X3? I can tell you that a very good source says a sequel is a "100 percent" certainty. Already Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Cumming and ex-footballer Daniel Cudmore (Colossus) are signed up for the next adventure. But director Bryan Singer, who's headed to Mexico for more X2 promotion, tells me he has at least one condition for returning to the director's chair: "I have to do something in between."
Scalpers Unite: Lucky folks who got their hands on tickets for one of X2's promotional screenings have been scalping them on the Internet for up to $35 apiece. In an effort to match such anticipation, Fox will simultaneously release the film in 93 markets around the world this week--a record.
The X-Movie You'll Never See...: Can you tell we're a little obsessed with X-Men around here? Anyhow, for one brief moment in time, Michael Chabon (The Wonder Boys, The Amazing Spider-Man) was asked to come up with a concept for an X-Men movie. At first, he was charged with excitement. "A madness came over me," he says on his Website. "I really thought I was going to be writing a movie about some of the seminal and transcendent heroes of my own twisted and unhappy early adolescence. I put way too much thought, time and energy into this thing, all for free."
Die-hard fanatics have probably already checked it out, but more casually obsessed comic fans (like me) might find his take on the X-universe interesting. He candidly shares his initial letter and proposal to Fox. In it, he notes that his script will focus on Cyclops, Jean Gray, Nightcrawler, Beast, Iceman, Storm, Wolverine and the oddly empowered Jubilee, a mutant who can destroy things with plasma at the molecular level. Whatever. He wanted to sidestep Magneto and Sabretooth, replacing the villains with something called the League of Gentlemen. As you know, both villains made the original, but Nightcrawler, Iceman and Beast would have to wait for X2.
Is Rogue a replacement for Jubilee? Plot points like the Danger Room and Jean's affection for Wolvie seem too standard, but Chabon's detailed proposal is more vested in the violence that characters like Wolverine are capable of and steeped in more government paranoia. Then there's the Legacy Virus. Chabon must have been one disaffected teen--and his X-Men movie would've been a long movie. He also proposes two kidnappings and covers the Mutant Registration Act.