It must be Christmas, because those fanboy wishes are coming true. Bryan Singer is returning to the X-Men fold, having just signed on to direct X-Men Origins: First Class.
The announcement came from the man himself, who spoke to journalists at the Los Angeles Avatar premiere. When asked what he's working on next he replied, "I'm ramping up to do a movie called Jack The Giant Killer at Warner Bros, and I just yesterday signed a deal to do an X-Men: First Class Origins picture, which is kind of cool. I'm very excited."
And so are fans of the first two X-movies, which Singer directed. Many credit those films as ushering in a whole new era of successful superhero movies that were less camp and more serious in tone. When Singer left the franchise it was a double blow, because the following X-movies (Last Stand and Wolverine) seemed disappointingly bland in comparison, while Singer's attempt to reboot another comic-movie franchise with Superman Returns was dull and overly reverential.
X-Men Origins: First Class is a prequel to the first X-men film, showing younger versions of Jean Grey, Cyclops and other mutants then they first enrolled at Professor Xavier’s School For Gifted Youngsters (which is kinda like the first few issues of the original comic). Let’s just hope that Singer rediscovers his gift for making good movies (pause to shudder at the though of Valkyrie…).
