I’ve been pretty excited ever since hearing there was going to be an X-Men spin-off Magneto movie. The Magneto character is so deep, so rich, so deserving of a film of his own. Not a black and white villain like so many others in the comic book world, or a flat boring shallow character like others that try not to be black and white (Sandman in Spider-Man 3 for instance). Magneto is a complex character, torn, troubled… one who ends up doing evil out of a powerful sense that he’s actually doing what is good. And really, although he was NEVER my choice to play the role, Ian McKellen brought all that depth and power and complexity to the screen. Clearly McKellen won’t be reprising his role as the Master of Magnetism, so another younger actor would have to fill his considerable shoes.
David Goyer has been hard at work developing the new movie, and he recently had an interview about the status of the project and what the story may be about. The folks over at Comingsoon give us this:
“We’re scouting and budgeting now. It’s the origins of the X-Men with Magneto and Charles Xavier. We’ve done some scouts and it mostly takes place in Europe and Argentina. We’re doing budgets and we’re sort of halfway crewed up, and so that’ll be the big question: whether we can bring it in for a price. But that’s all I can say.”
The fact that he’s going to include Charles Xavier in the movie is very good news. I had been wondering how you’d do a Magneto movie without Charles Xavier (if you know much about the X-Men, Charles and Magneto’s past are very interconnected).
The one troubling thing about that little report is that (and maybe I’m just reading into it here) it doesn’t sound like the movie has really been given the green light yet. Is the Magneto movie not a sure thing? I’ve been under the impression that everything was full steam ahead for the project… but that last little bit Goyer mentioned leaves some room for doubt.
The only HUGE reservation I have about Magneto is that Goyer himself (who is a great writer) is directing the project if it indeed goes into production. Goyer did a not bad job on “The Invisible” earlier this year…. but he also gave us the worst comic book movie (aside from Catwoman) I’ve ever seen with Blade 3. I have major doubts.
