When I interviewed Matthew Vaughn for his directorial debut, Layer Cake, he was visibly jazzed about his next project, X-Men 3. So I can only imagine that his decision to leave that film – a decision that Aint It Cool News has confirmed – must have been tough.
”This is not a case of creative differences,” Avi Arad said to Moriarty. “This is a personal decision by Matthew, and I can tell you that he is heartbroken. He loved this material, and he wanted to make this film.”
I hope that whatever personal issues Matthew had to deal with get positively resolved, but in the meantime there’s a major league movie just sitting there. And it’s got a release date and everything all attached – what next?
Well, Marvel tells AICN that not only is pre-production steaming along – they plan to announce casting for Angel very soon – but that they have a new director lined up, apparently someone previously connected to the film.
My first reaction is the same as Moriarty’s – Joss Whedon? It’s interesting, to say the least. But Whedon seemed unwilling to do the film because he couldn’t write the script – now it seems like whoever directs it will be doing little more than sheparding Vaughn’s vision into reality, as they are keeping the casting and the script that is in place now.
It will be interesting to see if Fox flinches and moves X3 away from its impending release. And I certainly hope that all of this is included on the DVD – it’ll certainly beat another presentation of wire frame CG models and endless ass kissing that you get on most DVDs these days.