Another member of the original X-Men movies has signed on to appear in the generation-linking X-Men: Days of Future Past. Halle Berry, who starred as Storm, has been confirmed to appear according to Deadline.

She joins past mutant players Patrick Stewart (Professor Xavier), Ian McKellen (Magneto), Anna Paquin (Rogue), Ellen Page (Kitty Pride), Shawn Ashmore (Iceman) and Hugh Jackman (Wolverine). I’m beginning to wonder which group the movie is actually about…

Despite a pretty certain announcement by director Bryan Singer a couple weeks ago that Sir Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellan would reprise their roles as the older Professor Xavier and Magneto, respectively, in X-Men: Days of Future Past, he may have jumped the gun. Apparently neither have actually signed a contract yet. Stewart told Entertainment Weekly earlier this week that he “knows nothing” but that he’s also under a contractual gag order. Now McKellan tells MTV that he has “yet to sign on the dotted line.”

However, it sounds like both are more than willing – if Singer and the studios can get the contracts to them…

It seems that the upcoming X-Men: Days Of Future Past will have a pair of Professors, a pair of Magnetos – and a pair of knights! Actors Sir Ian McKellan and Sir Patrick Stewart have been announced to appear in the movie in their respective franchise roles, despite the film being a sequel to the younger-cast X-Men: First Class. How this will be accomplished is unknown, but I’m expecting the film to be played as a flashback memory between the two old friend/foes, or else there is something of a Star Trek-style reboot. In any case, stock just went up…

Confirming an earlier rumor, Bryan Singer will return to the director’s chair for the upcoming sequel to X-Men: First Class, titled X-Men: Days Of Future Past, with Singer signing the deal with Fox to take over from Matthew Vaughn.

Singer directed the first two X-Men movies to launch the franchise, and helped with First Class by producing and writing the treatment.

It appears that Matthew Vaughn, who directed X-Men: First Class, will not return to direct the sequel, titled X-Men: Days of Future Past. No reason is known, but he also bowed out of Kick-Ass 2 not long ago.

So Fox needs to scramble if it still wants the Summer 2014 release for the film, and the buzz is that Bryan Singer, who directed the first two X-Men movies and wrote and produced First Class, might move from the producer role here to direct, while Vaughn, who wrote the sequel, would step back as producer.

Stan Lee Media, Inc. (which isn’t really related to Stan Lee himself, since the company filed for bankruptcy back in 2001), is swinging for the fences. The company filed a $5.5 BILLION lawsuit against Disney, claiming that Disney does not actually own the rights to Stan Lee’s creations, and therefore want all the profits from the massive movie hits that Marvel, and now Disney since they acquired Marvel in 2009, plus a declaration of full control over the characters. This directly affects the Spider-Man, Iron Man and X-Men franchises, and several characters in The Avengers.

This appears to be a continuation of lawsuits that started back in 2007. SLMI claims that when the company was formed, Stan Lee assigned all rights to his characters to the company. But later on, Lee assigned the rights to Marvel, the company he originally created and published all those characters. It all hinges on what Lee actually gave to SLMI – was SLMI created to work on new properties, or to administer the old ones?

Twentieth Century Fox is looking to it’s science fiction past for it’s future, with a re-release and sequels.

Today the studio announced that after the success of the re-release of Titanic in 3D (which made $344 million worldwide), they would give the same 3D treatment to Independence Day, looking to release that July 3rd, 2013. Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters will be released on August 16th, and for the holidays a movie based on the TV series/live show Walking With Dinosaurs will be released December 20th.

Then, in 2014, Fox plans to take the Spring to Summer season starting with the Steven Spielberg directed Robopocalypse on April 25th; Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, the sequel to Rise of the Planet of the Apes, on May 23rd (Memorial Day); and the next currently-untitled X-Men movie, on July 18th.

Just wanted to follow up with some updates to last week’s review of the X-Men: First Class DVD, now that I have the Blu-ray release in hand.
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The latest in the X-Men movie franchise, X-Men: First Class comes out on Blu-ray, DVD and Amazon Instant Video this Friday, September 9th. I’ve had an early look at the DVD, and here are my impressions.
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Director Darren Aranofsky (Black Swan), who has been in the midst of pre-production for Wolverine with Hugh Jackman awaiting the green light, has abruptly quit the production. Fox has confirmed with a statement from Aranofsky: “As I talked more about the film with my collaborators at Fox, it became clear that the production of ‘The Wolverine’ would keep me out of the country for almost a year. I was not comfortable being away from my family for that length of time. I am sad that I won’t be able to see the project through, as it is a terrific script and I was very much looking forward to working with my friend, Hugh Jackman, again.”

Aranofsky split from actress Rachel Weisz last year, and they have joint custody of their son.