X-Men: First Class Sequel Begins Filming in January

Hello, Cosmic Comics! readers! It’s The Dork Knight, here to spread some of that Postmodern Moron love to my fellow comic book dorks. For the two of you who’ve read my previous posts, I’m sure you remember how much I loved me some “X-Men: First Class” last year, but for those of you who haven’t you can catch up here if you care to, but it’s not necessary.

Not too long ago, the V.A.G.I.N.A. posted a review about this movie “The Hunger Games” (they even had an appearance on the local news while at the Rave midnight premiere) and I was shocked that I hadn’t even heard of it. (Admittedly your code-crunching crusader was locked away in the Fat Cave working on this very website.) So it turns out that this movie “The Hunger Games” was THE number ONE movie in all of America for like four consecutive weeks, only just losing it’s top status this past weekend (some date movie that came out of nowhere called “Think Like A Man” took first and “The Lucky One” with that musically high kid Zac Efron came in second) when it ONLY, only mind you, pulled in a “measly” $14.5 million for it’s FIFTH weekend take. As of Monday, April 23, 2012, the total box-office grosses for “The Hunger Games” is just shy of $357 million.

Why do I care?

Apparently Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique from “X-Men: First Class”) is a hot commodity in Hollywood now since she’s the lead in “The Hunger Games” and according to The Hollywood Reporter, “tensions between the studios were running high last month” regarding possible scheduling conflicts she would have with shooting the “X-Men: First Class” sequel and “The Hunger Games” sequel (it’s a trilogy–oh joy, another one!). For a week or two the Internet was buzzing with will “X-Men” get pushed back or will “Games” get pushed back? This lead to some legal exchanges that resulted in “The Hunger Games” writer-director, Gary Ross (who had planned on directing the sequel), abandoning the helm for the sequel. If you care about the back story or the full details of those events, read this article, but basically Gary Ross left because he felt that he could not finish his vision of “The Hunger Games” sequel by a finish date of December 20th so the “X-Men: First Class” sequel could begin shooting with Jennifer Lawrence in January of 2013. In fact, his exact words were:

“As a writer and a director, I simply don’t have the time I need to write and prep the movie I would have wanted to make because of the fixed and tight production schedule.” – Gary Ross

And now that he’s out of the picture I won’t have to wait any longer than I already had to (which was too long to begin with) for the sequel to what may very well be my favorite comic book movie to date.

Thanks for readingone of my pointless rants regarding my love, if not obsession, with all things comics. Speaking of “all things comics” and the “X-Men”, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that Free Comic Book Day is right around the corner. Here’s a message about it from the man who plays Wolverine on the big screen, Hugh Jackman:

Be sure to join Cosmic Comics! for their FREE Comic Book Day Celebration where they’re giving away an Avengers (1963) #1 to one lucky raffle winner. You can read more about that here to #getyourfix!