I don’t even know what Matthew Vaughn is thinking.
The director of Kick-Ass has signed on to direct X-Men: First Class, and he’s agreed to deliver it by June of 2011. That’s a fairly punishing schedule. Oh, and he’s doing it for Fox.
Vaughn had been in talks to direct but it had been off and on until Bryan Singer apparently bridged the gap. This is Vaughn’s second chance at the X-Men franchise, as he was supposed to direct X-Men: The Last Stand but dropped out at the last minute. Vaughn’s not unfamiliar with the regime at Fox, so they must be ponying up some money for him to come onboard.
For those who forget the bad decisions Fox has made with the X-Men franchise, X-Men: First Class is a prequel to the X-Men films so far. Rumor has it that Wolverine shows up, despite that breaking continuity even worse than the painfully continuity-straining X-Men Origins: Wolverine did.
Vaughn’s a good director, but he won’t be the first good director to walk onto the Fox lot and get their ass handed to them. I know that Vaughn knows the stories, and while I don’t know the truth behind his leaving the last X-Men film, I can’t help but wonder how true the ‘leaving for his family’ spin really was.
I wish I wasn’t so cynical about this, but Fox has given me endless reasons to feel down on their product, and rushing a shitty-sounding prequel into production isn’t helping matters.