Duloc is a perfect place....
I'm on a few X-Men mailing lists, all based around Wolverine&Rogue. These lists have been buzzing with speculation of late on whether or not Anna Paquin will be signing on to do X-Men 3 or not. The latest news is not, with Anna said to "be done" with the franchise (leaving me rather heart-broken).
However, the latest news is also that Hugh Jackman has signed on for the film... for around $13million and a cut of the profit. Given how much of the budget will be taken up with one character's salary in an ensemble situation, the studio wants to get their money's worth out of it and has insisted that, rather than being the Cyclops-film X3 was intended to be, it has to be another Wolverine set-piece.
Given that X3 has to be the Phoenix saga, based on how X2 ended, this has left me a little distressed.
I'm not an Old School X-Men Comic Geek. When I was growing up I read a couple of X-Men comics, and I'm pretty sure I watched the cartoon, and I was familiar enough with it all to know the characters when I first walked into the cinema to see the first film. But I was always more of a Superman, Batman, Spider-Man and The Phantom girl.
But being in the fandom, I've gone back through a lot of the canon. I'm not a stickler, I can handle that Rogue and Mystique are never going to have the same relationship in the movieverse as they did in the comics. I can handle that they still haven't bought in Beast or dozens of other characters I have come to love as though I've spent my entire life reading the comics. I can handle that a lot of the storylines are not going to be the same, because I know that there's differences between what can work in the comic and what works in a film.
I can even handle that Storm isn't going to be there for the Phoenix saga, despite her close relationship with Jean.
However. To turn the Phoenix saga -- the cornerstone of the early comics, the story the made the X-Men -- into a story about Wolverine? I'll admit I'm not a Jean/Logan girl, but this story is all. about. Scott. This is Cyclops's story. To take this story and make it about Logan?
I'm also a little curious about how James Marster's is going to go now. He's only hung around through a thankless role in the first two films because the third film was going to be a Cyclops film. I heard he wasn't going to sign onto X2 unless he received more screen time, and he was hardly in that one.
Phoenix will be the story that will either make or break the X-Men film franchise. Everyone who reads the comics knows of the Phoenix saga, no matter when they started to read. Everyone in the fandom knows what happens. It's the definitive X-Men storyline, and o matter how much faith I have in Bryan Singer he has to answer to the studios. And if they turn the Phoenix saga into a Wolverine storyline, no matter the star power of Hugh Jackman it will put the comic geeks off. And it doesn't matter how the rest of the public views it, when you lose your hardcore fans, you're lost. See the latter Superman films if you don't believe me.
Maybe I'm being pessimistic. I'm a Trekkie, I know that a franchise can overcome more than one or two crappy films. I just don't know if this franchise can afford to make a mess out of such an important storyline.
Interesting end note: if both Rogue and Storm are missing, are we going to be seeing more of Shadowcat and Jubilee? They'll need to increase female presence on the team, and it's been established in the first two films they actually exist in this movieverse, unlike Psylocke, Sage, Emma Frost et al.
However, the latest news is also that Hugh Jackman has signed on for the film... for around $13million and a cut of the profit. Given how much of the budget will be taken up with one character's salary in an ensemble situation, the studio wants to get their money's worth out of it and has insisted that, rather than being the Cyclops-film X3 was intended to be, it has to be another Wolverine set-piece.
Given that X3 has to be the Phoenix saga, based on how X2 ended, this has left me a little distressed.
I'm not an Old School X-Men Comic Geek. When I was growing up I read a couple of X-Men comics, and I'm pretty sure I watched the cartoon, and I was familiar enough with it all to know the characters when I first walked into the cinema to see the first film. But I was always more of a Superman, Batman, Spider-Man and The Phantom girl.
But being in the fandom, I've gone back through a lot of the canon. I'm not a stickler, I can handle that Rogue and Mystique are never going to have the same relationship in the movieverse as they did in the comics. I can handle that they still haven't bought in Beast or dozens of other characters I have come to love as though I've spent my entire life reading the comics. I can handle that a lot of the storylines are not going to be the same, because I know that there's differences between what can work in the comic and what works in a film.
I can even handle that Storm isn't going to be there for the Phoenix saga, despite her close relationship with Jean.
However. To turn the Phoenix saga -- the cornerstone of the early comics, the story the made the X-Men -- into a story about Wolverine? I'll admit I'm not a Jean/Logan girl, but this story is all. about. Scott. This is Cyclops's story. To take this story and make it about Logan?
I'm also a little curious about how James Marster's is going to go now. He's only hung around through a thankless role in the first two films because the third film was going to be a Cyclops film. I heard he wasn't going to sign onto X2 unless he received more screen time, and he was hardly in that one.
Phoenix will be the story that will either make or break the X-Men film franchise. Everyone who reads the comics knows of the Phoenix saga, no matter when they started to read. Everyone in the fandom knows what happens. It's the definitive X-Men storyline, and o matter how much faith I have in Bryan Singer he has to answer to the studios. And if they turn the Phoenix saga into a Wolverine storyline, no matter the star power of Hugh Jackman it will put the comic geeks off. And it doesn't matter how the rest of the public views it, when you lose your hardcore fans, you're lost. See the latter Superman films if you don't believe me.
Maybe I'm being pessimistic. I'm a Trekkie, I know that a franchise can overcome more than one or two crappy films. I just don't know if this franchise can afford to make a mess out of such an important storyline.
Interesting end note: if both Rogue and Storm are missing, are we going to be seeing more of Shadowcat and Jubilee? They'll need to increase female presence on the team, and it's been established in the first two films they actually exist in this movieverse, unlike Psylocke, Sage, Emma Frost et al.