CHAPTER 1: THE LAND BEFORE X
In 1963, Stan Lee & Jack Kirby created X-MEN. This was a team of superheroes made for comics and it was a HUGE hit. Twenty-one years later, it was decided something that big needs a film adaptation. Why did they want to make an X-Men film. Well, because of this...
In 1984, ORION PICTURES got the rights to make an X-Men film. They also got Marvel Comics writers, Gerry Conway & Roy Thomas to write the script. However, it was at this point where ORION started having financial troubles. So development for an X-Men film was canned for five years.
In 1989, Stan Lee was making a deal with CAROLCO PICTURES to make an X-Men movie. The deal was made and they got the great James Cameron to produce and Kathryn Bigelow to direct. Unfortunatley, this was when she was known for making cheesy Keanu Reeves films and before she made Oscar-winning action dramas. Anyway, they got Angela Bassett and the great Bob Hoskins to play Storm and Wolverine. They were all set to go... then CAROLCO went bankrupt.
What's worse is that James Cameron thought "why PRODUCE a Marvel movie when I can DIRECT one?" So he left the project to make a Spider-Man movie (which never got made). But Marvel wasn't giving up yet. They were trying to make a deal with Columbia Pictures for the film rights to X-Men. They said "no".
Now before I go on about the development, I have to talk about CBMs in the 90s and the fact that
MOST OF THEM WERE GARBAGE!
Oh, what? You don't believe me? Here's a few examples of CBMs in the 90s:
Anyway, while most of the movies sucked, the comic book cartoons KICKED ASS! In fact, it was no wonder that the best CBM of the 90s (Mask of the Phantasm) was based off of one of the shows (and the biggest one at that). I bring this up because there was an X-Men cartoon produced by a man named Avi Arad.
The X-Men cartoon aired on FOX KIDS. So it made sense that they wanted to make an X-Men film with Avi Arad as a producer. In 1994, Laura Shuler Donner bought the film rights for the X-Men for FOX. She also managed to get Andrew Kevin Walker to write a screenplay.
In Walker's draft, the film focused on Professor X recruiting Wolverine to the X-Men. The team consisted of Cyclops, Jean Grey, Iceman, Angel, & Beast (concept art shown above). The film would also focus a lot on the rivalry between Wolverine & Cyclops. Also, the rest of the film would be them fighting the Brotherhood of Mutants, which consists of Mageto, Toad, Blob, Sabretooth, and the Juggernaut (BITCH!) Also, all mutants were being hunted by Boliver Trask's Sentinals which were made because Magneto was responsible for the Chernobyl disaster.
If this sounds like too much, that's because it is. After Walker turned in a second draft, FOX got (oddly enough) Joss Whedon to rewrite the Walker's script.
In Whedon's script, Magneto's evil plan was to turn New York into a mutant homeland. Also, the danger room would appear, the ending would include a reference to the Pheonix Saga, and there would be a romance between...
Yeah.
Entertainment Weekly reported that FOX reject Whedon's script because it had too many pop culture references and was too quick witted for an X-Men movie.
After Whedon's script, FOX got Michael Chabon to do a rewrite (AGAIN!). His script focused on the relationship between Wolverine & Jubilee (similar to the Wolverine/Rogue storyline in the actual film). The team would be the same as Walker's script, except with Nightcrawler thrown in. However, there was tiny little problem with this script... there were no villains. At all. Not even Magneto.
But enough about the script, let's talk about directors. FOX's first choice to direct the film was...
BRETT RATNER!
(Suddenly, him being chosen to direct X3 makes a lot more sense now.)
Anyway, after Ratner, FOX tried to get Robert Rodreguez to direct the film. He said "no". Now all I can think about is an X-Men movie with Danny Trejo as Wolverine.
But then, in 1996, a movie called THE USUAL SUSPECTS was released to crtical acclaim. And the director of that film was getting loads of attention. That director's name was Bryan Singer.
TO BE CONTINUED...