X-Men: First Class was a movie that really should not have worked. Rebooting the history of an established franchise was already a tricky endeavour, but even more so for director Matthew Vaughn who faced a studio mandated release date before any work had even begun, leaving him with a mere 4 months to produce a film.
And yet, under all that pressure, he produced an incredible film, probably my personal favourite of all the Marvel superhero movies.
Luckily, the studio learnt their lessons and will not be placing any crazy deadlines on him for the sequel. He just can’t start filming before next year January due to the involvement of one of his actresses, Jennifer Lawrence, in this little movie you might have heard of.
Lawrence, who plays blue-skinned shape-shifting mutant Mystique in the X-Men prequels, is supposed to be filming Catching Fire, the sequel to the massive critical and box-office smash hit, The Hunger Games from August to January. (Yep, yet another rushed 4 month shooting schedule. Lawrence must just love these.)
Seeing as Fox Studios already had Lawrence tied up in a contract for the X-Men sequel before her involvement in The Hunger Games, they could have exercised their right to prevent her from filming, but they appeared to have worked out an agreement with Lionsgate, the studio producing The Hunger Games franchise.
Vaughn – who co-wrote the script for First Class – will only be in the director’s chair this time around, while writer Simon Kinberg (Mr and Mrs Smith, Jumper, Sherlock Holmes) has been confirmed to be on solo scripting duties for the sequel. James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and the rest of the cast are all expected to be returning as well.
Last Updated: April 10, 2012
gmanthebrave
April 10, 2012 at 16:43
I did not know that Vaughn produced the entire movie in four
months. Is that really true, because there
is a lot of work for post production, or is that just the production? I too think the movie is fantastic, and it
isn’t because of the over-the-top special effects or radical costumes. The script is well written, and the acting is
dynamic, along with the end is truly nail biting. I watched it again last weekend after a DISH
co-worker told me it was free on the dishonline website. I think the way I can see so many free movies
on there is amazing, especially since they are new releases. Unfortunately I’ll have to wait longer to see
this great “prequel-sequel.”
Kervyn Cloete
April 10, 2012 at 19:28
While there was some pre-production like location scouting and set design, it was only 4 months from the moment the camera started rolling to Vaughn handing in the final edited cut, complete with with all post production CGI work. Some reports say that it was just 2 months of actual filming of actors, which is pretty crazy.