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New Details on X-men: First Class

Yesterday director/producer Bryan Singer (House, Trick ‘r Treat) spoke to Harry Knowles from Ain’t it Cool News and dropped some huge details about X-men: First Class.

I’ve unfortunately been skeptical for a while about this movie, despite all the positive things we’ve been hearing lately about it. After the train-wreck (In my opinion) that was X-men 3, and the critic bashed X-men Origins: Wolverine, we all have reason to be. As a fan of the comics, I was eagerly awaiting such details as these to give me reason to go see this film.

Now I have them.

Here’s a short list of the details, after which I will go into more detail for those interested:

  • The setting for the film will be the 1960’s (Groovy Baby!)
  • We’ll get a first look at how Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr met
  • The costumes will be more accurate to the comic books than we’ve seen so far
  • This movie is NOT based on the First Class Comic Book. We’ll see some of the actual first class, but there are a few prominent ones that are M.I.A as far as we know.
  • We will be most likely being seeing the likes of the Hellfire Club
  • Those castings? They’re mostly true.
  • The technology is being inspired by James Bond (From the 60’s)
  • Filming begins with Xavier at Oxford University.
  • The story this time around will have a move international feel

Okay! So there’s the short version, now…. to delve further into these juicy particulars:

Working Our Way Back:

I’m really grooving the choice for the 60’s. This means John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr, and Malcom X. It will be interesting to see if they work these particular politics into the film, and how. The era is full of different significant events to choose from, and I’m hopeful they use such to their advantage.

The Meeting to Start it All:

This will be very cool to see indeed, considering how we all know from previous knowledge the relationship turns out in the end. Xavier (James McAvoy) and Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender) [Better known as Magneto] will be in their 20’s when they first meet, making plans for a healthy congruency between humans and mutants. Another huge thing that was noted by Singer that’s certainly worth bringing up is that we won’t be seeing the Xavier that we know and love during this time. He will be sporting a full head of hair and standing tall on his own feet this time around, until of course, we find out how he ended up in the wheelchair in the first place. We can also infer from this that they’re probably disregarding everything from the previous films and trying to start anew. I’m with them on that.

The Not-Quite First Class:

Sporting their most comic-y costumes yet, the modified first class will be fantastic to see. While this first class will not include all the originals- Angel, Iceman, Cyclops, Jean Grey and Beast- we have been assured with casting details that the group won’t be completely new. We can looked forward to a young Beast (Nicholas Hoult), as well as Cyclops’ brother Alex Summers (Jacob Till) [aka. Havoc]. As of yet, Cyclops himself and Jean are yet to be accounted for.

All Hail the Hellfire Club:

So far the casting of Emma Frost (January Jones) and the notorious Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) has been let out, leading anyone familiar with those names to believe that we’ll be seeing the X-men’s longtime rivals The Hellfire Club up and running in First Class. Whether they will be playing a major role in the film has yet to be seen, but we can hope, right?

Others Talents so Far:

Much to our relief, Singer has confirmed that the characters and cast that have been listed so far this year are accurate, which means we can happily add Moira Mactaggert (Rose Byrne), Darwin (Edi Gathegi), Banshee (Caleb L. Jones), Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence), and Azazel (Jason Flemyng) to the list of people we’ve already mentioned. Adding to our excitement, Singer made to sure let us know to expect a few more characters that have yet to be announced.

The Tech?:

Other than hoping the characters will be taking their Martini’s shaken not stirred, there’s not much I have to say on exactly what kind of technology Singer is speaking of. For a production as big as this I can’t imagine that the cinematography itself would be reverted to look like a 60’s film, that seems like far too much of a risk. Maybe will see the X-men sporting some snappy gadgets? Who knows, will have to wait and see.

Going International:

While Singer did mention that the story will set off with Xavier at Oxford university, he also let us know that we won’t be stuck there- or anywhere for too long to be particular. Some of the places he’s let us know so far (other than England of course) are The States, and Russia. Seeing as the movie is set in the 60’s, we know that this of course is the Soviet Union during First Class.

This is the biggest update on First Class so far, and it’s awesome!
Singer says there are more updates to come in about a month, and with the movie coming out June 3rd of 2011, I can’t wait.