Blimey… that was quick: No sooner was it reported that Matthew Vaughn was in the final stages of making a deal to direct **X-Men: First Class **for Fox, the studio has announced that he’s officially on board and that the film will be coming out in just over a year.
According to the Heat Vision Blog, the combination of Vaughn signing his name to the film and a recent rewrite of the script by Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz (who had done work on the Thor script for Marvel) convinced executives that the film could actually be made in time to arrive next year – June 3, to be exact.
With that accelerated schedule, Vaughn’s canny producer/director skills will be tested as he makes the biggest film of his career to date, but we’re hopeful that the man behind Kick-Ass can deliver.
Like the comic it’ll be based on,** First Class** will follow the early days of the X-Men, back when Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr were friends and worked together alongside some young mutants – some we’ve met later in life, some new – to deal with a dangerous threat. But the struggle opened a rift between the pair, leading to the battles we see in the X-movies.
Update: It looks like Vaughn's co-writer, Jane Goldman, may be coming on board too. Her husband, Jonathan Ross, has just announced on Twitter that 'My wife has just taken on a big new exciting movie. So I'll be doing the cooking for the next 10 weeks.'
Hmm... so someone who works with Matthew Vaughn has just taken on a big movie that will require a writing commitment of 10 weeks. Even the real Inspector Hound could figure this one out.