X-Men
January 2000 News:
27 January, 2000
Producer Tom DeSanto had a few things to say about the continuing production. He's pretty happy with the way the film is shaping up so far. "It's looking great. It really is. Just as a fan, it's like stepping into Oz every day at work. It's just fun to get up and go to work with Professor X and Magneto and go to the mansion… We've got everything scheduled so that we've got time to do the job right. We're in good shape. We're on schedule with everything so far." He goes on to mention that they have not chosen a composer yet but expect to do so in the next month. He also predicts that principal photography will wrap in late February.
25 January, 2000
 Lots and lots to go over today. First off, AICN conjured up one more picture. This one is easily my favorite of what we've seen so far and it provides the most hope that this movie will be good. The shot is of Xavier's machine Cerebro. The image shows the room Cerebro is in from two different angles, plus a few views of Xavier entering the machine and four sketches of the design. Very cool stuff. Any disappointment I had in the costumes is nullified by this picture.
Next we've got some comments from Rebecca Romijn-Stamos concerning her role as Mystique. These came from an interview with Movieline magazine.
"I'm not allowed to say what my Mystique costume looks like," she told Movieline. "I will tell you that it's absolutely cool and really beautiful. But Mystique is covered in blue scales and morphs into other characters - I mean, 70 percent of my body is covered with prosthetics, so nothing's hanging out. It's very revealing, but I'm totally unrecognizable once I go through this whole process.
"When (director) Bryan Singer first had me come in for X-Men, he asked me about my body painting for Sports Illustrate shoots. When I told him that one of them took 14 hours, he was like, 'She's in.' I think I got hired because I could sit still for 14 hours.
"They said, 'Your Mystique makeup will take 8 to 10 hours in the beginning,' and I was like, 'Oh, but they'll figure out a way to whittle it down, so that they'll be able to do it in two by the end. I now realize it'll never take fewer than 8 to 10 hours. I had no idea what I was getting myself into."
Ray Park, best known for his role as Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace, sat down for an interview with Countingdown.com. He discussed his work on the movie so far. Park has beefed up considerably for the role, "I've gained a stone (fourteen pounds) since I've been here" to make sure he performs to his best ability. "If fans come to [a movie] to see me, I don't want to let them down".
This is the part directly relating to his shooting of X-Men. You can read the entire article here.
Originally, he wanted the role of Wolverine. Then X-Men producers asked him to co-ordinate the fight scenes and play Pyro which would make sense, since Pyro was originally English rather than Australian (in his first comic appearances he was referred to as "Englishman" and "limey"). Eventually though, the number of mutants in the Brotherhood were cut down and Ray was given the part of uber-agile Toad instead, and the part has been progressively beefed up ever since, including his speaking parts - starting with one line; now six and growing. Ray originally felt Toad should jump into prey then quickly jumping out of the way, smiling and laughing -- but decided to add much more evil to the character's expression, while making sure to keep a different look from Darth Maul.
Have you been anxiously awaiting the Super Bowl so you could see the trailer? The rumor has been running rampant for weeks now. Unfortunately it's just that, a rumor. Producer Tom DeSanto told the Marvel Comics website that there will be no X-Men trailer during the Super Bowl. "We're deciding when we want to go out with the first trailer. Right now, there's no definite time element in going out with the trailer."
Finally today are some comments from Sir Ian McKellen on his website. McKellen was gracious enough to answer some of the fans questions concerning the movie. Concerning Hugh Jackman as Wolverine he said, "In his X-Men uniform, he transforms his own gangling gait into a ferociously energetic swagger. When Singer viewed Hugh's screen test that he had hurriedly directed between principal photography in Toronto, he is said to have remarked: 'Jackman is a star.' I agree and know that he will be one of the biggest assets to the film's impact. On and off set, Hugh is a gent and a friend I hope to work more with."
Regarding his costumer he said, "Magneto has multiple outfits in the movie. Ultra-elegant black cashmere overcoat at the Senate hearings. The action costume plus helmet, protecting him from Xavier's telepathy. And in the final scene, something entirely different..." Clearly we haven't seen everything just yet.
He has a lot more to say about the movie so I recommend visiting his website to read more.
24 January, 2000
Following up on yesterday's post, here are some more pictures of the characters. Even more can be found at AICN. Here you can see Storm, Jean Grey, and Wolverine. I included this different shot of Wolverine just because it looks a lot better than the previous one. It shows Hugh Jackman in the same costume seen on his stunt double. Clearly a better looking costume than from yesterdays post. The costume's are all quite similar with minor differences. For instance Wolverine's outfit has the clawmarks from the comic with gold piping while Storm's costume has silver piping and Jean Grey has no piping at all. She also doesn't have red hair which is going to really piss off the fans if it stays that way in the movie. Finally there is a shot of Mystique and Sabretooth entering Magneto's lair.
What do you think of the costumes? Join the debate in the Forums.
23 January, 2000
Believe it or not we've now got some promotional shots of some of the characters in their costumes. Below are shots of Cyclops, Wolverine, Mystique, Sabretooth and Professor X. The shots of Mystique and Professor X are just headshots but the others are full body shots. Harry over at AICN managed to grab these and he's got a bit more over there. I've done my best to clean these up to make them a bit clearer as the originals are not great quality.
These shots confirm what we've seen earlier so if you didn't like the look of them then you can start bitching in earnest now. Otherwise you should be pretty happy. Most of them look pretty good to me. I'm still not sold on Wolverine though. Hugh Jackman looks alright but the costume seems lacking. I'm going to reserve judgement until I see it in action though. Mystique looks a lot more alien than I had imagined.
21 January, 2000
Those guys over at Corona are good. They've snagged several more of the concept sketches for characters in the movie. The first one is the rear view of the Cyclops sketch seen earlier. The next two however are the first images seen of Mystique. The evil shapeshifter has been given an even skimpier outfit than the comic if you can believe it. When realized on screen Rebecca Romijn-Stamos will have darker red hair and darker blue skin than seen in these sketches. The only thing resembling clothing to the character are some "scales" placed in strategic areas. It creates the illusion that Mystique is wearing nothing at all. The traditional slinky white dress has been, well... removed. Presumably this is because a shapeshifter might be inhibited by clothing? Just a guess of course. Click on any of the sketches for a full size version.
What do you think of Mystique's design? Speak out on the New Forums!
20 January, 2000
 Do you think the pressure of directing X-Men is getting to Bryan Singer? He says, "I do feel some pressure. It affects me considerably, but I also think it's exciting." You don't have to worry folks, he knows what kind of weight is on his shoulders with this movie. He's tried to prepare his actors for it. "I've warned my actors to get ready to play iconic characters 10 times bigger than they are."
You might be wondering about that picture to the left. It was originally published in Cinescape. Singer is standing in some sort of contraption from the set. Unfortunately, he won't say what it is.
Do you think Singer is doing a good job? Speak out on the New Forums!
12 January, 2000
 Here's the big one you've been waiting for. The biggest question surrounding the movie, apart from if it's any good or not, has been what do the costumes looks like? We've gotten glimpses at Cyclops and Magneto but the Wolverine remains the character folks are most interested in. To the left is a picture of that very costume. It is a shot taken of one of Hugh Jackman's stunt doubles. But he is wearing the full costume. It bears strong resemblance to the Cyclops sketch but you'll notice the gold outlined "clawmarks" on the shoulders and abdomen. These are reminiscent of the original Wolverine uniform. The resemblance ends there though. The costume is actually pretty cool but it's going to get ripped apart by fans for not being close enough to one of the two well known Wolverine costumes from the comics.
Talk about it on our New Forums!
6 January, 2000
 Filming is still continuing for the movie. All of next week from January 10th to the 14th will be spent shooting at Casa Loma in Toronto. Casa Loma is a favorite tourist attraction in the area. The castle was built by eccentric millionaire, Sir Henry Pellatt starting in 1911. That's a shot of the castle to the left. Click on it for a slightly larger version. No word on what exactly they are filming there.
3 January, 2000
Well we might not have gotten to see the trailer in front of Bicentennial Man but at least we can read what it would have looked like. That's some comfort isn't it?
SHOT 1- FOX logo appears and a the title song begins (ROB ZOMBIE-"DRAGULA").
SHOT 2- MARVEL logo appears.
SHOT 3- As a beat from the song kicks in we see Rogue turn her head towards the camera.
SHOT 4-Another beat kicks in and we see a close up of the preceding image of her break up as if she's being scanned.
SHOT 5-We see her in costume (no white streak in hair or yellow going down her costume) and she's turning in what seems to be a computer file. There's small wording on the side and a second goes by and you can see words come up that describe her powers.
SHOT 6-She now has the white streak in her hair but she looks like someone just punched her because we see her falling back rather quickly.
SHOT 7-Now you see a faraway image of someone floating down to a building. I think its Storm and the building is the X-mansion. There's others standing there. Its dark so you can't see much.
SHOT 8-Now you can see a clear shot of Storm with her hand raised. She brings her eyes down and we see a rather disturbing image (She has tight black clothes on, and she looks like she has no pupils).
SHOT 9-The camera does a close up of her face as we hear another beat from the song. She is being scanned on a computer and the computer says "VERY DANGEROUS" in bold.
SHOT 10-This shot shows her screaming at someone then we see a rather "normal clothed" toad jump in the air (his feet being extended were not his own but rather a very bad CG effect shot of him jumping in the air).
SHOT 11-Now we see a clear shot of Cyclops standing in an aggresive position shooting the beam from his eyes.
SHOT 12-Now he looks like hes in a cockpit and he is turning his head looking out through the window.
SHOT 13-He is now being scanned in the computer and he has a very strange but cool looking costume on. He looks a lot better with it on in the image than that sketch seen online. In bold letters on the side it says "controlled" leader.
SHOT 14-Now we Cyclops running up to a weakening Magneto with some others standing around.
SHOT 15-As a new beat kicks in we see an explosion than Mystique shooting something at the camera. There were very visible scales on her side and her skin was very cool.
SHOT 16-Now we see a woman who looks like, at first, Trinity from the Matrix, but the woman is now lowering her hands off her forhead and she clearly is not anyone from the Matrix. She must have just a "psi-scan" or some mind power.
SHOT 17-Now we see her in a room with civilian clothes on looking at someone then we see that someone is Cyclops.
SHOT 18-She too is now being scanned and it says "unblockable" powers.
SHOT 19-Now you can see a side-shot of her scanning someone and the camera very quickly pans to the side and you see magneto without his magnetic shield up struggling with something.
SHOT 20-This shot starts out by showing someone sitting on a stool with people behind him.
SHOT 21-Now you Hugh Jackman (aka WEAPON X) sitting at a bar and he looks up at something. He looks so friggin cool!!!!! He looks very pissed and resembles wolverine perfectly. I thought his hair from the comic wouldnt transcend well but he looks good.
SHOT 22-This angle is very unique. The image will stick in peoples minds once they see this trailer for the first time. You can see Wolvies back and he's crouching down (his costume looks all black and I didnt see any mask. This is a backshot though so not much can be seen) and we are looking up at a GIANT. This guy is laughing and is about to attack him. This guy is clearly Sabertooth. He is friggin crazy. At least 2-3 feet taller than Wolverine, easily.
SHOT 23-A computer file is up and its Wolverine. He is clearly a little short and a message comes up saying "NO HISTORY" and then "EXTREME CAUTION".
SHOT 24-The music is changing and we see someone has come back all the way to the extreme right of the camera very close to us and that's the feeling you're supposed to get. Someone is now in the air jumping forward and about to attack. Its Wolverine and his claws are out!!!!! He is about to maul the person but the screen turns black.
SHOT 25-The camera rushes towards someone and its Professor X. Its goes towards his eye then the songs beat starts to change and we see flashing images. You can see people holding up signs outside a building that say NO MORE MUTIES or HUMANS WERE FIRST(?). You see Ian McKellen sitting down somewhere while he is removing his helmet. Now you see Rogue and Storm flying around the Statue of Liberty.
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