It’s a big week for news and pictures from the latest mutant adventure, X-Men: First Class. On Monday, the first picture of the cast in costume leaked online (and has since been replaced with the official, high-res version) and now, thanks to the LA Times, we have new images of the film, a first look at Kevin Bacon’s villain and some quotes from those involved.
Talking to the paper’s Geoff Boucher, director Matthew Vaughn revealed that he was still knee-deep in the hectic shoot for the movie, admitting that filming a big-budget studio picture with a ticking clock is very different from the world he comes from. “I’ve never worked under such time pressure. The good thing about the independent world is I never even knew if I was going to get distribution. I’m used to finishing a film and then crossing your fingers that someone is going to like it. This is totally doing it the other way around. We’ve definitely got a release date and we’ve got to make it.”
First Class tackles the origin story of Bryan Singer’s X-Men film world, warping back to the 1960s to show how the rivalry between Professor Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Erik Lensherr (Michael Fassbender) first sparked up.
There’s pressure on the cast, too, with McAvoy talking up the challenge of slipping into Patrick Stewart’s shoes as Xavier. “This isn’t a reboot, so I’m not replacing anyone, in which case you might want to try to be as different as possible and stay away from what had been done before,” McAvoy says. “This is a prequel, so I’m the same character, just younger, but the challenge for me – and for Michael — is to show the same person in a different place in their life; to show someone before they’re this bad guy, before they’re this saint. Charles wasn’t always a monk, this selfless, sexless monk that he becomes.”
And even Singer acknowledges that Vaughn has quite a task ahead of him. “The biggest challenge is introducing an audience to these characters in a different time – characters the audience is familiar with but now see played by younger actors and in a story taking place in a different time. We have to establish this universe. We had the challenge with the first **X-Men **film, which came at a time when there were no comic-book movies of this sort and no template to launch from and yet you’ve got to do that. You have to put your characters out there and introduce them to a quizzical public that sort of recognizes them. But that very thing is the exciting part of it.”
There’s more at the paper’s Hero Complex blog, so check it out. And take a look at the new pictures in our gallery below, including the first glimpse of Kevin Bacon as baddie Sebastian Shaw. Plus, via Ain't It Cool, the first teaser poster is also now in there.
UPDATE: SlashFilm have another couple of images, showing Erik Lehnsherr and Charles Xavier in action, manipulating metal and minds. Check them out below.{X-Men First Class Slashfilm Pics}
X-Men: First Class lands on June 2.