Hollywood writer/director Zak Penn has told Sci-Fi Wire that he has been engaged to write the screenplay for the third X-Men film.  Penn received a story credit on X2 and told the Sci-Fi Wire that he enjoyed working with Bryan Singer, and that though he had disagreements with Singer on X2, when he saw the finished film he realized that Singer was right.  Now with Singer gone to direct Superman, Penn will have a freer hand on X3, at least until a director for the film is named (something that Avi Arad told a recent gathering of investors would happen very soon). Other than Spider-Man no other movie franchise is more important to Marvel than the X-Men, and since the typical X-Men film involves so many different characters (Penn counted 14 major roles in X2), writing for the franchise is much more of a juggling act than penning stories for Spidey.

In addition to X2 Penn received a screenwriting credit (one of three writers named) on the recently released Elektra film, though Arad evidently doesn't assign him any of the blame for the film's poor performance.  Penn also directed Incident at Loch Ness, an intriguing pseudo-documentary about filmmaker Werner Herzog's attempt to make a film about 'Nessie.'