X-Men

February 2000 News:

Thursday, 24 February, 2000

Pictures, pictures and more pictures. We've got a boatload of detailed shots of characters for you. These are clearly from the same photo shoot that spawned the first images we saw. The main difference is that these are actually sharp images and not pixelated all to hell. There are more of them too. So now we can see exactly how Storm, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Mystique and Wolverine are costumed. Plus we get the first really good shots of Ray Park as Toad. Personally I think Toad looks like hell. If they let Park show off more of his astounding martial arts skills though, I couldn't care less how he looks. Just let him do his stuff and I'm enthralled. It's interesting to note that there are still no pictures of Anna Paquin as Rogue. I'd be very interested to find out why she remains hidden. No pictures have appeared and she isn't in the trailer either. Very strange...

There are a lot of pictures so I've put them here to make downloading a little friendlier.

Tuesday, 22 February, 2000
Principal filming in Canada has been completed. The second unit still has a little work to do but that's it. Director Bryan Singer now has to switch to post production mode. Time is running short for him. The movie is scheduled to be released July 14 but needs to be showable in May for the beginning of the test screening process. Singer tried to put his opinion of the pressure delicately. "It sucks." Well put.

In case you have found this yet, check out this link. The clever little site is leads to is part of the X-Men marketing scheme. It's pretty cool and well done. Check it out.

Thursday, February 17, 2000

The long awaited trailer was released today on the net. Earlier in the day it appeared on Entertainment Tonight and then turned up on the net shortly there after. You can download a copy from this site here. It is about 6.8MB in size. You can also download it from the Apple site (4.0MB MOV) and (6.8MB MOV). If you don't want to struggle with the big download I've grabbed some images from the trailer for you. The trailer doesn't give any hint of the plot of the movie. It is just a series of quick images showing most of the characters in action. Anna Paquin as Rogue does not appear anywhere in the trailer for some reason.

Now that you've seen the trailer, what do you think of the movie? Talk about it in the Forums.

Wednesday, February 16, 2000 12:05:59 AM

The image on the left is a promotional picture for the movie and easily one of the coolest looking images we've seen yet. This is the image that will be visible when the doors of the X-Men displays now appearing at your local theater are opened.

Word has been leaking out for some time that the movie would feature several cameos of other mutants at Xavier's school. Rumor is now floating about that a young and very large actor by the name of Donald MacKinnon would be one of those cameos. He will be playing a student identified only as 'Peter.' Long time fans won't have to think to hard to realize this probably means he's playing Colossus.

IGN managed to score an interview with Hugh Jackman who will be playing Wolverine. Unsurprisingly they asked about fighting with the claws.

I've got a nice scar just here [above left knee] on my leg from the X-Men uniforms that we have. They have padding built into them around the knee. High-density rubber, which is a centimeter thick. I was doing the big fight with Sabretooth. I don't even know how I did it, but I punctured straight through [the rubber padding]. And I remember thinking, "Ooh, that was a bit close." End of the day I took off the suit and there's a red patch [of blood] all over here [wound above knee]. I'd punctured straight through the skin.

And this is not even [sharp]. The first claws I had were razor-sharp. I just said, "This is ridiculous." Because they would kill someone, without a doubt.

Having done [stage] fighting, getting used to that extra 9" long [claw] is the hardest thing. Because you want to keep getting in closer to [your victim], but you don't have to. It's just here, and this slashing motion.

We did about three weeks of straight work with all the stunt guys, getting that right. And getting the fighting style of Wolverine and how he uses those claws. Because he's the best at what he does. He can't look like an amateur.

You can read the entire interview here.

3 February, 2000
Now this is pretty cool. Below are four actual storyboards from the movie. They show a fight sequence between Wolverine and Sabretooth. Where did they come from? They were up for sale on ebay. Don't bother looking for them, the auction was halted. Probably because they are studio property. Anyway Comics2Film managed to grab the images before it was shut down. You can see them below. They do describe the fight in detail so don't look unless you want all the details.

1 February, 2000
The X-men project has definitely stirred up a lot of controversy. A lot of the comics fans are not at all happy about the way things are going. Director Bryan Singer is well aware of this. He sat down for an interview with AnotherUniverse.com and discussed the movie and fans concerns. "I really do care about this, the history and the universe. But it's difficult because people have a vision of how things are going to be. You will always disappoint people, it's unavoidable but what's the alternative? Not make the movie? I don't think a movie, even if it doesn't satisfy certain fans, will cause them to lose appreciation for the comic." Singer wouldn't divulge much about the plot but this is what he would say, "The movie follows the character Wolverine through a journey that takes him into the world of the X-Men at their earlier stage," reveals Singer. "Wolverine is one of the most exciting with one of the most complex and interesting origins. Then there is Professor Xavier who is definitely the mind behind things but the group is in a new stage and he's met with formidable opposition. Magneto is an old friend of Charles Xavier," explains Singer of the rivals. "He has chosen to view the future of mutantkind and protect that future in a way that ultimately threatens mankind. That pits these two old friends against one another. The Brotherhood is a cast of Magneto's own mutants who may follow blind leadership and are not always the most sophisticated but are definitely quite dangerous."

Of course the big point of contention right now is the costume design. Singer says, "As much as people like to think, what works magnificently and elegantly in the comic book doesn't always translate directly to film. We've taken a combination of style and believable application and applied them to the costumes."

Mostly he wants to tell the characters' story and not just the action. "In the X-Men, there's action in the movie like in science fiction fantasy but at the same time, it's also a story of characters and their journey and their relationships with one another. So it's a mixture. I wouldn't label it an action movie although many other people do because they expect the X-Men to fight."

He also made it clear that the description of the rumored teaser trailer from a few weeks back was flat out wrong. Speaking of internet rumors he says, "Another gave a beat for beat synopsis of our trailer on the Internet including the music but it didn't exist. Nothing had even been cut at the time."

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