"What the f*ck is this sh*t!" were the words running through the cerebrum of X-Men: First Class director Matthew Vaughn. Funnily enough for a film based on a school full of mutants it was unrelated. A communication breakdown took place between him and 20th Century Fox. If you recall the images released yesterday that everybody hates. Vaughn hates them more.
Vaughn states that no promo image was approved to be released, yet 20th Century Fox did distribute the image officially to MSN, Yahoo!, IGN & Moviefone to post along with early interviews with the cast. The news comes via /Film who are reliable most of the time.
Vaughn told /Film:
"I freaked out on them yesterday. I don't know where the hell that came from. I don't think it's a Fox image. It's not a pre-approved image. When I found out, I said, what the f*ck is this sh*t, and Fox is running around trying to figure out what happened as well. I agree. It's like a bad photoshop, which maybe it was by someone. It didn't reflect the movie. I was shocked when I saw it. I was like Jesus Christ"
So Vaughn continues:
"I’m a fan of X-Men. We’re not bastardizing X-Men, I’m trying to get them back to being whole again."
On Costumes, regalia and tip topness:
"The costumes are blue and yellow as well, because fuck it, lets take it back it the original. Also, by the way, those costumes are hardly in the movie. The main costumes are like these cool 60’s James Bond…"
On working with the "artistes."
"Imagine the Cuban Missile crisis and discovering that mutants exist, both at the same time.” … “The actors are so great. Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart are very very hard to replace. When I’m watching Fassbender and McAvoy you just think, it sort of reminds me of Daniel Craig doing Bond, you kind of forget there were other people playing him. And that’s what I feel about these two."
On serious Hero business.
"It’s definitely more serious and more realistic, and I think that’s something that had to happen. That’s my feeling about the world we live in right now. I think the glossy colorful superhero film sorta had its day. I think Batman Begins started it, Dark Knight, dare I say Kick-Ass was fun and it had some real pop to it, but at the same time we grounded it in reality as much as possible. I think that’s what the audience wants. And that why that image is more Fantastic Four than it is X-Men. And I say that with all due respect to the Fantastic Four team. That was then and this is now. It’s a different time. I mean, look at me — I’m not exactly mister light"
On Action packed sequences.
"It’s funny that you say that because if you watch [the other x-men movies] there isn’t as much action as you’d think. I think X-men 3 had the most action. But X1 and X2 had cool set pieces. But for me, I think it’s boring watching CG and big explosions. I’m sorta over that. I’d say it’s got more character-driven action than action for the sake of action."
On staying faithful to the legacy created by the comic series.
"I’d say this is more like Casino Royale than [JJ Abrams] Star Trek. If you think about it, Casino Royale just totally rebooted Bond — they kept what they wanted and got rid of what didn’t work. You sort of saw Bond become a double O for the first time and yet it didn’t seem to matter [what they changed]. I think my rule is to make a stand alone movie that is as good as possible and do as many nods and winks towards the comics and the other films, but not get tied up in knots worrying about that. It’s sort of a stand-alone movie in my mind with a reboot being a real reboot. Because if you’re a stickler for continuity, in X3 when you see Patrick Stewart…. well, I don’t want to give away anything about the plot but we’ve been as respectful of the other movies and comics as we I can feasibly can be without compromising the story"
