Variety reports that Bryan Singer, director of the highly successful first two X-Men films, has signed a two-year deal with Twentieth Century Fox to develop new projects for movies, TV shows, and videogames.  Singer will receive an office on the Fox lot as well as staff support as the list of his projects grows.  Separate negotiations to bring back Singer as the director of a third X-Men film are ongoing.  Despite the enormous ($700 million) cumulative worldwide box office gross of the first two X-Films (and the fact that the X2 DVD did an additional $107 million in its first week of release -- see 'X2 Sells Six Million Units in First Five Days'), a third film, though likely, is not a sure thing. 

The original cast signed for one film with an option for a sequel -- so getting them back will require expensive new deals for any returning cast member, guaranteeing an even bigger budget, which in turn will make it more difficult to get the project green lit.  Still Fox has demonstrated considerable faith in Singer, who did manage to make one of those rare sequels that actually improved on the original.  It's Singer, not Patrick Stewart or Hugh Jackman or Halle Berry, who is the key to the making of X3.  If Singer's X3 negotiations with Fox do bear fruit, a second X-Men sequel is likely to get made in the next few years.