Connect with us

News

The Unsettling Plan to Trick Halle Berry: Why Matthew Vaughn Really Left ‘X-Men: The Last Stand’

Published

on

Storm X-Men

In a recent revelation that has shocked many fans, Matthew Vaughn, the acclaimed director behind the successful reboot X-Men: First Class, shared a compelling reason for his decision to walk away from directing the 2006 film X-Men: The Last Stand.

Before Vaughn’s commendable work on X-Men: First Class in 2011, he was the frontrunner to replace Bryan Singer for the third installment of the X-Men series. However, an unsettling discovery during a meeting with studio executives led to his abrupt departure.

Vaughn recounted a particular incident during his appearance at New York City Comic-Con. He described stumbling upon a script for X-Men 3 in an executive’s office. This version of the script was notably thicker and opened with a scene set in Africa, where children were dying from dehydration. In this version, Storm, played by Oscar-winning actress Halle Berry, creates a life-saving thunderstorm. Intrigued, Vaughn inquired about the script’s purpose, only to be informed that it was a version tailored to Berry’s preferences to entice her to reprise her role. The catch? The script would be discarded once Berry agreed to return.

Halle Berry as Storm

Vaughn expressed his dismay, stating, “I thought, if you’re going to do that to an Oscar-winning actress who plays Storm, I quit.” True to his word, Vaughn stepped away from the project. The directorial reins were then handed over to Brett Ratner, known for his work on Rush Hour.

Interestingly, while Berry did return as Storm in the final film, the African scenes Vaughn mentioned were conspicuously absent. Instead, the film showcased Storm in a leadership role, taking charge of Charles Xavier’s school for mutants after his tragic passing.

Halle Berry as Storm

Vaughn’s decision to walk away from such a high-profile project speaks volumes about his integrity and commitment to ethical filmmaking. He later returned to the X-Men universe with X-Men: First Class in 2011, breathing new life into the franchise. The film, starring James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, and Jennifer Lawrence, was lauded by critics and fans alike. In a review, Variety praised the film, stating it was “the smart, stylish prequel” the Marvel property truly deserved.

This revelation sheds light on a particularly underhanded scheme aimed at deceiving Halle Berry, an Oscar-winning actress, into committing to a project under false pretenses. It’s heartening to witness individuals like Matthew Vaughn in the industry that’s willing to stand up against something like that.

'Civil War' Review: Is It Worth Watching?

Click to comment

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply

Movies

‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments

Published

on

It was a risk for Fede Alvarez to reboot Sam Raimi’s horror classic The Evil Dead in 2013, but that risk paid off and so did its spiritual sequel Evil Dead Rise in 2023. Now Deadline is reporting that the series is getting, not one, but two fresh entries.

We already knew about the Sébastien Vaniček upcoming film that delves into the Deadite universe and should be a proper sequel to the latest film, but we are broadsided that Francis Galluppi and Ghost House Pictures are doing a one-off project set in Raimi’s universe based off of an idea that Galluppi pitched to Raimi himself. That concept is being kept under wraps.

Evil Dead Rise

“Francis Galluppi is a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence,” Raimi told Deadline. “He is a director that shows uncommon control in his feature debut.”

That feature is titled The Last Stop In Yuma County which will release theatrically in the United States on May 4. It follows a traveling salesman, “stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop,” and “is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty-or cold, hard steel-to protect their bloodstained fortune.”

Galluppi is an award-winning sci-fi/horror shorts director whose acclaimed works include High Desert Hell and The Gemini Project. You can view the full edit of High Desert Hell and the teaser for Gemini below:

High Desert Hell
The Gemini Project

'Civil War' Review: Is It Worth Watching?

Continue Reading

Movies

‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening

Published

on

Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.

Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.

Happy Sad Confused

Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.

Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.

Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.

The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.

'Civil War' Review: Is It Worth Watching?

Continue Reading

News

Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date

Published

on

Jake gyllenhaal presumed innocent

Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s in ‘Presumed Innocent’

Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.

These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:

According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”

Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.

Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.

'Civil War' Review: Is It Worth Watching?

Continue Reading