Note: Tweet first noticed and theorized by io9.
Zack Stents worked on the initial screenplay for
X-Men: First Class and tweeted the above musing about including the famous David Bowie song in an X-Men movie. That song debuted on the 1971 album Hunk Dory and could give us a potential clue about the timeline of the sequel to First Class. Although, it was announced that Simon Kinberg would be working on the first draft of the sequel, it's not uncommon for movie studios to have other writers working parallel to one another on the same project, just in case the initial choice doesn;t produce an agreeable script. The most famous case of this occurring was with Warner Bros. in the late '90s who simultaneously, had a slew of writers and directors all working on a reboot of the Batman franchise. Ultimately the studio chose Christopher Nolan as everyone knows but most of you have all heard the various pitches by now. Of course in this case, regardless of who writes the initial screenplay, it's almost guaranteed to be re-written by Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman once filming starts. Still this was an interesting tidbit that could mean something or possibly nothing. We'll have to wait and see.
X-Men: First Class is a 2011 American superhero film directed by Matthew Vaughn and produced by Bryan Singer, based on the X-Men characters appearing in Marvel Comics. The fifth installment in the X-Men series, the film acts as a prequel for the X-Men trilogy, being set primarily in 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis. It focuses on the relationship between Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr (Magneto), and the origin of their groups—the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Mutants, respectively. The film stars James McAvoy as Xavier and Michael Fassbender as Lensherr. Other cast members include Kevin Bacon, January Jones, Rose Byrne, Jennifer Lawrence, Zoë Kravitz, Nicholas Hoult and Lucas Till.
Announced in 2006, First Class entered production in August 2010 and finished in December, with additional photography taking up up to three weeks before the film's premiere in June 2011. Locations included Oxford, the Mojave desert and Georgia, with soundstage work in both Pinewood Studios and the 20th Century Fox stages in Los Angeles. The film received positive reviews and was a box-office success with earnings of $353 million worldwide.
Running Time: 132 minutes
Release Date: 3 June 2011 (USA)
MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of action and violence, some sexual content including brief partial nudity and language
Starring: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jennifer Lawrence
Directed by: Matthew Vaughn
Written by: Ashley Miller (screenplay), Zack Stentz (screenplay),Jane Goldman (screenplay), Matthew Vaughn (screenplay), Sheldon Turner (story) and Bryan Singer (story)