Robert from over at IESB just emailed me to let me know about a great little interview he did with Fox Chairman Tom Rothman. They talked about a lot of stuff, most importantly X-Men, Wolverine, AVP2 and Fantastic Four 2. Here’s a bit of that conversation:
On the future of the X-Men and Gambit:
IESB: Oh come on Tom, there are going to be more ensemble X-Men films right?
TR: I think, this is what I have always said, this is the truth, X-Men is a very well populated universe and I am sure that we will see those and many other characters from the X-Men universe again, I’ve always said that. I do not believe we will see that exact grouping of characters again. The story arc on those characters, in that incarnation, was completed with those three films.
IESB: That I accept, but we haven’t seen Gambit.
TR: Correct. And I am sure that you will.
On AVP2:
TR: Let’s put it this way, I think the approach this time is going to be very hardcore. Very R rated. I think this is a, we believe that, this pass on AVP with these filmmakers is going to be a lot closer to the hardcore experience.
IESB: I am hearing that this AVP 2 script resembles a lot of [James] Cameron’s Aliens, that it is very hard, and it doesn’t resemble the first AVP film much. Is that accurate?
TR: That is accurate. Very hardcore. Very violent.
IESB: Can you tell me what time frame this takes place in?
TR: Yeah, it’s contemporary.
On Fantastic Four 2:
IESB: Yes, Fantastic Four Rise of the Silver Surfer, Weta is doing the CGI, Doug Jones doing the motion capture, we want to confirm this, you can’t have the Silver Surfer without Galactus making an appearance at one point or another in the film right?
TR: That’s true.
IESB: Avi has always referred to Galactus as a force of nature.
TR: Yeah.
IESB: Is he going to look like anything like we’ve seen him in the comic books?
TR: Yes, I think that Galactus, look, I don’t want to give away too much, right, but I will say this, Galactus will appear and fans will not be disappointed.
On Die Hard 4:
IESB: Going back to Die Hard, John McClane has gone through everything, he’s faced some of the toughest villains, when are we going to hear who the new villain is?
TR: Soon, very soon and it’s, well we’re not quite closed on it, but it’s a very cool piece of casting. Very cool and contemporary.
IESB: It’s really hard to top Alan Rickman.
On Wolverine and Magneto:
TR: Our hope would be that Hugh Jackman after he does Baz Luhrmann’s film in Australia next year, the first half of next year, our hope would be that he would do it in the second half of next year. That really ultimately will be up to him.
IESB: And Magneto, how are we doing on that end?
TR: People are quite optimistic but I haven’t yet been given a script from that one.
On Eragon:
IESB: How is Eragon turning out?
TR: Great actually, it’s funny I just came from upstairs seeing, really, the very first of the finished dragon shots from Weta who is doing the bulk of Saphira, creating Saphira, and she is pretty damn cool. It’s fun after all this time to stop looking at a tennis ball and start looking at a dragon. Our hope is that Weta is going to do for dragons what Jurassic Park [and ILM] did for dinosaurs.
It’s just a fantastic interview packed with lots of good stuff. Kudos to Robert for getting it. You can read the whole interview yourself if you’d like by going over here.
One of the things that really jumped out at me in that intervew was the hinting at just how brutal and violent Aleins vs. Predator 2 will be. Sounds like they listened a little to the feedback they got from the first one (which I know I’m in the minority here, but I didn’t think it was totally awful). Lots o’ violence and gore it sounds like. I like it when a studio head says “Hard R”. We’ll see if it actually works out that way.
