurry. Bah!
Let’s wait until the movie comes out and Wolverine’s costume has nipples, then I’ll jump off the GWB…
C’mon, you can’t be happy about this development…
And what of the other super X-fan, Patrick?
the only thing i’m wondering is if this film is going to get made. and if it is made will it be straight to video or what?
isn’t the cast still up in the air?
i’m happy we got 2 solid X movies made, and to expect anything more is just wishful thinking. even though they left it wide open for a third. why didn’t they just start production as soon as the other one came out?
to make a series of movies now i think you have to do it, BAM, BAM, BAM
no big breaks… it all falls apart if you wait to long
It really does sound like this film is just going to end up in development hell. If it does get made we can only cross our fingers that Wolverines costume will have nipples.
Jason…do you want me to jump into the Hudson River?
NOOO NIPPLES!
But serious, I’m not passing judgement until I hear more – at minimum lets hope Ratner nixes the Kelsey Grammer Casting
Why? His voice is *perfect* for Beast.
Oh I agree – its not his *voice* I’m worried about
Fox’s New X-Man: Brett Ratner
By Josh Grossberg
X3 marks the spot for Brett Ratner.
Six years after the Rush Hour helmer was approached by 20th Century Fox to direct the very first X-Men feature–only to see Bryan Singer get the job and go on to do the sequel–Ratner is now the studio’s latest choice to shepherd X3 to the big screen.
The studio confirmed Monday that Ratner will take over directing duties on the third installment from Matthew Vaughn, who dropped out of the project last week, supposedly because he didn’t want to be away from his London-based family to spend a year on the production in Los Angeles and Canada.
However, insiders tell Daily Variety that Vaughn, who produced Guy Richie’s Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels but has only one directing credit so far in the just-released Layer Cake, might have been nervous about taking the reins on a big-budget Hollywood franchise with so little hands-on experience. Vaughn, who has two small children with supermodel wife Claudia Schiffer, hasn’t commented on the report.
Although Vaughn’s departure came just weeks before shooting was to commence, 20th Century Fox and Marvel Entertainment say Ratner will be able to step in immediately and the production schedule for X3 won’t be affected. Cameras will roll in August and the film is still slated for a release date of Memorial Day 2006. All the key cast members are ready to go, save
Halle Berry who’s reportedly still in negotiations to reprise her role as Storm. The X3 roster also has some new additions, including
Kelsey Grammer as the super intelligent blue behemoth good guy known as Beast and Lock, Stock star Vinnie Jones as the evil, metal-clad Juggernaut.
X3 is something of a consolation prize for Ratner. After the longtime comic book fanboy lost out to Singer on the original X-Men films, he jumped to Warner Bros., where he spent a year developing Superman Returns before exiting after failing to land a key star. Ironically, his path to X3 was cleared when Singer skipped out on the mutant sequel to try his hand at reviving the Man of Steel, essentially picking up where Ratner left off.
Now that he’s joining Wolverine and company, several other projects Ratner was working on are going on the backburner.
The most high-profile of these was Rush Hour 3 for New Line Cinema, which would have reunited him with stars Chris Tucker and
Jackie Chan. The film had been targeting a fall start date and a 2006 release. Ratner and Chan had already signed up based on a script by Rush Hour 2 screenwrither Jeff Nathanson, but Tucker wavered despite being offered a reported $20 million deal, because he wanted script approval. New Line balked and negotiations have stalled in recent weeks.
Fox was also eyeing Ratner to get behind the camera for Josiah’s Canon, a heist flick starring
Sean Connery, but those plans were scuttled when the former James Bond announced he was exiting the project.
Beside the Rush Hour franchise, Ratner’s recent credits include The Family Man, Red Dragon and After the Sunset.
This… is… scary.
http://www.aint-it-cool-news.com/display.cgi?id=20443
Like, terrifying.
I didn’t read much of the script stuff, but the rest of it sounds right. I dunno, you got 2 good ones, so it’s hard to complain.