We heard late last year that Matthew Vaughn has the film rights to Mark Millar’s upcoming comic, The Secret Service, which should see its first issue released sometime this year.

Millar himself has been updating on Vaughn’s film adaptation, ComicBookMovie report, and talking about how Mark Hamill will have a pivotal role, but won’t be starring as a lead, so probably more of an important cameo.

The comic book writer spoke to ComicBookResources last month about the project that he’s working with artist Dave Gibbons on, and how Vaughn is currently writing the screenplay for it too:

“This all started when Matthew Vaughn and I were talking about ‘Casino Royale’ a couple of years back in the pub between breaks on ‘Kick-Ass.’ We loved the movie, but wondered why they didn’t do all the stuff where he learned how to be James Bond. We’ve both got a couple of friends in special forces, both here and in the US, and even the real life training, without any artistic license, is really incredible set-piece stuff. If you ramp it up a little, it makes for some incredible scenes in a comic and in a movie. ‘The Secret Service’ is about a number of things, but one of the central thrusts is about a young, wayward hoodie kid from North London learning how to be James Bond…

“This education of a 21st Century super-spy forms the structure of the story. I can’t give too much away because Matthew Vaughn and I co-conceived the thing with Dave, and Vaughn is literally right now writing the screenplay of the movie, so we’re on a non-disclosure agreement for a little while yet. But basically, if I had to say anything else about it, I would say that this is our version of S.H.I.E.L.D. or U.N.C.L.E. or any of those brilliant super-spy concepts, but seen through that skewed perspective we brought to superheroes in ‘Kick-Ass.’ It feels very, very fresh. I don’t think there’s ever been a comic like this and all three of us are very excited about it. I’ve wanted to work with Dave since I was sixteen, so it had to be something big”

Speaking on Twitter today, he had a few great little updates to add:

“Just off the phone with @HamillHimself. What an absolutely lovely man! You can find out why we’re talking over the coming weeks.”

“For anyone who wants a hint about the comic and movie Mark Hamill and I were planning last night just click: comicbookresources.com/?page=article&…”

“A full 8 page preview of this will appear in Kick-Ass 2 #7 (on sale at the end of the month): comicbookresources.com/?page=article&…”

He went on to add, speaking to CBM’s Mark Julian,

“Both our leads have to be British in Secret Service.”

“@MarkJulianCBM Haha. Got someone in mind for the kid, but we’re still mulling over the Uncle. Great fun!”

Whilst I’ve not read any of the original source material, I loved Vaughn’s adaptation of Millar’s Kick-Ass (like pretty much everyone I know), and can’t wait to see them working together again on The Secret Service. I’m already looking forward to seeing who it is Millar has in mind to play the kid, and hopefully we’ll have more news to bring on that and the rest of the project soon. For now, here are a few great images from the upcoming 8-page preview that Millar mentions, in which we can already see Hamill having a pivotal role. As usual, you can click to enlarge. And as you can probably guess, be sure not to read aloud from the images if you’re at work.

With X-Men First Class finally available on Blu-Ray this week (check out our review here), we got a chance to talk to our favourite teleporting Devil-a-like, Jason Flemyng.

Given how many films the man’s been in over a 20 year long career, the hardest part of interviewing him is staying on the subject at hand and resisting the temptation to ask about Stardust, or Ironclad or Spice World.

Fortunately X-Men First Class, and Flemyng’s relationship with the film’s director Matthew Vaughn, are particularly interesting subjects. That said, we did find the time to ask whether we would be seeing Azazel again in an X-Sequel, and about his desire to produce films as well as act.

And if this doesn’t sate your desire for behind the scenes gossip on X-Men: First Class, check out Children of the Atom, the remarkably frank and forthright documentary on the Blu-Ray. It’s absolutely fascinating.

In a year awash with superhero movies a new X-Men film was in danger of being overlooked, or even avoided altogether given the toxic slap of X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men: Origins Wolverine and yet here we are with me telling you that X-Men: First Class is tremendous fun and edges up to X2 as one of the best of the series. How did Matthew Vaughn bring this series back from the edge?

Taking us back in time is a smart move and the origins of this film lie in the film’s opening scene which is a continuation of the previously glimsped moment when the young Erik Lensherr enters a Nazi concentration camp. At one point the next X-Men film was to be Magneto’s story and in First Class there is a strong case to be made for a Fassbender led film as he is easily the most interesting character here, but the crucial expansion of the story to include the other original X-Men gives the film a reason to be. We need to see the friendship develop between Xavier and Lensherr before watching it fall apart and the scenes between McAvoy and Fassbender are perfectly pitched and despite the shenanigans in Cuba and the Hellfire Club it is this relationship which fuels the film.

Watching it again on Blu-ray (which looks beautiful by the way, crisp and colourful) the film’s pacing really stands out, as do the dynamics of the characters which are nicely complex and completely true. In contrast Singer’s Superman didn’t work its characters against each other, they all existed in the same space but didn’t spark when they met. Here there is an excellent villain in Kevin Bacon’s Sebastian Shaw, and crucially he is the catalyst for the change in fortune for the X-Men. It’s an exciting ride with a stunning visual identity, a keen wit and a genuinely unfamiliar feel to it, and this is a key strength.

It’s hard to imagine a better main cast for the young X-Men and a strength of Goldman as a writer and Vaughn as a director is the charm and intensity of McAvoy and Fassbender respectively. To embody an earlier version of a character so well known, and so expertly played by Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan, is no easy trick but the glint in Charles Xavier’s eye and the latent vulnerability of Erik Lensherr is something new and drives the film early on. That the characters evolve over the course of the film, Xavier to learn the responsibility of his power and position and Lensherr to embrace his mutant side wholly, and that this evolution happens so clearly and with the full force of the plot behind it is testament to the success of the film and the care which has gone into it.

Best of all it achieves the same, rare feat as JJ Abrams’ Star Trek reboot in that the new actors easily replace those we’ve come to know in the roles and as soon as the end scene rolls we want to see more. If the next film follows the trajectory of quality of the Singer Trilogy then the next X-Men will be anything other than Second Class.

Film:****~ (4/5)

Special Features:

• Cerebro – The Ultimate Mutant Database replicates what happens when Charles locates mutants through Cerebro and allows you to learn more about various mutants, connect them to key events, decipher connections between them and much more (additional mutants can be unlocked through BD Live).

This is an odd extra but it does a good job of drawing the five films together with an animated ‘Cerebro’ menu taking us through the cast of mutants and then a short montage of their finest moments plays before a fact sheet is pulled up. You could spend a while going through each of the characters but I doubt many people will. It’s not a bad attempt at giving the Blu-ray buying public something a little extra but it’s a cumbersome way to see a video clip and a short bio.

• Children of the Atom–Multi-part documentary on the X-Men including the following elements: Second Genesis, Band of Brothers, Transformation, Suiting Up, New Frontier: A Dose of Style, Pulling Off the Impossible, Sound and Fury and Untitled Closing.

This is where the good stuff is. Over an hour of comprehensive behind the scenes footage and talking heads taking us through the entire process, from first shortlist of directors (which didn’t include Vaughn) to the casting and visual effects sequences. It’s not breaking any boundaries of documentary filmmaking but there’s nothing like a well put together hourlong with contributions from each important voice. Well worth a watch.

• 13 deleted scenes:
  o Erik in Argentinean Airport
  o Shaw with Cuban Generals
  o Charles and Moira’s Tryst, Part 1
  o Charles and Erik Recruit Angel (extended)
  o The Russian Truck (extended)
  o Erik vs. Russian Guards (extended)
  o Shaw’s Plan (extended)
  o Havok Training, Part 1 (extended)
  o Banshee Training, Part 1 (extended)
  o Havok Training, Part 2 (extended)
  o Banshee Training, Part 2 (extended)
  o Hank and Raven in the Lab (extended)
  o Charles and Moira’s Tryst, Part 2

Nothing hugely important was left on the cutting room floor. The relationship between Charles and Moira was hinted at in the film but given a new spin in the deleted scenes. Other than that it’s a mixed bunch but if you’re a fan of the film you’ll enjoy every extra minute.

Disc:[Rating3/5]

There’s no doubt that the comic book world has been kind to Matthew Vaughn of late. After the double-whammy of Kick-Ass and X-Men: First Class, he has yet to commit to his next project, though a couple of properties connected to Mark Millar (who wrote Kick-Ass) are believed to be under consideration.

Firstly, there is The Secret Service, which Vaughn co-wrote with Millar and Watchmen co-author Dave Gibbons. Nothing else is known about the graphic novel, other than the handy element that Vaughn holds the film rights. Second on the menu is Superior, which Millar is also writing, this time with artist Leinil Francis Yu. Superior is about a boy with multiple sclerosis who gets the opportunity to become a superhero, with “sources” saying that Vaughn would supervise the script for any film based on the graphic novel, whereas The Secret Service might be more likely as a scripting joint venture between Vaughn and his regular writing cohort Jane Goldman.

So, Vaughn and Millar staying firmly in graphic novel and superhero territory for the time being. In all honesty it is commendable for Vaughn to take his time in deciding on his next venture. Given the relative success of X-Men, he has presumably not been short of offers.

Source: THR.

Mark Millar’s creator-owned comic label, Millarworld, has proved a veritable feast for studios, eager to produce their own Wanted or Kick-Ass. While Sony prepares War Heroes and 20th Century Fox chews on Nemesis, however, Matthew Vaughn is returning to the fold for seconds, having just purchased the rights to the comic book creator’s Superior (via Comic Book Movie).

Superior isn’t your bog-standard tale of spider-bitten geeks and brooding playboy industrialists, however, with the story instead focusing on a young boy who suffers from multiple sclerosis. Granted a single wish (by a bona fide space monkey, no less), Simon is transformed into Superior, a fictional superhero and franchise icon whom he has idolised for years.

Millar has been outspoken regarding his decision to write a character with MS, the comic subsequently attracting the attention of The National MS Society; a charity that welcomes Millar’s attempts to present the disease in a positive light.

“I wanted to write about a superhero with a disability and I chose MS because it’s something that touched one of my school-friends growing up. I’m acutely aware of the unexpected way the disease can strike anyone and the enormous difficulties it can cause. Superhero stories are essentially wish-fulfilment fantasies and nothing seemed more powerful to me than a little boy with a magic wish not only wanting to walk again, but to fly.”

“I’m delighted to work with such an incredible institution as the MS Society and feel privileged that they approached me to use this character in a positive way. We’re used to seeing characters with MS as victims and I wanted to do something where the kid is not only a lead, but the most powerful person on the planet. I’m really delighted people have taken this to their hearts as much as they have.”

With the character using his powers both for the traditional crime-fighting duties as well as slightly less conventional causes - ending war in the Middle East, feeding starving children and rescuing people caught up in natural disasters – Millar can certainly rest assured that he has achieved what he set out to do.

Although Vaughn now owns the rights, it is by no means a sure thing that he will direct the picture, too. With a track record as glowing as his, however, he really cannot sign on the dotted line soon enough.

With mere weeks to go until the really rather brilliant X-Men: First Class hits on Blu-ray and DVD, a new deleted scene from the movie has surfaced giving us an altogether different perspective on one particular moment from the film.

In the sequence where Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Erik Lensherr (Michael Fassbender) attempt to recruit Angel (Zoë Kravitz) to their fledgling mutant team, the man who will become Magneto is seen using his abilities to levitate a champagne cooler. In turn, this scene shows how Charles then uses his abilities to … well, just look for yourself.

Sadly, or as the case may be thankfully lest your haunting cries of “MY EYES!” keep me awake tonight, the video isn’t embeddable, so you’ll have to head on over to Entertainment Weekly’s Inside Movies to see it in its entirety. Trust me, you’ll never look at Magneto quite the same way again.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

(via Inside Movies)

We’ve gone X-Men: First Class crazy over the past few months for the simple reason that we love it. You can see why by reading Adam’s review of the movie here. Twentieth Century Fox have sent over this brand new clip for the movie which is called Training Montage and does what it says on the tin.

X-Men: First Class is directed by Matthew Vaughn (who we caught up with yesterday and the fruits will appear on HeyUGuys in the next few days), produced by Lauren Shuler Donner, Bryan Singer, Simon Kinberg and stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Rose Byrne, January Jones, Oliver Platt, and Kevin Bacon. We should be seeing the film this week and are very excited about it!

Synopsis: X-MEN: FIRST CLASS charts the epic beginning of the X-Men saga, and reveals a secret history of famous global events. Before mutants had revealed themselves to the world, and before Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr took the names Professor X and Magneto, they were two young men discovering their powers for the first time. Not archenemies, they were instead at first the closest of friends, working together with other Mutants (some familiar, some new), to stop Armageddon. In the process, a grave rift between them opened, which began the eternal war between Magneto’s Brotherhood and Professor X’s X-Men.

X-Men: First Class is out NOW and we think you should go and see it!

Last week we managed to tap into our dormant mutant powers and attend the press conference for X-Men: First Class to hear firsthand experiences of the production from key members of the cast and co-scribe Jane Goldman. Our review of the film is here and you can check it out right now as it is released in UK cinemas today.

Everyone appeared to be in a fun and playful mood (probably bolstered considerably by the more than favourable feedback the film is currently receiving) and amongst more general chitchat, the cast was happy to discuss the more outlandish aspects of bringing comic book characters to life on the big screen.

James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender were first asked about how they tackled the pivotal roles of Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr, and how much they looked towards the previous actors who inhabited both roles to inform their own performances:

Fassbender’s initial approach was to follow what came before:

“When I first found I’d got the job, I thought about studying Ian McKellen and getting my hands on anything I could when he was a young man on screen and studding his physicality and voice. Then I sat down with Matthew [Vaughan] and we decided that wasn’t the way he wanted me to go and so I ditched that idea totally and used the comic book source material.”

McAvoy’s take differed slightly:

“It had to be different because the franchise needed to be freshened and new but also there’s no point having that same character played the same way in a different suit as it doesn’t validate the movie. It has to be different. I took a lot of notes on Sir Patrick Stewart’s performance but it was more about seeing how I could make him different, so where Sir Patrick was wise, I’d be foolhardy, where he was chaste, I’d be randy.

If we end up making another couple of film, I’ll end up doing something much more like Sir Patrick Stewart, but it was really important to start from a different place.”

McAvoy was asked if he has any idea how Xavier’s baldness could be addressed in a later film:

“Not sure yet. In the comic books he loses his hair the day his powers are activated but we decided not to do that and maybe it’s a smart move in an origin story. We spend time in this movie explaining why he can’t walk and so we get to see how he loses his hair in another movie. I don’t know what we’ll do it, but we need to embrace the change and not just have him at the start of another movie bald.”

McAvoy in on how the mutant abilities are portrayal in the film:

“At the beginning of the film, a lot of the powers are quite off-hand and flippant, and I like that. It made it much more part of their everyday life.”

Fassbender on who is ultimately right in the duelling ideologies between Charles and Erik:

“It’s up to the audience to decide. That’s what interests me as an actor and also as an audience member when I go to the cinema. Particularly with big commercial film, the audience can be spoon-fed through the entire experience. I believe that you should have to invest something of yourself into films and do a little work, so when you leave the cinema or theatre you should be having those conversations with friends afterwards. There should be an ambiguity and there should be grey areas.”

On using his hands to help convey Magneto’s powers:

“There was an element of me which felt like a bit of an idiot – a grown man trying to bend things, and I wasn’t sure if I should have used my hands at first. The safety net was that the fact that Erik at this point in his life is not really sure how to harness his powers, so it is a little haphazard and random, and it’s only through meeting Charles that he really unleashes his full potential. I was really happy when I watched the film with what Bill [Miner] had done with the young Erik, which was amazing. I was really happy to see in the film I was echoing what he had started off.”

Kevin Bacon is at his most suave and menacing in the role of lead villain Sebastian Shaw, but his knowledge of the X-Men world didn’t stem from childhood:

“I wasn’t a huge comic book fan as a kid, but the great thing was the day I arrived at Pinewood, the guys from Marvel came out with this gigantic bible of everything that had been written about and every sketch of Sebastian Shaw, and that was probably around 75% of my research.”

On playing his character and how to bring a reality to proceedings:

“It was great to be a mutant! When you look at this movie, aside from the powers and mutations all the characters have, compared to many other comic book movies they are extremely human in the way that they feel things. They experience jealousy, hate, and fear. They get drunk together. I think that was the challenge from an acting standpoint – forget about your powers and to constantly bring it back to who am I on the human side.

The chance to get to work with some of the finest, young actors of today who are constantly blowing up or are about to blow up, was also a thrill. It’s just a kickass cast.”

Jason Flemying (who plays the demonic Azazel) is a veteran of director Matthew Vaughan’s film work, in both a directing and producing capacity. He was asked if Vaughan’s working methods had changed at all on a huge production like this:

“I don’t think his methods have changed. He has a team of people who fluctuate between his movies. Unfortunately, I’ve done more because I’m always available (laughs). His working methods stay the same and it’s amazing to be on a movie this big and look out to the stage and see the sound boys and some of the costume people from ‘Lock, Stock’. He likes to work in shorthand. He’s managed to change genres and still nails it each time.”

Co-screenwriter Jane Goldsmith was asked how close the film fits within the X-Men universe:

“I think it would be impossible to write something that completely fitted into the X-Men universe because even the comics don’t have it totally accurate, when different artists and writers have come along and don their own take.

I think the most important thing is to tell a good story but be respectful of the source material and be true to the spirit of it.”

She talked about how much of an input she had into casting:

“I certainly had conversations about it. Of course, ultimately, it’s the director’s final choice, but I like to stick my oar in whenever I can.”

And the film’s period setting:

“I don’t think it was a gimmick at all. I thought it was a terrific ideal of Bryan Singer to come up with a story against that political backdrop.”

Spanish actor Alex Gonzalez’s approach to playing mutant and Shaw henchman Riptide, who can control and manipulate tornados:

“Riptide can control the wind and it was very helpful for me to work with how a tornado functions. When you look at a tornado from afar, it goes very slowly, but inside of it, it’s going really fast. Riptide is the same thing. He’s very elegant and calm but inside of him everything is going really fast. And yes, I was about to throw up several times.”

X-Men: First Class is released nationwide today.

Last week I got to spend some time with Spanish actor Alex Gonzalez who makes his big Hollywood debut as Riptide tomorrow when Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class is released in the UK. Riptide  is the the tornado-conjuring mutant henchman of chief villain Sebastian Shaw..

In the interview, I got to find out what it was like to work on such a huge summer blockbuster and the challenges he was faced with.

Synopsis: X-MEN: FIRST CLASS charts the epic beginning of the X-Men saga, and reveals a secret history of famous global events. Before mutants had revealed themselves to the world, and before Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr took the names Professor X and Magneto, they were two young men discovering their powers for the first time. Not archenemies, they were instead at first the closest of friends, working together with other Mutants (some familiar, some new), to stop Armageddon. In the process, a grave rift between them opened, which began the eternal war between Magneto’s Brotherhood and Professor X’s X-Men.

Dave Williams has produced some of our favourite original posters over the past few months. If you’ve missed his previous works, you can check out his Back to the Future prints here and here. He’s just given us a heads up on his latest work which coincides with tomorrow’s release of X-Men: First Class and yet again it’s amazing!

For this X-Men print, he has a very limited run of 10 and I’m afraid they’ve already all sold out. If you want to own a piece of his work, you need to get in there very quick!

Dave is a freelance designer and is selling these prints from his website here where you can find more of his work. Keep your eyes peeled for no doubt more awesome pieces in the coming months.

It’s pretty likely that this article is late. Following on the heels of (at least eight of) our competitors. That’s because we believe that the interesting part of the interview this article comes from is the rest of it.

Frankly, reporting about Mark Millar’s next project, one we’ve already written about seems pointless. We like Millar as much as the next site. In fact, we like him more, but as a film site, any comic book news isn’t so much out of date, as never made it into date.

We are, however, behind his projects. For this reason, we’re giving you the following news on his/Vaughn’s Superspy/Untitled project Q: What about that Superspy thing that you were doing with Mark Millar? At one point he was associating you with that.

MV: I co-created it with him.

Q: Are you still involved in that?

MV: Yes.

Q: Will we hear more soon?

MV: The weird thing is, we came up with a great plot, and great characters, and it’s weird, because I’m telling it to my kids every night. What I do is tell a story to my kids and see what they react to or not. The Superspy thing, I don’t like the name, I don’t know where he came up with that shitty name, but it’s the tone I haven’t figured out yet. I rang up Mark, and said, ‘I’ve got this idea. You know what you did for Kick-Ass, why don’t we do this for spy movies?’ and  we both came up with characters which are cool, but the problem is, I cannot decide which way to go. I could make a really great kid’s film, but I don’t want to be spy kids, or I could make it really hardcore. You know how Kick-Ass did sort of fall between, is this a kid’s movie, or is this an adult’s film or neither?’ That’s the problem I have with the Superspy thing, because the plot is great, and the characters are great, but tone is important, and we haven’t figured out the tone of it yet.

Q: Is it next?

MV: Right now I want three or four months doing nothing, then I’ll start thinking about movies. I’m just burnt out at the moment, so the idea of getting back behind the camera, right now for the first time ever is not exciting me. But we’ll see.

We’ve gone rather X-Men: First Class crazy today. We’ve had Adam’s review of the movie which you can read here and some excellent posts by Ben detailing our chat with Matthew Vaughn over the weekend. It’s been broken down into three parts which feature Writing and Character, Production and Relationship with the Comics.

Once you’ve read all those, click play below and watch the X-Men: First Class World Premiere live from New York. At the time of writing, it’s already underway. Thanks to Marvel for hosting it.

Scheduled to appear are: James McAvoy (Professor Charles Xavier), Michael Fassbender (Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto), Kevin Bacon (Sebastian Shaw), Rose Byrne (Dr. Moira MacTaggert), January Jones (Emma Frost), Lucas Till (Alex Summers/Havok), and Zoë Kravitz (Angel Salvadore)!

HeyUGuys recently joined several other film news sites at a round table interview with Matthew Vaughn to talk about all things X-Men: First Class.

The interview lasted over 45 minutes, and because it was only for sites that write about film (unlike other round tables where we share with all sorts of outlets), it’s pretty much concentrated on things that should interest you. It certainly fascinates us.

This third section of the interview (3 of 3 that will be published) is about the relationship the film has with the comics., you can read the first part of the interview, which focuses on Writing and Character, here and the second part, concerning itself with the Production, is right here.

On Relation to the Comics

Q: You did a great job sacrificing characters, but was there anything you had to cut out to make the film work?

MV: There was a whole love story between Moria and X, and we cut all that out. Most of my movies, I always cut out one -I normally try to shoot too many things; it’s better to be able to take it down to to not be able to build it up.

Q: X-Men-wise, you’ve got hundreds of characters to choose from, how did you go about chosing the characters?

MV: they were already chosen by Bryan and Fox. The draft they gave me, the characters were in there.

Q: you didn’t cut anyone, you didn’t add anyone?

MV: We cut, is it Quicksilver? No, not Quicksilver. Sunspot. We didn’t have enough time or money, we couldn’t make him work, it was a pain in the arse.

Q: Did you have a favourite X-Men character in this movie?

MV: for me it’s obvious, but Magneto. I sat down with Michael and said, ‘I’ve always wanted to do a Bond movie. Imagine you’re Bond, but you don’t have to have gadgets. Bond would have to use his watch to make it magnetic, you can do shit that other people can’t; you’re sort of the ultimate assassin in a world that no one knows about, you with your powers’. I’ve always loved Magneto, and I don’t know why. It’s weird, because his power’s bloody odd if you think about it, it’s not that great a power, but there’s something about Magneto I’ve always loved.

Q: How much pressure did you have from the hardcore fanbase? Did you read a lot about what the fans thought?

MV: You read about it, but you have to, and don’t take it the wrong way, ignore it, because you’ve got to make a movie. I remember talking to Daniel Craig about this when he was doing Bond, and I was like ‘fuck these fuckwits, it doesn’t matter. They haven’t seen what you’re doing, you’re a good actor. Just let your work do the talking.’ And I always knew when people saw him in Bond they’d say, ‘he’s great’.

It’s very odd. You read, and you do want to hear what the concerns are, and see if you can address them, but at the same time, you don’t know who the hell’s writing it. It could be some eight year old kid. You actually meet these people and you suddenly go, ‘I’m listening to an eight year old about how to construct a film’, but every now and then there can be some valid points.

I was amazed at the negativity though, towards the X-Men world – not really, actually  after watching Wolverine – but there was a whole – it was quite scary thinking, ‘am I going to turn fanboys round to actually enjoy it?’ and I thought the best way of doing it was, try to make a good movie that is respectful to the other X-Men movies, but not reverential to them.

Q: One of the things I really liked was their relationship with Mystique.

MV: Well, Mystique was the catalyst between the two of them as well, the way they both treat her differently, you need a third character…

Q: Watching them change sides like that, you could see the emotion behind it.

MV: It was hard to get that balance right. Tricky character Mystique, as well. We came up with a whole, the idea of – now that I’ve got daughters and stuff – girls not being comfortable in their own skin. You’ve got that thing where Magneto says, ‘does a tiger cover up?’ and Professor X going, ‘are you going to put some clothes on?’ Always trying to show the different attitude towards the sane thing.

You can check out our review of the film here. X-Men: First Class is released in UK cinemas on the 1st of June.

You can check out our review of the film here, and check back later for the next two parts of this interview.

HeyUGuys recently joined several other film news sites at a round table interview with X-Men: First Class director Matthew Vaughn.

The interview lasted over 45 minutes, and because it was only for sites that write about film (unlike other round tables where we share with all sorts of outlets), it’s pretty much concentrated on things that should interest you. It certainly fascinates us.

This second section of the interview (2 of 3 that will be published) is about the production process. It also features a few spoilers and some swearing. We’ve put an advisory notice before and after the spoilers.

To read the first section of the interview, which concentrates on Writing and Character, please click here and check back later for the final part of the interview, which will look closer at the relationship between Vaughn’s film and the comic books.

On Production

Q: So how come John Mathieson gets the DP credit, and we don’t see any other names?

MV: Welcome to Hollywood. How come all these people who did fuck all on the screenplay get these credits?

Q: What sort of proportion is his work?

MV: I think John probably did. He did the most, that’s why. John did a great job by the way. I’d say 45%, 55%. I don’t know. I should know. He came on half way through the shoot.

Q: It looked pretty coherent though.

MV: As I said, it’s – you know.  But we got through it. It was good for me. Normally I’m far more collaborative with DPs, here I became a bit more of a megalomaniac, ‘cause in the end I was just  like, ‘look, someone has to take control, and the scene’s about the camera being there now’. Normally I’d ask the DP, ‘what do you think?’ So it was good for me to get out of that zone.

Q: Did you know you wanted McAvoy to play the role from the beginning?

MV: He was top of my list. When we talked about who could play Professor X, I thought McAvoy was perfect. So I sat with him. Then I think he got pretty annoyed at me, because I made him audition with every single actor who came in for Magneto, because if we were going to do the Butch Cassidy, Sundance Kid thing of chemistry, I think it’s really, really important that you see that chemistry beforehand.

The poor guy, I was wheeling him in every day saying, ‘you’ve got to read with this actor, or this other actor’, and then when Michael came in, after twenty seconds of the two of them together I was like, ‘OK, I’ve found [Magneto]’.

Q: So was that in the US, or in England?

MV: In England.

Q: There’s a big push now with 3D. Just about every superhero/comic-based film is coming out in 3D now. Were you asked to make it in 3D?

MV: I’m sure if we’d had more time they might have brought it up. I’m not a big fan of 3D. I think Avatar works for 3D, because they really shot and designed it. Half these films I see, it’s sort of…

Q: Tacked on.

MV: Yeah. It just doesn’t feel like they’ve designed every shot to be3D. Yeah, they have something coming towards the camera now and again, but what I love about Avatar [is that] they made it to give it more depth, and you can just tell that Cameron knows what 3D means, but the rest of these directors. – You know when they do this post-conversion shit, and then you can’t even – It cut’s too quick. They’ve cut it in 2D, and in 3D, you’ve got to slow it down. I find the glasses annoying, and my kids hate it as well, and they take the glasses off halfway through. I’m like, ‘no, you’ve got to watch it with them on’, and they don’t care. Maybe I should be more of a fan, but for me Avatar’s the only 3D movie where I became immersed in a world. Doesn’t Cameron call it Real-D or something? He’s right. I think Hollywood’s fucking up 3D now as well. They’re cheapening the process so that people don’t care anymore.

Q: You say that you only saw the finished film five days ago. Are you happy with it?

MV: I think so. I’m just so close to it. Normally in this process, nine weeks after finishing filming,  I’m nearly close to having a director’s cut. That’s when I show it to friends, and get about 50 people to see it. Then I get all their input, and then I go off and spend three or four months tweaking and changing. I think I am. I don’t know. I’m astonished by it. It’s weird. When I say ‘seeing it for the first time’, we only got all the visual effects finished about ten days ago. It was odd. I was so used to cutting it with all these bad pre-vizes in it, and I was scared that the movie felt too small, because of  all that big stuff I hadn’t seen. Watching it suddenly give birth, I think the actors did a great job on it, and we seemed to get away with having different DPs, and I think Henry Jackman did a great job with the score, because we were writing  music three weeks ago. I was still sitting there on a piano with the guy going, ‘what’s Magneto’s theme?’ [Vaughn taps rhythmically on the table, and hums a couple of bars of the tune] . It’s been so, – I cannot explain how crazy the process has been right now, I think that’s why I’m sick now, because it’s finally finished and my body’s just gone, ‘what the fuck?’ But ask me in a year, it normally takes me about a year to know whether I’#m proud of a film as well. You need to get away from the film and watch it – not that I made the film, try to watch it as a movie.

Q: So would you like more time?

MV: Fuck yeah.

Q: With that comic book style, you had to juggle that with the period style. Yours is quite subtle, and I enjoyed it from the point of view that, all the girls are quite leggy, and you’ve got that dark undercurrent of morality.

MV: Well, we tried to capture that 60s misogynist vibe.

Q: There was a bit where he looked a bit like Doctor Evil, with January Jones in that Submarine.

MV: We were doing nods to all the 60s films, but we tried to make them feel more ‘real’ in a sense, but at the same time it’s a movie, so we try to heighten it,, but in a way that you just went with it.

Q: Did you apply a  comic book style to the movie?

MV: It’s funny, because people are always asking, ‘what’s your style as a filmmaker?’ and it’s very simple. I just want to tell a story, and every shot, keep that narrative drive moving on, and I don’t like throwing the camera around.. I see these movies where I have no idea who the fuck is doing what to who, and what characters are meant to relate to. Because this is set in the 60s, I tried not to shoot it in a very modern style. I tried to go back to the Frankenheimer, very traditional framing, camera movement when it needs to move, not just throwing it around and whizz-bang. I tried to keep it as ‘classic’ as possible, and tell a story. The thing I like about this movie is there’s a good story and good characters, and that’s what traditionally has been missing in a lot of the superhero films;, it’s just like people blowing up buildings and flying around.

Q:  It looked like a lot of energy had to be spent making some of the tropes of the comic book work though, from the suits they were wearing, to the reason Emma Frost is dressed as she is. Did you ever think, ‘to hell with this. I wish I didn’t have to deal with these trappings, and I could just not have them call each other ‘Beast’ and ‘Mystique’’?

MV: I love the X-Men world, so for me that was fun. It was fun to look at the comics, and see how the characters dressed, and give them to the costume designer and say, ‘take that blue and yellow thing and’ – The blue and yellow outfits, no offence to Fox, but they kept looking like Fantastic-fucking-4, and we were like, ‘we can’t have that’. There’s a lot of great stuff in the early 60s X-Men comics., we had that everywhere, all the panels of how they looked, how they dressed. Sammy [Sheldon] is a brilliant costume designer, and she just managed to make it fit into the real world.

Q: We even had the CIA agent wearing a miniscule skirt…

MV: But that whole mysogenist thing, we thought, ‘let’s dial it up’. It’s actually quite weird, because as a director, remember the line ‘there’s no place for women in the CIA’? When we did it, Lauren Shuler-Donner was going, ‘you’ve got to get rid of that line. I hate that line.’, and I was like, ‘Lauren, I don’t believe  that, but that was what it was like back then. Why do you hate that line?’ and Lauren’s very sensitive about her age, and she’s from that period, and she then opened up saying, ‘that’s what it was like’,  and I said, ‘we’ll that’s the whole point. If we’re going to recreate the 60s, we should recreate the 60s, and that’s how the attitude was, and that’s why they dressed like they did, so let’s keep that’. I was trying to put as much reality into some pretty silly moments, but I’m a big believer that if you ground it in a way that you can relate to it, then you can get away with blue murder.

–SPOILERS–

Q: Getting back to the Bond theme, I thought Kevin Bacon was fascinating, but he was very much a Bond villain, was that deliberate? Was Bacon your choice?

MV: You Only  Live Twice, I don’t know if you guys remember that, was all about trying to create a nuclear war, so You Only Live Twice was very influential on that .

Q: Was Bacon your first choice?

MV: There were two actors I was thinking of, either Colin Firth, or Bacon, and they’re best friends, which I didn’t realise, really fucking close, so they knew about it as well, because I was talking to both at the same time. But Fox were very nervous about having another Brit in there, because I thought it would be very interesting to see Firth playing a villain, this was way before King’s Speech and getting Oscars and shit, but I think he’s a great actor, and it would be interesting to see what he could have done with it, but also I’ve been a fan of Kevin’s for a long, long time. Kevin had that bravado that Shaw needed.

Shaw’s a difficult character, that whole thing about absorbing energy, and I thought, ‘how do you do that?’ and then when you see him, with the pony tail, and the dressing up in the cravats and all that shit, I was like, ‘OK’. If you get it wrong, I don’t want it to be like Stormbreaker, where you get to these villains, and you can’t take them seriously. SO I sat down with Kevin, and said, ‘look, let’s make him like a Bond villain, where he’s suave, debonair and charming’ and you sort of just buy him, but getting his power right was, fucking hell, it was very tough. And how do you kill someone who absorbs energy? It was a real, coming up with the coin in his head, Fox were like, ‘how do you kill him with a coin? Do you do it really fast?’, I was like, ‘no. The problem is, if you did it fast, it would just bounce off.’ I think Shaw was the hardest character to get right.

Q: Talking of Bond, the scene in the Argentinian bar, you’ve got Eric’s gunshot to camera…

MV: I want the Broccoli’s to regret never hiring me. I loved the Bond movies, and my son now, we’re watching them all again with him, and he loves them, so I couldn’t help but put a few nods in there.

–END SPOILERS–

Q: With your supporting cast, you’ve got Flemyng and Oliver Platt. What made you choose well known character actors, rather than someone who’s not so big?

MV: I think every character in the movie is – people with one line are just as important as someone with 1000 lines. It takes one bad delivery to remind an audience that they’re watching a film, and it just takes you out of the moment, so if I can get away with casting great actors in smaller roles, I’ll take it. And they all said yes. I remember with Flemyng, when he read the script, I said, ‘come on, play Azazel’. I had to bullshit him that in the sequel he’d have a much bigger role, because he hated it on Clash [of the Titans], all the prosthetics he had to do on Clash, and I said, ‘no, it’ll be fine’, and then he signed up, and [said], ‘fuck me, I’m red!’

Azazel, although he hardly speaks, he’s still a character, and you’ve got to believe the moves that he does, or the looks in the background. Casting good actors makes movies better, and I believe every role – I shock my casting directors, because I say names for people with two lines, and they say, ‘you’re not going to get that’, well, there’s no harm in asking them.

Q: Have you got a role for Dexter Fletcher in the sequel?

MV: Actually we were thinking of Dexter to play the Oliver Platt role. He came in and auditioned for it, and again, I get why Fox were nervous, saying ‘you can’t have all these Brits,’ but I like working with my friends. It’s so much easier to turn up with my mates on set, you have a laugh. I don’t have to pussy foot around, I can just say, ‘do this’, ’do that’, and they get on with it. If I could cast my mates in every movie, I would.

Q: Talking about your collaborators from previous films, Take That do the end theme. I was surprised when they did it for Stardust, and again for this film. How did it come about?

MV: I think this movie, out of all the X-Men movies, and correct me if I’m wrong females in the room, I think there’s a lot for women to enjoy in this film, and we had the philosophy , remember Armageddon, the Aerosmith song, that got girls, who probably wouldn’t have originally gone to see Armageddon , they saw heard there was a love song, and were like ‘oh, maybe there is something in the film’. I bumped into Gary in LA, and we were just talking, and I said, ‘do you want to come and see a rough cut of it?’ and they came, and they wrote the song, and I listened to it, and I said, ‘I think it’ll be a hit’, and if we can do a video which gets girls more interested, and they’re going on tour, so they’re playing to one and a half million people who traditionally might not be interested in X-Men, and we might get them to come and watch it. So it’s pure commerce, to be blunt, and I want women to see this film.

Q: How hard was it to get the physical makeup effects right?

MV: Fucking hard. I felt sorry for the actors as well, because they’d sometimes spend eight hours in makeup, and we’d all turn up going, ‘God I’m knackered, let’s start filming’, and they’re looking at you going, ‘I’ve spent eight hours getting ready for this’. And then, [Jennifer Lawrence] had some real problems. It kept breaking during filming, or she’d get rashes, and – I don’t normally have any pity for actors, but I did feel sorry for – the prosthetic work is pretty horrible, really horrible. And also very hard to act; for a performance to come through when you’re under all this rubber, it’s very difficult for emotions to come through under all that. I remember when I was on set looking at Beast and Mystique talking, I was panicking because you’ve got two blue people. Trying to get that emotion to believe it. There were moments I was panicking going ‘Christ, I’m going to get laughed at’. You show a movie to someone and people start laughing when they’re not meant to laugh, it’s the worst feeling in the world. It was tough, it was a challenge.

You can check out our review of the film here, and check back later for the next final part of this interview.

You can check out our review of the film here, and check back later for the next two parts of this interview.

HeyUGuys recently joined several other film news sites at a round table interview with Matthew Vaughn for X-Men: First Class.

The interview lasted over 45 minutes, and because it was only for sites that write about film (unlike other round tables where we share with all sorts of outlets), it’s pretty much concentrated on things that should interest you. It certainly fascinates us.

We know a few sites will publish highlights of the interview, and if you’re pressed for time, we’d advise having a look, but we’re putting our whole (Not Safe For Work) transcript online; edited only to make it flow a little better.

This first section of the interview (1 of 3 that will be published) is about the writing of the film.

On Writing and Character

Q: Is the film about super powered individuals facing off against one another, or about political and social ideas. It’s clearly both, but which first and foremost?

Matthew Vaughn: No idea. It is what it is. I should be able to answer that, but the making of it was such a crazy experience, we were just trying to get it done, and get it finished on time. It’s the first time I’ve made a movie with no time to think. You ask me a question like that normally, I’ll be able to tell you,’ when I set out to make this film I had the following ideas’, but every day we were just making it up; so I think it’s a mixture of both.

I think primarily it’s about the relationship between Magneto and X, but set in a backdrop of political espionage and the Cold War. I always wanted to do a Cold War movie, I’m desperate to do a Bond film, always have been. I got my cake and eat it, managed to do an X-Men movie, and a sort of a Bond thing, and a Frankenheimer political thriller at the same time.

Q: You brought in Jane Goldman to write part of it with you, but there were other writers,…

MV: Not really.

Q: So it was you and Goldman who wrote it then?

MV: WGA don’t think that, but they’re fuckwits. Jane and I wrote the screenplay, threw everything out and started again. Sheldon Turner managed to get a ‘Story By’ credit, he wrote the Magneto script that none of us have ever read. I didn’t even know that. I was like, ‘who the fuck is this guy?’. Hollywood’s got its own way of dealing with things.

Q: How much input did Singer have? It feels to me that it’s got the undercurrent of humour that you and Goldman have brought to Stardust and to Kick-Ass, but it feels much more of an ensemble piece than you’ve done before, and that’s where Singer’s experience is.

MV: You say that, but Stardust had a shitload of characters, so did Kick-Ass, so did Layer Cake, in a weird way. And Snatch and Lock Stock. I’m actually more terrified of doing a movie with one lead character, because the good thing of having lots of characters is if one’s getting boring I can just say, ‘let’s cut to that plot line’. It’s hard to make sure they come across as three-dimensional characters, but at the same time I think it’s more interesting – it’s easier to con an audience that lots of interesting things are happening if I can switch the channel, let’s say, whenever I need to.

The influence of Bryan, Bryan came up with I think, I don’t even know who came up with the original idea, I think it was Bryan’s idea. Once I started, I think we made the film in ten months. We’ve had nine weeks post. I only saw the film for the first time five days ago; I hadn’t even ever seen it working on all these different sections. I got given two weeks for the director’s cut. When I say it was madness, there were times when I thought we wouldn’t get the film finished, and if it is finished, God knows what it’s going to be like to watch. I was taken out of my comfort zone on this film. I come from low budget film making, which is very much about prepping, making sure every dollar goes on screen. Here I hardly got any time to prep, and five DPs on this film, four different ADs. Every day I didn’t know who my crew were, I was like, ‘hey, what do you do?’ It was good for me, because I’d so relied on my AD and DPs, as that triumvirate when you make a film, and here I was sort of on my own, naked, running around. At first it scared the hell out of me, but I got used to it. So as a director I feel much more confident after this one.

Q: Obviously this isn’t the first time you were brought into an X-Men movie, you were originally slated to direct X-Men 3. How would that have differed, and more to the point, looking back are you pleased that it didn’t come to be?

MV: X-Men was a weird process. The reason I pulled out of it was because, I genuinely didn’t think I had enough time to make the film – and they were giving me much more time on that than on this one – and that world was already created. What was far more satisfying about this one was, because of Stardust and Kick-Ass, I was far more comfortable about bigger-budget special effects and all that shit , but I loved the idea I could recast every character, set up a new world, and do my version of an X-Men movie. X3 ultimately, you’re following a trend, and my X3  would have been – you know I storyboarded the whole bloody film, did the script – I think my X3 would have been at least 40 minutes longer, and it would have had  – I think they didn’t let the emotions of those characters – I can remember when I was writing those scenes, when Jean Grey turns round to Wolverine and says ‘kill me’, and the deaths at the end, and Professor X’s death, I was writing that shit with them, and I just felt they didn’t let the emotion and the drama play in that film. It  became just wall t-to-wall noise and action –how long was it, like 98 minutes or something, not even that, 89 it might have been – I would have let it breathe, and have far more dramatic elements to it, I think. But then they probably wouldn’t have let me do that. Fox were great on this film. Fox have got this really bad reputation, but they were true allies on this. They really let me get on with it.

Q: You say that you’ve created this world. It’s clearly a prequel, but is it a prequel in the sense that Star Trek is a prequel? If it comes to a point where it’s going to clash with the continuity of the other films are you just going to say, ‘bugger it, let’s just make a good movie’?

MV: Totally. Why would I give a shit about the other ones? We’ve started a whole new – for me I wanted to do my version, and a version where it was more similar to the comics at the beginning, they came out in the 60s. I really enjoyed X1 and X2, I think Bryan did a great job, but I think X3 and then Wolverine, they went off and – The whole superhero genre has been fucked up by a lot of Hollywood trying for big explosions, and lots of glossy and corny costumes and outfit – I was very inspired by what Nolan did with Batman Begins. I’m a big Burton fan, and then you see what happened with, the first two Burton Batmans were great, and then Schumacher took over, and you were just like, ‘what the fuck is going on?’ and they got worse and worse, and they kept making them, and they were getting camper and I just thought – I really enjoyed Batman Begins, a lot more than I thought I would when I first saw it, especially the first half more than the second half, and I just thought, ‘why not try to do the same thing?’ putting a realism, making the characters and genre of X-Men relevant to a modern day audience.

I think superhero films need to change. I’ve said this before, I think superhero films are on the verge of a genre dying anyway if Hollywood – Thor’s done well – that was weird as well, I was meant to direct Thor, so watching that one – but, it’s doing well. No-one’s seen Green Lantern? I don’t know what that’s going to be like. I love superhero films, I want more to be made, but I get nervous. I think they need to be taken seriously as a genre. I think the difference between Iron Man and Iron Man 2 shows, if you don’t really nail it, you can suddenly go, ‘what is this?’

Q: This is the third film you’ve co-written with Jane Goldman…

MV: Fourth actually. We’ve got another one coming out next month.

Q: This is the third we’ve seen. And of course you’re going to be working on Kick-Ass 2 together as well…

MV: Maybe. Everyone says we’re doing that, but I don’t know yet. The weird thing about Kick-Ass 2 is, I enjoyed it so much, but I’m a big believer that if you’re going to do a sequel it’s got to be as good as the first one, if not better. I just don’t know how I can – The business frame of mind is just to do Kick-Ass 2, just shoot it  and get it out there, and it’ll make a lot of money, but I really do love that movie, it was a very special moment to me making that film. I’m not saying it was as good as Pulp Fiction, but I think if Tarantino made Pulp Fiction 2, you’d be like, ‘OK… let’s see what you come up with’ and everything that made Kick-Ass original and fun, I think if you do it again, it could be crass. I’m not saying it won’t happen, but it would have to have something about it which made me feel comfortable that the audience would enjoy it as well.

Q: How do you and Jane work together? Do you actually sit down in a room and write together and bounce ideas off one another, or do you write separately and e-mail scripts back and forth?

MV: I normally bang out a very rough draft on my own, and send it over to her. She normally rewrites it, and then, when she’s rewritten it, we get in a room together and do the final coming together of the script. And then we give it to people.

Q: She’s suggested before that your speciality is very structural, and hers the fine points. Is that a fair distinction to make?

MV: I build the whole universe, the characters and all that…

Q: and that pretty much holds tight?

MV: Yeah, it doesn’t change at all, because I’m anal about structure, so it doesn’t change at all.

Q: I think one of the impressive things about this film was that the structure leads us to something that was inevitable, but it happens in an unexpected way.

MV: The first scene I wrote was the Auschwitz, or the concentration camp, scene with the little kid. I thought, ‘what’s the best way of doing a prequel?’ and I had the idea to start it, shot-for-shot with the beginning of the X-Men world, and then, let’s see what happened after he pulled the gate. That scene, for me, is the crux of the movie. It makes you feel sorry for Magneto, it makes you want to see him kick some fucking Nazi’s arse, and I also thought –the whole thing of Nazism, they were very obsessed with genetic mutation, and the whole blue eye, blonde hair shit, and all the experiments they did – I just thought it was a very natural way of starting, and then flipping to Professor X, you’ve got Magneto in a fucking concentration camp,  and you’ve got Professor X wandering around this huge mansion, and I thought, ‘what a great way of starting it off?’

So they were the first things I wrote, and then, I was always imagining, but you have to figure out: how do they become friends? How do they then fall out? How does Professor X get crippled? And how does Magneto become Magneto? Was the end goal, but it was hard, because Fox kept saying, ‘this movies all about the friendship between them’, and I was like, ‘guys, they only get to see each other for three fucking weeks’, I had to somehow make it believable that you care, and Bryan came up with the Cuban Missile Crisis, and I didn’t know much about it. I was English, and we didn’t really learn about that much in school, and when I read about the Cuban Missile Crisis, I thought our version made more sense in history than the real version. The idea that we nearly went to nuclear war, you just go, ‘I cannot believe that happened’, where ultimately, if there’s a bad super villain making all that shit happen, it makes far more sense.

It was Magneto I was obsessed with, Shaw is the villain, but you’re now seeing all those elements of Shaw, going into Magneto, that was, for me, the far more interesting arc. With Professor X, he’s a bit of a pious, sanctimonious, boring character, in that he’s got too much fucking power. It’s very hard writing when you’ve got some guy who can just freeze people, or read everyone’s mind, you’re just going, ‘how do you handle this guy?’ So I did like the idea of James and I going, ‘let’s make him more of a rogue’, ‘let’s make him fun’, and then how he slowly starts realizing there are other mutants out there, and gets slowly more responsible, but for me Magneto is the driving force, that was the character I most related to, and the most fun you can have.

Q: When Xavier is at university, at the beginning of the film, he’s quite cocky. I think his relationship with Erik is what does start to mellow him.

MV: Yep. I think when he realises there are other mutants out there, and because of Shaw, realising that the worst thing that can happen is mutants being hated because Shaw’s trying to kill everyone.

Q: You’ve talked about James Bond in reference to how you could see the character of Erik for Michael’s performance. Did you have a similar archetype for McAvoy as Xavier?

MV: Not really, actually.

Q: How did you direct him then? We’re you referential to Patrick Stewart in the other films?

MV: No we weren’t, in fact it was the opposite. I said, ‘don’t worry about Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart, I think they did a great job, but you’ve got to make these characters your own?’ I think, the way I was saying to James was, lets’ make the character more fun, so that you slowly see him becoming the Professor X of – the professor. When we first meet him, he’s not a professor, and we were trying to show that transition. It’s just not as fun. Seeing Magneto growing into a villain is far more interesting than seeing a guy sadly becoming a cripple, and becoming a teacher, ultimately. It’s not quite the arc you want to see as much, but I think James did a fabulous job, because it’s the hardest character to make interesting.

Q: You talked about gender issues a little bit there, and the way women were treated in the 60s. The film’s also set around the time of the civil rights movement. What thinking did you have about race issues?

MV: We talked about it, because they say X-Men was based on Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, but I think I had enough of a political subplot in this movie. We’ve already discussed, in the next one, does the Civil Rights movement become part of if we do a sequel. That’s a real hot potato, as well, still, so I think we decided to stay clear.

Q: I’d love to see that.

MV: You can only put so much in a film, in the sequel, it could happen. I don’t know yet, I don’t really like talking about sequels because the filmcould tank, and that’s that for everyone.

You can check out our review of the film here, and check back later for the next two parts of this interview.

Our review of X-Men: First Class follows, for our comprehensive three-part interview with Matthew Vaughn click here.

Cast your mind back to those grossly-misjudged attempts to weave together a Darth Vader origin story, where events, history and character arcs fully ingrained into the previous mythology were awkwardly shoe-horned in to the latter installments, with scant regard for establishing any continuity and emotional connection between the eras. With that in mind, it comes with much relief to confirm that X-Men: First Class is everything those films wished they could be, and has far more in common with J. J. Abram’s rip-roaring Star Trek reboot then the shallow exploits of team Jedi.

We’re greeted with an opening which is pretty much a facsimile of the Nazi death camp environment of the first X-Men feature. This time however (and almost as a subconscious nod to the larger canvas being created here) we’re privy to what happens to the young man named Erik Lehnsherr after that initial burst of power is revealed. Placed into an inhuman and potential devastating situation by a wicked, Josef Mengele-type doctor (a deliciously evil and smooth Kevin Bacon), his latent powers are finally unleashed in a genuinely terrifying display of metal-crunching fury. We’re then brought 20-odd years into the future where the skills and expertise of a young Professor, Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) are called on by a CIA operative (Rose Byrne) who has uncovered dastardly mutant activity within the walls of a seemingly innocuous swinging sixties, high-end men’s striptease and poker establishment called The Hellfire Club.

Its proprietor, Sebastian Shaw, (Bacon) has moved on from his past life and previous guise and, like the previous films, his feelings towards man and mutant very much echo’s Malcolm X’s rhetoric. Assisted by diamond-encrusted henchwoman Emma Frost (January Jones, helping to whip up a little Mad Men-vibe and the heart rate of the male audience) he is attempting to further exacerbate tensions between east and west in an already delicate and tumultuous period in world history. Following a botched assassination attempt on Shaw by the now grown-up Erik (Michael Fassbender), the man who would be Magneto is rescued by Xavier and welcomed into the new CIA-backed underground mutant taskforce. Initially reluctant to join, he’s persuaded by the telekinetic one to assist him in assembling a team of fellow X-Men to take down Shaw before he becomes the catalyst for starting World War Three.

The talented screenwriting duo of Jane Goldman and director Matthew Vaughn have made a fantastic effort here to bring the 60’s age of civil unrest and cold world paranoia successfully into a comic book milieu, and weave what is essentially a period, character-based (a term which don’t normally spring to mind in such a genre) espionage thriller with big action spectacle thrills. While very much an ensemble piece, the two actors at the heart of it, James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender, are pivotal to the film’s success. McAvoy is much looser and playful here than Patrick Stewart’s measured turn, and if his character has a worryingly Austin Powers-esque side which bubbles up near the beginning (he uses “groovy” a little too many times for comfort), he soon settles into the part. His unwavering capacity for helping and encouraging his fellow mutants to see beyond the alienation they’re become accustomed to, makes for some especially stirring onscreen moments.

Fassbinder’s initial trajectory, which follows his globe-trotting escapades on a quest to find and kill the man who took his life away, has an almost a rogue James Bond-type quality (a lovely 60’s-flavoured guitar twang which can’t help but conjure up memories of 007 in that era). He certainly isn’t averse to eliminating any other war criminals that cross his path either, and although the film is blood and gore-free, his quest for vengeance is still pretty violent and unflinching.

The odd couple strike up a very believable and warm friendship (again, this is something Lucas couldn’t established between Anakin and Obi-Wan during the course of three whole films) and while Fassbender is all coiled-up rage and anger, McAvoy does his best to act as a calming influence. This never once feels contrived or rushed and that supportive (if, at times, strained) comradely atmosphere is even more painful for the audience to get behind, as you’re constantly aware of how it all ends. Another standout is Jennifer Lawrence as a young Mystique. Strong-willed and determined not to be a casualty of her ‘gift’, she acts as a nice counterbalance to Charles and Erik’s conflicting ideologies. Without giving anything away, the film also features one of the greatest cameos and rebuttals in all of cinema. The figure in question is completely unexpected and is an absolute delight.

There’s a lot to pack in here but Vaughn and his team do a heroic job themselves with the tight pacing and plotting. He even manages to prevent quite a lengthy training montage sequence a third of the way though from slowing down the narrative drive, and uses a neat split-screen device (another homage to that period) in helping to ensure this.

There are some casualties here however, which is perhaps inevitable when you’re trying to tell such a heady and epic tale. Both Oliver Platt (as a friendly CIA man in black) and Rose Byrne aren’t given much to do really. Vaughn regular Jason Flemyng isn’t particularly stretched either, although his bad guy mutant character Azazel (apparently daddy to Nightcrawler) is involved in one of the film’s most striking sequences, where he dispatches of multiple CIA members by literally dropping them from the sky! Some of the effects are a little underdone too, but this must surely be attributed to the herculean task the makers were faced with in trying to bring the film to cinemas screens in such a limited time window between production and release date.

Like The Dark Knight before it, the film has far-reaching ambitions outside of the normal comic book world, and by Vaughn insisting on making sure the very human and entirely relatable interplay between characters is allowed to breathe, and more importantly, develop in amongst some impressive action beats, the audience is fully engaged right through to the huge (yet somehow intimate) ending, which delivers a devastating and emotional punch seldom seen in films of this nature.

Easily up there with the second feature, X-Men: First Class should hopefully eliminate the nasty, lingering aftertaste of the thoroughly underwhelming third installment (incidentally, a film which Vaughn was mooted to direct at one point) and the anemic Wolverine spin-off. Fox are now in the enviable position (like the aforementioned Star Trek) to essentially start afresh and embark on another series. Let’s hope they stick to this template in the future, whether it’s for another X-Men film or any comic book adaptation for that matter.

If the rest of this season’s high-profile superhero features get anywhere close to matching what Vaughn has done here, we could be in for a thoroughly satisfying summer of escapism.

****½ (4.5/5)

We’ve gone rather X-Men: First Class barmy over the past few days but that’s because we LOVE it! If you haven’t seen Ben’s initial thoughts from the movie yet, you can have a little read here where in a nutshell he tells you how much he loved it! Our full review of the movie will go live on Wednesday but in the meantime, Twentieth Century Fox have have given us this brand new and exclusive TV spot from the movie for you which is called Origins and Future.

X-Men: First Class is directed by Matthew Vaughn (who we caught up with yesterday and the fruits will appear on HeyUGuys in the next few days), produced by Lauren Shuler Donner, Bryan Singer, Simon Kinberg and stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Rose Byrne, January Jones, Oliver Platt, and Kevin Bacon. We should be seeing the film this week and are very excited about it!

Synopsis: X-MEN: FIRST CLASS charts the epic beginning of the X-Men saga, and reveals a secret history of famous global events. Before mutants had revealed themselves to the world, and before Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr took the names Professor X and Magneto, they were two young men discovering their powers for the first time. Not archenemies, they were instead at first the closest of friends, working together with other Mutants (some familiar, some new), to stop Armageddon. In the process, a grave rift between them opened, which began the eternal war between Magneto’s Brotherhood and Professor X’s X-Men.

X-Men: First Class is released 1st June and we think you should go and see it!

Hey X-Friends, I think you’ve had just about enough teasing for the forthcoming X-Men: First Class film haven’t you? No? Why read on then.

Comic Book Movie spotted this nifty little piece of high class clippage which throws in a few behind the scenes moments and interview with the principal cat into the huge wave of footage we’ve seen so far. Kevin Bacon looks oddly suave and menacing and there’s a lot of love in the UK for the team of Fassbender and McAvoy so it’ll be very interesting to see if Matthew Vaughn’s film will spark off a whole host of sequels with the new team climbing into the yellow and black.

Anyhoo here’s that clip. We’ve seen the film but are under the shadow of a large embargo shaped cloud so you’ll have to wait to hear what we made of it.

Note: These are our initial thoughts and our complete review of the film will be posted on Wednesday, 25th May.

Fox’s X-Men franchise has become a little tarnished of late. After two very good movies, that used superpowers as a background to themes of isolation, discrimination and acceptance, we had two less good films, let down by poor storytelling, and bad CGI. It’s rather pleasing then, that X-Men: First Class takes the series back to its roots, both figuratively, in terms of the character-focused drama, and literally, as we open with an almost shot-for-shot recreation of the beginning of Bryan Singer’s first X-Men film. In doing so, the film makes itself instantly familiar, and also, instantly engaging.

That sense of engagement carries throughout, as the story covers much less familiar territory. After an expansion on young Erik’s experience in the death camp, and a brief introduction to a young Charles Xavier, we move forward to the 1960s, and the film enters the world of Connery-era bond. With a mix of scantily-clad girls, nuclear threat, and a submarine-bound evil villain, the movie could well have veered into Austin Powers-style parody, but Vaughn manages to stay on just the right side of camp, keeping his tongue firmly out of his cheek, but also reserving the real sincerity for the relationships between the characters.

Indeed, it is in the treatment of the characters, and their relationships that the film really triumphs. Wisely Fassbender, McAvoy and Lawrence don’t even attempt to mimic the performances given by Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart and Rebecca Romijn in the earlier films in the franchise. Instead, Fassbender’s Erik feels almost Bond-like, both in his intelligence, and in his drive to get the job done, while McAvoy plays Xavier as a charming but conceited version of TV illusionist, Derren Brown. This creates a beautiful interplay between them, and their relationship, both the close friendship, and the underlying tension, is believable and immensely enjoyable to watch.

Alongside this pair, Lawrence holds her own as Raven. The close, fraternal relationship she shares with McAvoy’s Xavier in the film may well upset the dribbling fanboys, angry at any change to canon, but also serves as a strong counterpoint to the interplay between McAvoy and Fassbender, and she is very much the emotional heart of the film. Around this core trio, the rest of the ensemble cast work perfectly, and the decision to keep the number of characters down means that each of the supporting cast feel fully rounded, and not simply there as fodder.

The other key relationship for the film is that between Singer and Vaughn, and frankly it’s seamless. Vaughn’s ability to direct action, and sense of humour run through the film, while the film still feels very much like a part of the world Singer created in his movies.

There’s a lot more to say about X-Men First Class, but we’ve promised not to give a proper review of the film until the 25^th May. Check back then for our full thoughts on the movie.

Twentieth Century Fox have released a new batch of International character posters for their new movie, X-Men: First Class which are mildly better than the ones we’ve seen previously.

The movie is directed by Matthew Vaughn, produced by Lauren Shuler Donner, Bryan Singer, Simon Kinberg and stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Rose Byrne, January Jones, Oliver Platt, and Kevin Bacon. We should be seeing the film this week and are very excited about it!

Synopsis: X-MEN: FIRST CLASS charts the epic beginning of the X-Men saga, and reveals a secret history of famous global events. Before mutants had revealed themselves to the world, and before Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr took the names Professor X and Magneto, they were two young men discovering their powers for the first time. Not archenemies, they were instead at first the closest of friends, working together with other Mutants (some familiar, some new), to stop Armageddon. In the process, a grave rift between them opened, which began the eternal war between Magneto’s Brotherhood and Professor X’s X-Men.

In the posters we get to see more of Emma Frost, Professor X, Angel, Havok and Beast X-Men: First Class is released 1st June.

Source: CBM and Shockya