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Some news has hit on the X-Men: First Class front. Lauren Shuler Donner, wife of legendary Director, Richard Donner, and Producer of ALL the X-Men films (both past and future) made an appearance on Fox Movie Channel's show, Life After Film School. After confirming that the proposed X-Men Origins: Magneto still remained in a developmental stage, she also provided a critical bit of insight into the direction of the First Class project.

"It is the first class of Xavier's school, way back when, so it's young Scott, young Jean, young Beast and that'll be really fun. I think (the plan) is to follow some of the characters into their own stories, and weave them back into the X-Men world." Donner also added, "(H)opefully First Class will become its own franchise and we can follow them as they grow up."

"Prequel" it is, then. However, it leaves one to wonder if they are simply going to reboot the entire canon of the X-Men film trilogy. Based on what I'm hearing about X-Men Origins: Wolverine (I don't read early reviews and also avoided the "leaked" version like the plague), the film is laden with inconsistencies in regards to the trilogy. If that is the case, then I am ALL for the reboot. Don't get me wrong, I liked the X-Men Trilogy (At least the first two, anyway.) However, they were far from perfect and took more than their share of liberties with the X-Men canon in poorly-executed attempts to fit watered-down versions of epic storylines into two-hour movies. In the case of X-Men 3, they had the pure, unadulterated GALL to try and "wrap-up" the story, as if the X-Men mythos was something that you could tie up all nice, neat, and conveniently into some kind of conventional ending. (And I don't care if they made hints about the mutant powers possibly returning, the whole thing with the "cure" and most everyone dying SUCKED!)

While X-Men: First Class shares the name of a recent limited-run comic series taking place in the early days of the X-Men team, it's probably just a name, and I doubt they will be disciplined in what source material they use. Personally, I think they should stick to a traditional (Wolverine-less) X-Men storyline that reflects the original team of Cyclops, Iceman, Beast, and Angel. The ongoing character dynamics of the early issues of The Uncanny X-Men revolved around the still-new X-Men team, previously a sausage-fest, adjusting to the "new team member," a beautiful young girl, and powerful mutant, named Jean Grey (Marvel Girl.) Their adjusting to her presence, and the eventual budding romance between her and Cyclops would make great fodder for character chemistry in the film. This is one instance where the film may benefit from the recruiting of teeny-bopper vet, Josh Schwartz.

Villains? We've done Magneto to death, already. While he was the X-Men's first villain, and he should have some kind of role in the film (indirectly), I think they need to go with Dr. Bolivar Trask and his army of Sentinels. It would be a good backdrop for the "mutant paranoia" storyline, while battles with the giant robots should keep the creative egos in check to not get too preachy with the "omg, humans are so evil, those anti-mutant people could be US" parables.  

Bottom line: If they truly intend for First Class to be another bankable franchise, then they may have to realize that in order for us as comic fans and movie-goers to actually invest the time and care about these characters, we should be assured that these are not the same X-characters that meet grisly and uninteresting ends in Brett Ratner's (insert obscene word of your choice) film. Also, casual movie-goers with the memory of the X-Men trilogy still somewhat fresh, will also need to be assured that this is a different, fresher take on the storyline. Their work is clearly cut out for them.

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