Bryan Singer Slinks Back to the X-Men Franchise

?In an interview with MySpace (!), Bryan Singer announced that he had officially signed on to direct X-Men: First Class, the prequel to the first X-Men movie (if you’re still pretending the X-Men movies have any kind of continuity whatsoever) starring young Cyclops and Jean Grey and whoever else they decide is going to be there.

Certainly, X-Men fans should be happy, since Singer directed the two good X-Men films, and neither of the two shitty ones. But let’s not kid ourselves and think that Singer is doing this gig for any reason other than the fuck-up that was Superman Returns. After X-2, Singer was one of the hottest directors in Hollywood, and he had several projects in the works, including a Logan’s Run re-make and a Battlestar Galactica movie. Clearly, he can’t get any of those off the ground following the box office failure of Superman Returns, and he needs to build his cred back up. Likewise, the X-Men franchise — which has continued making plenty of money since Singer’s absence, but have been horrible movies — certainly wouldn’t mind some of Singer’s original magic to help prolong the franchise, so the X-Men don’t wind up with Disney. So it’s win-win for both Fox and Singer… but it comes after a serious lose-lose. That’s all I’m saying. (Via First Showing)