While big directing jobs are always highly competitive, and studios compile lengthy wish lists, they usually try to keep the search a closed secret. Well, that’s becoming harder and harder these days and Fox’s hunt for a director on X-Men: First Class has thrown up some interesting names, including Matthew Vaughn, Timur Bekmambetov, Louis Leterrier, Carl Erick Rinsch and Sweden’s Daniel Espinosa.
Entertainment Weekly was the first to break word that Kick-Ass’ Vaughn had been offered the job, though according to The Heat Vision Blog, he’s already passed it up. It’s not the first time he was lined up for an X-Men assignment – you might recall he was briefly on board The Last Stand.
No, the current hot target right now is apparently Espinosa, who has been generating plenty of buzz thanks to his crime thriller Snabba Cash, which Warners Bros. recently won a bidding war over and plans to produce a US remake with Zac Efron in the lead.
Espinosa’s cred couldn’t be higher right now – he’s being offered everything studios can throw in his direction, including CIA spy thriller Safe House and Prisoners, which has Leonardo DiCaprio starring as a father who captures and tortures the man who murdered his daughter.
We should find soon enough who will handle the new X-Men movie, a reboot of the franchise that flashes back to the early days of Professor Xavier’s school and sees younger versions of Cyclops, Jean Grey and others learning to master their powers and use them to fight evil.