20th Century Fox is reportedly looking for a 17-year-old actress to replace Katie Stuart as Kitty Pryde in the third X-Men movie. Stuart played the phasing teenager in X2 while Sumela Kay portrayed her in the first X-Men film.
The casting change was reportedly prompted by a recent rewrite of the script, according to the Comic Reel.
Meanwhile, X-Men 3 director Matthew Vaughn is getting more publicity recently because his directorial debut Layer Cake is coming to the U.S.
Here's an excerpt from an interview Vaughn gave to Superhero Hype:
"It was a mutual finding of each other," Vaughn told us when asked about how his involvement with X-Men 3 came about. "I heard [director Bryan] Singer wasn't doing it, and I just told my agent that I'd be intrigued and asked "can you get me in a room?" They saw the film and really liked it. 'X-Men' has sort of taken me by surprise. One of the reasons I'm attracted to it is also the reason why I'm scared of it, is that it's such a short amount of time to get it done. I thought maybe it would be good to do it because there's a lot for me to learn if I do it. The irony is that I haven't got the luxury of casting most of these guys, which is going to be odd, especially if I don't like what they're doing, cause I'm going to have to pull them aside and tell them to ignore everything they did in the last film."
How will his approach differ from Singer's? "I think Singer probably treats it in a more simplistic manner then I'm going to. It's going to expand on things. There's three or four scenes I know people will just be shocked and close to tears."
Vaughn also addressed the possible casting of Vinnie Jones, who he worked with in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, as Juggernaut. "What's interesting about Juggernaut is that he's the brother of Professor X, and that's why I thought it would be interesting having an English thug opposite Patrick Stewart." Regarding using the Dark Phoenix story: "bits of it are great but other bits are a mess."
Vaughn is also producing and directing the big screen adaptation of Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess' graphic novel Stardust, describing it as sort of a Princess Bride meets Midnight Run.
Thanks to Matthew K. for the tip.