Why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves up, this is a lesson Warner learned the hard way with Batman. And yes, that is a direct quote I stole from Batman Begins, and for good reasons. Since we’ll cover 2005 up to 2007, Bats is not the only superhero of old coming back. In this part we see DC Comics showing its teeth after years of nothing (Catwomen is best forgotten), the return of a long lost hero, the end of a trilogy and a bunch of other Marvel properties parading about, trying to look as cool as their bigger brothers, but mostly failing horribly.

Batman Begins was the title that Warner chose for the return of the dark knight. Under the strong hand of Christopher Nolan, who was previously credited for movies like Memento or Insomnia, the new direction of Batman was clear, a darker tale focused on the human side of the hero, exploring his journey, going from a lost man fulled by revenge to the hero that criminals learned to fear by the end of the movie. This was a huge departure from the neon goofy Batman created by Joel Schumacher with Batman Forever and Batman and Robin. Christian Bale was the new Bruce Wayne while Michael Caine was Alfred. It also featured: Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, Liam Nesson, Katie Holmes and many others. A fantastic cast for the movie that became a turning point for the superhero genre. And yes, it was a critical and commercial success, ok, maybe not the hit it could have been but considering the bad taste left by Batman and Robin only 8 year before, $205.3 million in North America and $372.7 million worldwide on a $150 million budget, was a great start for this new take on Batman. For me personally, this is still the best superhero movie ever made and what makes it so great is the fact that Batman Begins is a genuinely good movie regardless of the genre.

Fantastic Four, another Marvel property turned to the big screen by Fox, followed but didn’t have the same impact as the X-Men movies had. This was a goofy action-adventure superhero flick that made $154.6 million in North America and $330.5 million worldwide. While it didn’t set the world on fire, it was a fun time at the movies so a sequel was green lit soon after.

Sky High, released in the middle of the 2005 summer, was sort of a live-action The Incredibles but without that Pixar magic sprinkled on top. Nevertheless, it was a good movie that got decent reviews all around. Unfortunately, while Sky High grossed $86.3 million worldwide on a $35 million budget, Disney never had the guts to follow it with a sequel.

Now The Mask of Zorro on the other hand, got a sequel but only 7 years later in the form of The Legend of Zorro. Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones returned along with director Martin Campbell. Unfortunately it was to little to late, the movie was average at best and the magic of the previous entry was gone. The Legend of Zorro only made $142.4 million worldwide (The Mask of Zorro grossed $250 million in 1998) on a $75 million budget. At this point the only way we’ll get Zorro back is in the form of another reboot and with the new-found success of swashbuckling movies (thanks to the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise), we might not be all that far from something like that.

X-Men: The Last Stand opened in May 2006 and was supposed to be the end of the X-Men trilogy. Some unfortunate events happened during production, some involving another movie I will cover today. You see, part of what made X-Men and X2: X-Men United so great was director Bryan Singer. He understood the characters and managed to make something very good of what was essentially a very hard to adapt series. With so many characters, it’s easy to get lost and screw things up. Well Bryan Singer left X-Men: The Last Stand to direct Superman Returns, his longtime dream project. Matthew Vaughn took over, but left weeks before filming was set to begin (later returning to direct X-Men: First Class). The cast and crew were ready, so Fox hired Brett Ratner and threw as much money as possible into X-Men: The Last Stand ($210 million no less) in order to make at least something decent in the very short time they had. What came out wasn’t a bad movie but it wasn’t on the level of the first two either. On the other hand it did become the highest grossing of the series with $234.3 million in North America and $459.3 million worldwide. Financial success doesn’t always equal quality and for X-Men: The Last Stand it was very true. After screwing up the series to the point that a sequel became almost impossible, Fox were left with only two options, reboot or spin-offs. Since everyone was rebooting left and right, they chose spin-offs and in all honestly, it wasn’t such a bad idea.

A few paragraphs back I mentioned that Bryan Singer left X-Men to make his dream project, Superman Returns. After the success Warner had with Batman Begins a year before, one might think they would try to reboot Superman as well but this wasn’t the case here. Superman Returns was a full blown sequel to the Superman movies of old, recapturing the classic feel of the first two in the series (truth be told, it ignored the events of Superman III and IV). While it did make a good amount of money ($200 million in North America and $391 million worldwide), production costs were absurdly high ($270 million budget, most expensive movie at the time, just like the original in 1978) that it was deemed a financial disappointment. Unfortunately this Superman was way to classic for what modern audiences were expecting, not to mention with heroes like Batman, Spider-Man or Wolverine, the man of steel was becoming too old. I personally think it was a good, almost great movie that gets a lot more negative publicity then it should. No sequel followed but a reboot is planned for 2013, more about that at another time.

Superheroes at the box office Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6.

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This week we go over 9 movies from 2003 to 2005, 6 of which are based on Marvel properties, just to give you an idea how much they’ve grown since Blade in 1998. Among the 9 we get a bunch of sequels, a reboot, two utterly terrible spin-offs, one big red hero, one bigger green hero and an original animated flick from Pixar.

After hitting the jackpot with X-Men in 2000, sequel was the name of the game for Fox. Just three years later X2: X-Men United came out to even greater success, opening with $85.5 million (X-Men had $54.4M) and grossing $214.9 million in North America and $407.2 million worldwide. After making a good deal more money then the first one (something very very rare back then with superhero sequels) and receiving even better fan and critical reception, a 3rd entry was right around the corner. What could possibly go wrong, right?

In June that same year Universal took another stab at the superhero genre with Hulk. Directed by Ang Lee, it turned out to be a disappointment for fans and based on the $62.1 million opening, a missed opportunity money wise. With just $132.1 million in North America and $245.3 million worldwide on a $137 million budget (second most expensive superhero movie at the time), Universal were not happy and everyone blamed director Ang Lee. You see, he tried to make a very talky movie out of a very smashy property, that was his big mistake. Personally I blame Universal since they hired him and they should have kept an eye on the project.

There are very popular superheroes like Hulk, Batman, X-Men and so on and then there’s Hellboy, a Dark Horse comic hero unknown to many, at least until the movie came out in 2004. Released by Sony under the direction of Blade 2 director, Guillermo Del Toro, while not a huge hit ($99.3 million worldwide on a $66 million budget), Hellboy took on a cult following. Great DVD sales and rentals turned sequel talk from fantasy to reality.

Now we get to the reboot I was mentioning in the intro. I’m going to burst a few bubbles here, this ain’t the very long anticipated return of Batman, nope, you’ll have to wait a bit more for that cause in 2004 we had The Punisher. But why call it a reboot? Well you see, back in 1989 there was another The Punisher starring Dolph Lundgren that never made it into theaters in the US (hence why it wasn’t mentioned by me before). This new Punisher, while it got released on the big screen, wasn’t much to write home about. Having made only $54.7 million worldwide on a $33 million budget, Lionsgate decided to give the character a break until they could figure out where they’ll take him from there (sequel or another reboot).

On June 30th 2004, Spider-Man 2, the highly anticipated sequel of the arguably most popular superhero movie at the time, was released to glowing reviews eclipsing the first one. This became the new benchmark of the genre, loved by fans and even today considered among the best superhero movies ever to be brought to the big screen. Grossing $373.5 million in North America and $783.7 million worldwide, it became second only to Spider-Man ($403.7 and $821.7M) as the highest superhero money earner.

At this point DC Comics characters were out of the loop with Marvel dominating the field thanks to the likes of X-Men or Spidey. With the new Batman reboot in production, Warner decided to prepare audiences with a spin-off centered around catwomen. The name of the movie was, well, Catwomen and it bombed big time. On a budget of $100 million, it only made $40 million in North America and $82 million worldwide.

So far we’ve seen how popular established characters can become if done right, but how about an original animated superhero movie done by the masters of animation themselves. Yep, I’m talking about The Incredibles, a fantastic movie on itself that so happened to be animated and feature superheroes. It became the 3rd highest grossing in the genre with a stunning $261.4 million in North America and $631.4 million worldwide. So Disney and Pixar, how much longer do we have to wait for that Incredibles sequel, aye?

With the exception of the better forgotten Catwomen, 2004 featured a stellar lineup thanks to Hellboy, Spider-Man 2 and The Incredibles, unfortunately not everything that starts great has to end the same way. We just had to finish the year on a bad note thanks to New Line and their Blade: Trinity, a rushed sequel panned by critics and hatted by fans, not to mention it made the least amount of money out of the trilogy ($128.9 million worldwide), helped in no small part by a bad release window (December). This was more then enough to put the series on an indefinite hiatus. Recently there have been rumors of a 4th Blade movie, but we’ll see how likely that is over the upcoming months.

And last but not… hell, this is definitely also least, I’m talking about Elektra after all, the horrible horrible Daredevil spin-off. So bad that it makes Daredevil seem like a masterpiece. $24.4 million in North America and $56.6 million worldwide is what this made and I can’t shake the feeling it should have been a straight to DVD affair.

In Part 7 we explore the new beginning of a beloved character, one that would mark a new turning point for superhero movies. I’ll give you a hint, he has a thing for bats.

- Superheroes at the box office (Part 1)
- Superheroes at the box office (Part 2)
- Superheroes at the box office (Part 3)
- Superheroes at the box office (Part 4)
- Superheroes at the box office (Part 5)

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In Part 4 we lost Batman but got Blade, a second-rate superhero that showed Hollywood how a seriously taken source material and genuinely good movie can turn into a successful property, regardless of how famous it was to begin with. For the first time, you didn’t need Superman or Batman to make a hit.

So Blade turned a lot of heads in 1998 and gave 20th Century Fox the courage to finally shell out $75 million so that X-Men could start filming after years of delays (Bryan Singer signed on to direct the picture way back in 1996). Initially set to open in December 2000, X-Men was moved to July and considering filming just started in September, this was definitely on a very tight schedule. But before we go forward with X-Men, we still got 1999 and 2 superhero movies to talk about.

Black Mask was a movie made way back in 1996 that opened in North America on May 14th 1999 starring Jet Li. The only reason this finally got released is because Jet Li was starting to become popular thanks to his role in Lethal Weapon 4 just a year before. Black Mask only made $12.5 million. A few months later it was time for superhero comedy Mystery Men to bomb at the box office with $29.7 million in North America. Yep, 1999 was not a good year for heroes of the super kind.

X-Men opened on July 14th 2000 with the 5th highest opening weekend at the time, $54.4 million and outstanding reviews and praise from fans alike. This was everything Fox wanted it to be and the franchise potential was enormous. X-Men went on to gross $157.3 million in North America and $296.3 million worldwide. The Marvel revolution was here.

In November 2000 an original superhero created by the mind of M. Night Shyamalan was unleashed in Unbreakable. This was a very different take on the genre but it still received good reviews and great fan appreciation. $95 million in North America and $248.1 million worldwide made Unbreakable one of the bigger hits of that year.

2001 was almost empty with only 1993 Hong Kong movie, Iron Monkey, out in North America grossing just $14.7 million.

2002 was a landmark moment for the superhero genre with Blade returning and Spider-Man finally getting his big screen debut after years of going nowhere. Directed by the now famous Guillermo del Toro, Blade II opened March 22nd with $32.5 million and went on to make $82.3 million in North America and 155 million worldwide. At this point Wesley Snipes and Blade were here to stay, at least until New Line would pull a Superman 3 on it, but more about that at a later time.

Stuck in development hell for over two decades, Sony Pictures finally bought the Spider-Men movie license in 1999 along with a James Cameron original scriptment (he tried to get the project up way back in 1990). After considering directors like Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, 2012), Tim Burton (Batman, Batman Returns), Chris Columbus (Home Alone, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone) or David Fincher (Alien 3, Fight Club), they finally went with must less famous Sam Raimi (Evil Dead) in 2000, a long time fan of the comics. Filming took place from January to June 2001 and Spider-Men was set to open in February 2002. After previewing an unfinished version of the movie and realizing the huge potential they had with a summer release, Sony moved the date to May 3rd 2002.

May 3rd 2002, the date Spider-Man, arguably one of the big three most popular superheroes in the world (Batman and Superman being the others), finally opened and what an opening that was. $114.8 million, the biggest weekend ever at the time and it would not stop there. Spider-Man became the best reviewed superhero movie ever, considered by both fans and critics the finest flick to ever feature a superhero. Spidey went on to gross 403.7 million in North America (5th highest back then) and $821.7 million worldwide. Sony now had the biggest hero in town and they wanted to milk it to the last drop. A sequel was obviously on the way, but not for another 2 years, in the meantime other studios tried their luck at this hero thing, now more interesting then ever before.

Warner Bros, the studio that managed to ruin both Superman and Batman in little over a decades, released The Powerpuff Girls Movie in 2002. Based on the popular Cartoon Network series, it made $11.4 million. Hard at work on rebooting their then tarnished superheroes, Warner were not out of the game yet.

On February 14th 2003 Fox unleashed another Marvel superhero on the big screen, Daredevil starring Ben Affleck. It turned out a mediocre flick but it did gross 102.5 million in North America and $179.1 million worldwide. Instead of following it with a sequel, Fox were planning to release a spin-off 2 years later, a disaster we’ll talk about in Part 6.

- Superheroes at the box office (Part 1)
- Superheroes at the box office (Part 2)
- Superheroes at the box office (Part 3)
- Superheroes at the box office (Part 4)

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As expected Transformers: Dark of the Moon had no problem dominating the box office over the long Independence Day weekend setting a new record for the time slot (Spider-Man 2 with $88.2 million was the previous holder). Cars 2 had the biggest 2nd weekend drop ever for a Pixar flick while newcomer Larry Crowne disappoints, more after the break.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon grossed 97.8 million over the 3-day weekend or $115.8 million if we count the 4th of July that fell on a Monday. In total the 3rd robot extravaganza made $180.6 million in 6 days, more then the $155.4 million made by Transformers in 2007 but less then Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen with $214.9 million in 2009. This week is going to be crucial for the final tally of Transformers: Dark of the Moon, depending on weekdays and the coming weekend, we will know with a certain degree of accuracy how much it will gross when all is said and done in North America. At the moment I’m going to say it should finish somewhere between Transformers ($319.2 million) and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen ($402.1 million).

Cars 2 is another big hit that (as the title suggests) features, well, cars. With $26.2 million over the 3-day weekend this had by far the biggest 2nd weekend drop for a Pixar movie. After 11 days Cars 2 has grossed $122.5 million, neck a neck with the original Cars that had $121.5 million at the same point. A week ago it had $6 million over Cars, now it is down to $1 million and when all will be said and done, it might not even make it to $200 million, a far cry from the $244 million of the original.

Bad Teacher was another movie that took a bigger dive then expected, down 54.1% for $14.5 million and 3rd place. With $62.7 million after 11 days, I’m starting to have doubts regarding the possibility of this finishing above $100 million in North America.

Larry Crowne, the Tom Hanks directed, written and starred romantic comedy, also featuring Julia Roberts, made only $13 million over the 3-day weekend and another $3 million on Monday. Definitely a lot less then the 20+ expected from the two once huge stars.

Super 8 rounded out the top 5 with $7.9 million for a total of $110 million after 25 days. If it keeps going at this rate, this should finish with over $130 million in North America, more then enough considering the $50 million budget.

The last opener of the weekend was Monte Carlo and that made $7.4 million for 6th while Green Lantern kept plummeting, down 63.6% for $6.5 million and $103.6 million in 18 days. This will stop around $115 million and I can’t really imagine how Warner must feel right now after spending $200 million on it.

Other noteworthy movies:

• Bridesmaids finally became the highest grossing Judd Apatow movie ever with $153.7 million in 53 days;
• X-Men: First Class will reach $140 million sometime today or early tomorrow;
• The Hangover Part II is now at $248.6 million while Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides is at $234.1 million, both should be passed by Transformers: Dark of the Moon before the end of the week;

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After a first place debut in North America, Cars 2 managed to grab the same spot around the world. Now this would not be in any way surprising considering how huge the Cars franchise has become in the past 5 years, but what really stands out is this only came out in 18 markets and still grossed enough to beat the likes of Kung Fu Panda 2, the former leader.

Cars 2 took in $42.9 million last weekend and according to Disney, it was up by 127% compared to Cars in the same markets. Considering that one made $217.9 million internationally, it’s safe to assume that Cars 2 will finish north of $400 million internationally for what should look like around $650-700 million worldwide. Still, there’s a long way to go before it can reach those heights and right now Cars 2 has only $123 million worldwide.

Second place went to Kung Fu Panda 2 with $36.7 million from 56 markets for a new total of $343.4 million internationally and $497.7 million worldwide. Back in 2008 Kung Fu Panda made $416.3 million internationally and $631.7 million worldwide. This one will probably stop around $600-$630 million worldwide.

The Hangover Part II made $16.5 million for $283.3 million internationally and a record $528.1 million worldwide making it by far the most successful R-rated comedy around the world.

Inevitably, we come to Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides again, this time with $13.5 million for $756.1 million internationally and that means, well, I will let the numbers speak:

1. Avatar 2,021.8 million
2. Titanic 1,242.4  million
3. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides 756.1   million

Worldwide is at $986.6 million and this weekend it should break the 1 billion mark becoming the 8th movie to do so. When all is said and done, Pirates 4 should be at $1,020-1,040 million either becoming 6th or 7th in history (not adjusted for inflation).

X-Men: First Class took in $13 million for $186.6 million and $321.2 worldwide. It has passed X-Men ($296.3 million) but it will fall just short of X-Men Origins: Wolverine ($373 million) and not even close to X2 ($407.7 million) and X-Men: The Last Stand ($459.3 million).

Bad Teacher was 6th with a solid $12.4 million from 24 markets and now holds $18.3 million internationally for a worldwide total of $57.8 million.

Time for some interesting facts about a movie that came out 2 months ago yet it’s still doing business. Did you guys know that Fast Five has made so far about as much as the entire worldwide grosses of the first three Fast and Furious movies combined? $596.8 million vs $601.9 and it isn’t out of the question that it could ultimately pass that total with a bit of help. Universal, mental note, help Fast Five hit that mark.

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X-Men: First Class is the superhero movie I didn’t even know I’d been waiting for. A hybrid of prequel and reboot, it’s most successful in borrowing the elements that worked best from each of the previous X-Men films and consolidating them into one fluid story. Inspired casting, solid acting, a terrific script, impressive effects, and really great action: what more could you want in a superhero film?

In the recent pantheon of superhero movies – since Bryan Singer’s X-Men hit theaters in 2000 – I’d place First Class under The Dark Knight, Spider-Man 2, Iron Man, and possibly X2: X-Men United. Considering there have been over 40 superhero movies released since 2000, the high placement of First Class should obviously be taken as a testament to its superior quality. Director Matthew Vaughn not only infuses the film with an inspiring style desperately lacking since Singer turned the director’s chair over to Brett Ratner in 2006, but Vaughn also contributed to the script with his Kick-Ass co-writer Jane Goldman. (Ashley Edward Miller and Zack Stentz, the duo behind Marvel’s most recent effort, Thor, co-wrote First Class as well.) Also impressive is Vaughn’s ability to jump from deconstructing superhero tropes in Kick-Ass to effectively utilizing them here in First Class; more importantly, he handles both approaches with equal amounts of skill, able to slide around within the same genre from parody to a more traditional (yet still outstanding) entry.

The casting in First Class is stellar from top to bottom. James McAvoy is the perfect young Charles Xavier. Strong-willed and powerful, he’s easily imaginable as one day growing into Patrick Stewart’s iconic representation of the character. Michael Fassbender continues his slow rise to member of the Hollywood elite as Erik “Magneto” Lensherr, imbuing the character with an intensity and smoldering rage coupled with a willingness to keep an open mind…until his inevitable shift. That’s what’s awesome about this movie: they didn’t stretch out the character development over three films (ahem, Star Wars prequels). By the end of this movie, I was rearing to go for a sequel right then and there, and that’s a rare feeling for me in a big budget blockbuster franchise movie these days. Jennifer Lawrence is splendid as Mystique, pulling a complete 180 from the dirty noirish heroine of Winter’s Bone to the beautiful shape-shifter we see here. Even Kevin Bacon (what’s he doing here?!) was fun to watch, playing it relatively straight – after his Nazi intro – as the villainous Sebastian Shaw, hellbent on nuclear war and complete with a harebrained scheme involving mutant domination of the fallout.

The secondary cast members were also impressive, led by the wonderful Rose Byrne as CIA agent Moira MacTaggert. She’s an actress who’s basically been the real life Hollywood equivalent of Mystique lately, disappearing into vastly different roles in Get Him to the Greek, Bridesmaids, and now this. January Jones was the only weak link, although her stiff and lifeless acting was perhaps more apt here since she’s playing ice queen Emma Frost than in other roles she’s inhabited in her career. Don’t get me wrong, she looked spectacular – she’s just a terrible actress. The rest of the young mutant cast was fine, but not worth mentioning (aside from the technical point that Scott Summers’ brother Alex – aka Havok – is involved in this movie even though this makes no sense in the overall series timeline). One of the largest successes of this film is that Vaughn and his crew were able to assemble the best cast of military character actors ever committed to film. All these guys are in the same movie: Glenn Morshower, James Remar, Matt Craven, Ray Wise, Michael Ironside, Olek Krupa, and Rade Serbedzija.

The main triumph of First Class is the way the writers were able to fit the best elements of each film into one cohesive story. There are the uncertainty issues of growing into one’s powers featured in the first movie, Magneto is essentially a stand-in for Wolverine from X2 (the loner badass of the group), and there is a “cure for bizarre outward appearance” subplot featured heavily in X3 that arises between the smitten Beast and Mystique this time around. The seamless integration of these elements makes me wish Vaughn would have written and directed X-Men 3, but he left the project before Ratner ultimately got his hands on it. Some may argue that this movie makes too many references to what will eventually come in the series (Charles and Erik play chess! Cerebro is built! The Blackbird appears! Charles is paralyzed! Magneto’s helmet! Two famous cameos!), but I didn’t find these as distracting as they easily could have been. I think that’s the clearest sign that this is a really solid script – there are so many winking moments to the fans, but none of them get in the way of the film’s legitimately interesting plot, which invokes historical situations (here, the Cuban Missile Crisis) in a way that no other superhero movie outside of Watchmen has attempted.

X-Men: First Class is a fantastic example of how to breathe new life into a dying franchise, and I’m really hoping Vaughn and the rest of the cast can bring the same magic if they decide to make a direct sequel in the next few years. But even if they can’t recapture the same glory, we can be thankful they’ve already brought us one of the best superhero movies of the past decade. Until next time…

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While Marvel has yet to release a trailer for Captain America: The First Avenger SEGA has released the first trailer for the movie’s game tie-in Captain America: Super Soldier.

As a game it looks like your typical third-person ‘fighting bad guys’ affair, but games based on movies are rarely any good. The trailer could give us a glimpse at a few scenarios and settings from the movie, but we won’t know until Marvel releases some footage.

Captain America: Super Soldier is expected on Xbox 360, PS3 and other platforms around the time Captain America: The First Avenger is released next July.

Next up, Activision and Marvel today announced that they are teaming up to create a brand new X-Men game called X-Men: Destiny. No platforms have been announced, and there are no specifics on the genre of the game, but X-Men: Legacy comic writer Mike Carey will write the storyline which “casts players as new mutant recruits in a rich, branching storyline that features a deep element of choice and gives players ultimate control of their destiny”.

You can watch the teaser trailer below:

Attendees of New York Comic-Con, which is going on now through October 10, can get a sneak peek of the game in Activision’s booth, and the game will be released in late 2011. As 20th Century Fox aren’t involved it probably won’t be linked to next June’s X-Men: First Class.

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Though British actress Rosamund Pike was rumored last week to play Emma Frost (aka The White Queen) in Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class, Production Weekly now says 20th Century Fox has a “strong interest” for her to play Dr. Moira MacTaggert in the film. Hit the jump to find out how their “interest” extends to actress Amber Heard.

Fox has Heard (Alpha Dogs, the upcoming Drive Angry) in mind for the role of a young Mystique, taking over the role from Rebecca Romijn.

I’m sure you’re all familiar with Mystique, but Moira MacTaggert is a little less of a celebrity within the X-Men world. In the Ultimates universe, she is actually Xavier’s ex-wife; in all incarnations of the comics, she is an award-winning geneticist responsible for co-founding Xavier’s Institute for Gifted Youngsters. Check out Marvel’s biography of the character here.

We already know that James McAvoy has been cast as Charles Xavier, and Filmonic set the internet on fire with our prediction that Aaron “Kick-Ass” Johnson could play Cyclops in the film based on a meeting between the two actors and director Matthew Vaughn. There was also some talk of Michael Fassbender (Inglourious Basterds) possibly playing Magneto, but Prod. Weekly says* Fassbender is not interested in testing for the part. Shame – I think he would have done a great job. Perhaps that means he will end up playing the villain in Marc Webb’s Spider-Man reboot instead.

What do you think about Rosamund Pike and Amber Heard as possible additions to Vaughn’s X-Men universe?

*Production Weekly is a paid publication to which I do not subscribe, so I’m taking the very reliable folks at The Playlist at their word that all of these facts are true.

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In 1996 there was a Star Trek/X-Men crossover comic published by Marvel, and then another in 1998. Due to rights, copyright and a whole bunch of legal stuff we will never get a movie version of these two worlds colliding on the big screen, but that hasn’t stopped a guy called silverlightsaber with video editing software and free time from making a cool Star Trek vs. X-Men trailer.

I’m not sure a movie featuring the two worlds would actually work on-screen, but this trailer makes me want one nonetheless.

Here’s the creators story behind the trailer:

After an accidental time warp causes the Enterprise to travel to an alternate reality, the crew must somehow find a way back. If not, the universe will collapse from two conflicting realities. Aware of this, Professor Xavier and his X-Men are forced to destroy this threat before everything is wiped out. Honoring one of my favorite comic mini-series ever, this is my version of these two universes colliding.

Click here to check out more of his fan trailers!

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X-Men producer Lauren Shuler Donner recently said that she would love Bryan Singer to return to the franchise after he left to direct Superman Returns.  X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine are overall considered disappointments compared to X2, which I think is still one of the best comic book/superhero films ever made. Singer recently spoke to Total Film about not directing X-Men 3 and about possibly returning to direct X-Men Origins: Magneto.

From The Geek Files:

Speaking to Total Film, Singer said: “I’m eternally intertwined with X-Men now. What takes an audience four hours to watch – the first two movies – took six years of my life. So, to not be part of it….It’s a shame.”

Asked whether he wished he had directed X-Men: The Last Stand, he admitted he had that feeling “before I was watching it, during watching it, after watching it.”

Singer added:”It’s weird for me to watch it, because I’m so close to the universe. And also Brett is a good friend of mine. But, of course, I would love to return to that universe.”

And on the question of whether he might be interested in X-Men Origins: Magneto, he said: “Possibly. The only thing that concerns me about Magneto is that if the prequel were to follow the track I used in X-Men, which is Magneto’s history in the concentration camp, then I’ve lived in that world.

“Apt Pupil, X-Men and now Valkyrie…I’ve lived in that Nazi universe for quite a while. I just might need to take a little break before I do something like that.”

So far Bryan Singer is the only director who has proven he can make an X-Men film that pleases fans, critics and the general public alike, so for him to return to direct another X-Men film would be something i’d like to see. Wolverine would have been ideal for him as we saw in the first two films that he obviously knows the character well, however that one has been done. The opening scene of X-Men involving Magneto as a teenager is the exact tone and style X-Men Origins: Magneto should be, so Fox should definitely consider getting Singer back for that.

Singer also spoke about the Superman sequel/reboot/thing that has been talked about for the past few years. He doesn’t seem optimistic.

“I don’t know, I don’t know. There are still issues…I just…I just don’t know. I don’t necessarily…I don’t know. It’s one of those things where…It’s so weird talking about stuff unless I’m about to ramp up and shoot it.”

Singer should have stayed with X-Men instead of making Superman Returns. I liked the film, however it didn’t perform as well as expected at the box office. It wasn’t a huge success, but it wasn’t a total failure either.

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