X-Men: First Class director Matthew Vaughn recently described the film this way, “It’s got lots of teenage angst. The Twilight girls will love it,” but it appears that there may be some angst behind the camera as well. Vaughn was upset at the studio’s release of a Photoshopped “cast portrait” (see “First Glimpse of X-Men: First Class Cast”), and quickly put out some images from the film himself (see “X-Men: First Class Pics”) including shots of Michael Fassbender as Magneto (complete with helmet) and James McAvoy as the young Charles Xavier.

 

But the most disturbing news about the film that Fox is hoping will be the first movie in a trilogy about the development of the X-Men comes from the Latino Review, which reports that the film is currently undergoing weeks of post-production re-shoots in Hollywood while Vaughn is busy editing footage in London. According to the Latino Review’s El Mayimbe, X-Men: First Class “has not been coming together…Vaughn and company ran from location to location, but never got the right stuff or stuff that worked. That’s what’s happening right now—while he’s cutting the film, somebody else is literally shooting literally six weeks—almost a whole film—worth of stuff.”

 

It’s clearly no big deal for a major release to have re-shoots, especially a film with a large cast of busy actors like XM: FC, though if the LR report is true that X-Men: First Class is undergoing six weeks of retakes conducted by a different director, it certainly raises some red flags. It should be noted however that while Vaughn does not have the most extensive track record as a director—in career that includes Layer Cake, Stardust, and Kick-Ass, he has yet to lay an egg.

 

One nagging concern about XM: FC is certainly based on fact. The whole X-Men: First Class project was put together very quickly. Vaughn was announced as the director on May 2nd, 2010 (see, “Matthew Vaughn to Helm X-Men: First Class”) just 13 months prior to the film’s release date that was announced on May 3rd (see “Fox Sets the X-Date”). Even though Vaughn insists that XM: FC will be more “character-driven” than “effects-driven,” 13 months is a very short amount of time to produce a summer blockbuster and Vaughn himself remarked publicly in an interview with Entertainment Weekly about the heavy pressure to make the studio’s June 3rd release date. 

 

As was the case with the rumors flying around Warner Bros.’ Green Lantern film (see “Bad Buzz Circles The Green Lantern”), it’s far too soon to write off X-Men: First Class. Yes, hardcore fans may be worrying that XM: FC’s “swinging sixties” period elements are a little too close to Austin Powers for comfort, but there is every indication that Vaughn is taking the project in a serious realistic direction, and not trying to make a humorous campy movie.

 

But if there are obvious flaws in X-Men: First Class or The Green Lantern, they will surely not escape notice. Unlike last summer when Iron Man 2 was the sole big budget superhero movie, the summer of 2011 will feature a quartet of men-in-tights movies starting with Thor on May 6th, followed by X-Men: First Class on June 3rd, Green Lantern on June 17th, and Captain America: The First Avenger on July 22nd.  Audiences and critics alike will most likely have their fill of spandex heroes. The 2011 summer slate will provide plenty of competition between, and increased scrutiny of, superhero movies—and it appears the latter is already well underway.