Bullseye Magazine
Spring/Summer 2003
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| Super Freaked
The sleek black X-Jet along with a cargo of mutant powered heroes that bear uncanny resemblances to A-list Hollywood stars roars through the clouds. A pair of Air Force F-16s are on its tail, and it's clear that their intentions are not friendly. As the fighter jets close in and start firing, hot headed X-Man Wolverine yells out in frustration: "Aren't there any weapons in this heap?" Well, as a matter of fact there are: the passengers themselves. Without giving away too much about a hotly anticipated blockbuster, let's just say that one of the mutants—played by a certain Oscar-winner who recently starred in a James Bond flick—uses her mutant powers to lay some colossal whizzing obstacles in the fighters' path. And let's also say that this particular scene from the forthcoming X-2 makes the action sequences in the disaster flick Twister look like a mere summer breeze. Freeze frame. X2 Director Bryan Singer swings around from the console in the editing room, where he has been showing the scene, and keeps apologizing for the fact that all the F/X have not yet been completed. He is meeting with Bullseye in Hollywood in January, and the movie is slated to open nationwide on May 2. But the notoriously meticulous young director needn't have worried. The sneak preview gets across the flavor of what moviegoers can expect from the follow up to his 1999 hit, X-Men: mega action and a whole lot more. Says Singer: "It's a much bigger film" And by that, Singer doesn't just mean that it boasts a bigger budget than last time (reportedly as much as $130 million, vs. $75 million, but such comparisons make Singer bristle). Or the fact that it packs a whopping 700 special effects onto the screen over the duration of the piece, compared with X-Men's 300 special effects. When it came out, X-Men was an instant classic in the action/superhero genre and led the resurgence of comic books adapted for the big screen featuring A-List actors and directors. X-Men raked in more than $300 million worldwide not only because it brought to life one of the world's most popular comic book series but because of the depth of talent the film showcased, including Patrick Stewart as Professor Charles Xavier; Sir lan McKellen as his nemesis, Magneto; Halle Berry as Storm; Anna Paquin as Rogue; Famke Janssen as Dr Jean Grey; James Marsden as Cyclops; Rebecca Romijn- Stamos as the shapeshifting Mystique; and Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. Although details of the new production have been notoriously guarded, Singer says: "The first movie was saddled with introducing the 'X Universe' and 11 characters and all their character traits. With this one, I can have more fun with the characters and make a slightly deeper, bigger, funnier and more romantic movie" Plus, he adds cryptically, "there are certain signature scenes and signature conflicts—fights and events that are very unique—that have not been seen in a film before" In other words, there are plenty of weapons on this heap. Certainly, the new film is going to need to be big—and different—to cater to the rising X-pectations of action film fans. Last year was a breakout year for superhero and fantasy films, led by the success of Spider Man and the second Lord of the Rings feature. This year, X-2 will no doubt be measured against not only the final installment of Lord of the Rings but two sequels to the much revered Matrix, as well I as new superhero movie franchises based on fellow Marvel Comics characters Daredevil and the Hulk. Singer knows the stakes are high but seems very comfortable with X2's place in the mix. It just so happens that two days after I visit him, Singer is showing a first cut of the film (with unfinished effects and movie score, but with the story line and all the scenes in place) to a select audience of some 35 top Fox executives and a few of his friends. Although he is clearly an intense guy with a lot on his mind, he seems quite serene about how the movie is taking shape. Says Singer: "I'm on autopilot now." After being shot for much of last year on gigantic sound stages in Vancouver, X2 now lives in a warren of small, temporary ground floor offices at a studio complex "writer's building" in East Hollywood. Crammed into several rooms are editing machines and computers manned by a very intense looking crew, scrambling to get everything right for the screening. In addition to being bigger, X2 is the kind of movie that opens suspensefully and sustains a whirling momentum 'til the last frame. Singer credits this to shooting many scenes with super 35 mm film rather than the anamorphic cameras he relied on for X Men. The advantages of super 35 mm include being more flexible and requiring less time to set up between takes, which helps keep the flow going among the actors and crew. "The pace is a little more frantic than in the first film," says actor Shawn Ashmore, who had a small part as X teen Iceman in the first film and plays a bigger role in X2. "It sort of starts and doesn't stop." In the X-Men stories, Professor Charles Xavier is the head of his school for the gifted. It's hard not to draw the analogy that Singer plays a sneaker shod Professor X to his talented ensemble and postproduction team. Upstairs from the editing rooms, Singer occupies a big, old and very spare office distinguished only by a few cool pieces of X-Men art, including a bronze bust of Wolverine on his conference table, a model X-Jet on his desk and some classic scenes of Professor X from the original 1960s comic blown up and framed on the walls. When he was hired to do X-Men, Singer was a 32 year old cinema whiz from New Jersey who had never read comic books or directed an action movie. But he had instantly established himself as a virtuoso of dark suspense and ensemble cast cinema with his 1995 debut hit, The Usual Suspects. He has certainly enjoyed the spoils of living a version of the American dream: Rewarding his parents for visiting him often on the set, he bought his father a new sports car with the license plate "X MEN". A major Star Trek fan, working with Patrick Stewart (Trek world's noble Captain Picard) was a thrill in and of itself for Singer and it also gained him a cameo as a crewman on the bridge of the Enterprise in the recent Star Trek: Nemesis. An even bigger thrill? One night, Stewart and his wife invited Singer over to his Los Angeles home for dinner. The doorbell rang, and standing there was none other than Captain Kirk himself, William Shatner "The most unbelievable thing," recalls Singer, "was playing Next Generation pinball with Shatner in Patrick Stewart's den" Both Singer and Stewart like to say that the first X-Men movie is almost like a "two hour trailer" for X-2. After all, in addition to explaining all the characters' personalities, powers and weaknesses to audiences who may never have picked up a comic book, X-Men has had to live up to the standards of the comics' existing fan base. Created by the legendary team of writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, the "X-Men" series broke new ground when it began in 1963 by confronting themes of racism and intolerance head on. The sometimes conflicted—but always good hearted—mutants are under the tutelage of the wheelchair bound Xavier, who leads them to use their powers to protect humankind, even though regular people shun and fear them. From Singer's perspective, what is also appealing about X-Men is that the characters' powers—or rather, "mutations"— tend to be quite elaborate compared with a typical superhero's power of speed, strength, flight or X-ray vision. X-Men also do such things as control metal, change shapes or emit strange forms of energy all of which present challenges and new possibilities for presenting them on film. The first installment introduced Xavier's "good" mutants allied against "bad" mutants led by the powerful Magneto, and a couple of intriguing subplots—one about the government lawmakers persecuting mutants and the other about the murky Canadian origins of Wolverine, whose powers include an adamantium (if you don't know the lingo, it's a really strong metal) skeleton and retractable claws, plus the mysterious ability to quickly heal from wounds. Both of these themes set the stage for what's to come in X-2. In the new film, a shocking attack by a new, powerful mutant character fuels the political and public outcry for a Mutant Registration Act and an anti mutant movement led by the spooky William Stryker (played by Brian Cox), a former Army commander who may also hold the key to Wolverine's origins. Stryker launches a bold offensive on Xavier's mansion fortress, leading to a new mutant alliance between Xavier's X-Men and their foe Magneto against their common enemy. How devout are X-fans? True story: Early this year, a Manhattan court judge ruled that the X-Men are "non human,' an idea that cuts right to the core of the comics' theme of alienated youth just trying to fit in with the other kids. Among various fan sites on the Internet, die-hards were not pleased. Neither was Chuck Austen, the current author of Marvel's 'Uncanny X-Men" comics. Austen complained in The Wall Street Journal that he had worked hard to emphasize the X Men's humanity, to demonstrate that "they're just another strand in the evolutionary chain" (The reason for the Twilight Zone-ish court decision, by the way, was a tariff dispute between Marvel Enterprises and the U.S. Customs Service. Apparently, the tariffs used to be higher for action figures categorized as human like "dolls" rather than "toys;' and Marvel was just arguing that Customs owed it some of its duty back. Whatever.) So there is, as you would imagine, considerable concern among X-Men devotees about how their imaginary heroes are realized in celluloid. For Singer, the moment he realized he had truly passed the test of approval from geeks and die-hards alike was when he attended ComiCon, the world's biggest comic book convention in Seattle, last year. When he came to the podium and treated some 5,000 fans to an early X2 trailer, they went nuts. "With the first movie, all we heard about were the 'Matrix like' costumes, how tall Hugh Jackman was, and other negative buzz," says Brian Wilkinson, who edits the web site X Fan (http://x mencomics.com/xfan). "But when the lights went down, we were transported into the comics. With the sequel, we know that Singer will do it right. Now, what we want is more." In X2, Singer delivers that by not only introducing even more characters but by creating an even broader view of mutant kind intermingling with human society, including four generations of people with strange powers, ranging in age from old timers to toddlers. "There's nothing like a successful movie to breed a bigger sequel," adds Avi Arad, the head of Marvel Studios, the film arm of the comic book company from which the X Men franchise is adapted, and producer of the movie along with 20th Century Fox. "It's bigger in scope and better, and it introduces new characters in an interesting way.' Indeed, one of the characters who makes a big entrance early in X2 is Nightcrawler, played by the versatile Alan Cumming, a blueish, devil tailed fellow who teleports around in an act that is described as "bamfing", in homage to the "bamf!" that appears in print every time he does it in an "X-Men" comic. Taking off from the first film, X2 builds and delves more deeply into the theme of prejudice against those who possess mutant abilities and those who don't and, as with all good thrillers, it's sometimes difficult to tell who is on whose side. Making an unforgettable appearance (trust me on this) is Lady Deathstrike, a character as lowkey and understated as her name would suggest. Played with beautiful menace by Kelly Hu (who has been seen in the Jet Li/DMX film Cradle 2 The Grave and as The Rock's love interest in The Scorpion King), Deathstrike is essentially a female Wolverine, except she is definitely not on the good guys' side. "I have only one line in the entire film:' notes Hu, admitting that at first she was bummed about this. "Then I was assured that Rebecca Romijn-Stamos also had only one line in X-Men, and she was one of the most memorable characters in the whole film.” Indeed, Singer can't resist showing me the fight scene between "Lady D" and Jackman's Wolverine. Even on the editing machine, let alone a big megaplex screen, it is one of the most searing and terrifying fight scenes imaginable, since both assailants possess not only the power to shred victims with their claws but also to heal themselves. "They wanted it to be a very vicious fight. They didn't want it to look kung fuey and martial artsy,' says Hu, who in real life holds a black belt. "They just wanted them to be vicious and mean.” Off camera, the camaraderie among the players was apparently anything but. As a newcomer, Hu was at first intimidated. That changed at a birthday party held at McKellen's temporary apartment in Vancouver for Stewart, at which both men, plus Jackman, Marsden and various other cast members, stood by a piano and belted out show tunes. "The good thing about it was that we all knew each other, and we knew Bryan and his approach to filmmaking," says Famke Janssen, who reprises her role as the telepathic Dr Jean Grey. On the set one day, Jackman's sister was visiting, and for a lark they dressed her in the full makeup of her brother's character—long sideburns and all—without Singer knowing. Aside from her breasts, the resemblance was apparently frighteningly eerie. "They put her in a take to try to fool Bryan," recalls Ashmore. "He kept going: 'What's Hugh doing? He's acting really weird: until he figured it out" Singer was a good sport about it and constantly refers to the cast and crew of the film as a "family.' But there's no question that the intense young dean of X-Film is focusing all his filmmaking energies mutant and otherwise on his ultimate objective: blowing the roof off the box office. Oscar Richards |
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