I was lucky enough to visit the set of the new X-Men prequel a couple of times and see some of the footage - and it looks amazing.
I saw some of the incredible special effects and the cast is phenomenal too.
Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult and James McAvoy are awesome. And I think Michael Fassbender is going to blow everyone away as the young Magneto.
On one occasion, January Jones was walking past in lingerie!
Yes, I can confidently say this is going to be a great movie. But then my wife, Jane Goldman, did co-write most of it.
Even before she met me she was a comic fan. But when she got the job I brought down a pile of about 20 of my favourite X-Men comics for her to read.
As a huge fan, I was driving her mad with ideas - they were all terrible - but it's all her own work.
I'm doubly excited because it's directed by Matthew Vaughn, who is almost single-handedly supporting the British movie industry, and it's mostly filmed here.
The X-Men are like all the great anti- heroes. It's a classic idea, they're outsiders who have been judged wrongly.
That's their enduring appeal, I think, because young people identify with them.
At the heart of the X-Men, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, is the brilliant characterisations that make the stories stand out.
They are like a family soap opera. You have the troubled father figure, Professor X, trying to deal with his unruly children; the straight arrow, Cyclops, trying to keep everyone in line and being branded uncool and so on.
They're basically a dysfunctional family but when they fall out and fight they have superpowers.
And those powers also help explain why the X-Men are still popular.
Professor X and Jean Grey have extraordinary telepathy and telekinesis; the Beast is strong, acrobatic and a genius; Cyclops is like a rock star wearing his sunglasses indoors but when he takes them off he has laser vision. They are all remarkable.
The movies have succeeded where others failed because they didn't make them before the technology was able to deal with the special effects.
They could replicate what comic book art can do so they look brilliant.
The casting was amazing from the start - Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, Ian McKellen as Magneto and Patrick Stewart as Professor X.
Plus, from the beginning, the first director, Bryan Singer, made the wise choice to make it quite a grown-up movie - he didn't play for laughs, it wasn't camp or kitsch.
That's why this is now the fourth in the franchise and why there's every chance of more based on the amazing amount of great comic books they haven't yet touched.
The link below also has an interview with January Jones where she briefly mentions X-Men: First Class
Source:
The Sun
Link:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/3590715/January-Jones-reveals-her-struggle-to-be-appreciated-for-her-acting-talent.html