The other night when report came in that January Jones was cast as Emma Frost in X-Men: First Class, I asked the obvious and rhetorical question, “so apparently Alice Eve did not get the part?” Eve had previously been linked to the role with enough certainty that everyone was including her as a known member of the ensemble cast. Then, this Jones news came out of nowhere. Well, ComicBookMovie.com has exclusive information from an anonymous source at Marvel via a volunteer contributor that Eve was signed on but requested to be let out of her contract because she wasn’t happy with the latest script changes.

If that’s not rumor enough for you, the site also claims Marvel is interested in her for a minor villain role in The Avengers. Because this unnamed character is said to be part of the Thor comics, The Feed logically presumes she’d play The Enchantress, which also would fit with Loki being that film’s main villain, and could maybe lead to a bigger part in Thor 2. It could all depend on just what comic book character she would prefer. ComicBookMovie.com also says she’s up for Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman in Fox’s Fantastic Four Reborn (the franchise reboot), in which she’d get to act alongside a reportedly 100% CGI version of The Thing.

Which superhero movie do you think she’s best to stick with? Feel free to suggest roles/films she’s not yet rumored for. (Source)

It’s extremely rare that you see two news stories in a row dealing with casting choices in the same film, but that’s exactly what happened early this morning. We first learned that Jason Flemying was joining the cast of “X-Men: First Class” as Nightcrawler’s father and now we learn that Rose Byrne is also going to be joining the cast, playing Dr. Moira MacTaggert. Moira is a genetic mutation expert, but also the love interest to Professor X, played by James McAvoy. With her casting, and the fact that shooting starts at the end of the month, we can assume that almost all the roles are cast, with the exception of Cyclops. It’s strange that the role has taken this long to get filled, but that would seem to be the last major part.

As a recap, the film stars James McAvoy as Professor X, Mike Fassbender as Magneto, Alice Eve as Emma Frost, Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique, Nicholas Hoult as Beast, Edi Gathegi as Darwin, Lucas Till as Havoc, Caleb Landry Jones as Banshee, Jason Flemyng as Azazel an Kevin Bacon in a villain. Not a bad cast at all, so let’s hope director Matthew Vaughn makes it work. (Source)

More comicbook casting today as Jason Flemyng (Kick Ass, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) has announced that he’s inked a deal to appear in Fox’s latest X-outing, X-Men: First Class. The “Lock, Stock” actor made the announcement today at Movie-Con during a chat with Empire Online. The actor has also let slip who he’ll be playing in Matthew Vaughn’s superhero love letter, Nightcrawler’s father, Azazel:

Today at Movie-Con he told us, “Matthew showed me my costume just the other day. Now I swore I’d never be in heavy make-up again, but this role is going to involve it. But at least they said, “Don’t worry, we’ll add the tail in post”. I am Azazel, and I can teleport by waving my arms [gestures like a cross between a flamenco dancer and a Bollywood star].”

As really big X-Men fans will know, Azazel is a teleporting creature from another dimension who tried to impregnate human women in the hope that one of his children would provide him with a permanent link to this plane that he could use to come back here. And fear not: we confirmed after Flemyng left the stage that he will be red, and not Nightcrawler blue or anything like that (Vaughn is clearly trusting that people can figure it out from the tail and pointed ears).

Whether or not the actor will have a big role in the film remains to be seen, but I’m happy to see yet another solide performer joining the already expert ranks of James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Alice Eve and Nicholas Hoult. (Source)

It looks like Aaron Johnson (Kick-Ass) won’t be trading in his batons for an optic visor. Movieweb reports that contrary to early rumors, Johnson will not play Cyclops or any other role in Matthew Vaughn’s “X-Men: First Class”. As late as a month ago, AICN was reporting that Johnson was a “done deal” to play the role. But the following day, EW said that Johnson wasn’t in the movie, period. Speaking to Movieweb, producer Tarquin Pack debunked the rumor:

Nothing you don’t know about, yeah. Don’t believe everything you read in the papers about Aaron, unfortunately. Aaron’s kind of busy, yeah.

Basically, it looks like at one point Johnson was very close to having the part and for whatever reason, it didn’t work out. As for “Aaron’s kind of busy”, The Playlist reports that Johnson recently became a first-time father. (Source)

We knew Christopher Nolan’s “Inception” — much like James Cameron’s “Avatar” — would be a game changer. We just didn’t realize how quickly it would change the game. It seems that right after director Matthew Vaughn saw Nolan’s mind-bending thriller, he went back to his “X-Men: First Class” screenplay and tore 12 pages out because they were too similar to some of the things he saw on screen.

“My heart sank when I saw that a few of the ideas we had were up [on the screen]. So it’s either leave it in and look as if you’re copying or change things,” Vaughn told Hero Complex. “We completely ripped out about 12 pages of the script and the storyboards” for a sequence he described as a dream-set fight sequence which had Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and other mutants tackling enemies in a spinning room.

Vaughn, who famously directed the beloved comic comedy “Kick-Ass,” also told IGN that he’s hoping his “First Class” reboots the “X-Men” franchise in the same way J.J. Abrams revitalized the “Star Trek” franchise last summer.

“He made a fantastically exciting reinvention of that world, with those great characters. And I think there will be comparisons a little bit with ‘X-Men: First Class .’ It’s very similar, in a way,” Vaughn said. “But we’re doing some cool stuff in this movie, some really cool stuff that you haven’t seen before,” Vaughn said.

He added: “The story that Bryan Singer came up with is very, very smart. It’s very clever when you see how he has integrated the characters into the time period where the film is set. I’ll put it that way. I just don’t want to give it away. … It’s a very clever way of getting these characters involved in recent history, in recent world events.”

Vaughn will begin shooting “First Class” later this month. It will be an origin story for the X-Men, of sorts. McAvoy will be joined by Michael Fassbender, Alice Eve, Kevin Bacon and Jennifer Lawrence of “Winter’s Bone.” It opens on June 3, 2011. (Source)

Deadline are reporting that actor Edi Gathegi, who played Laurent in the “Twilight” vampire blockbusters, will play Darwin in Matthew Vaughn’s forthcoming big-screen prequel “X-Men: First Class.” The character is a mutant who is able to adapt to any situation, from growing gills when underwater to getting fire-proof skin when heading into warmer climates!

The actor, joins James McAvoy as the young Professor X, Michael Fassbender as Erik Lensherr aka Magneto, Kevin Bacon as a rumoured Sebastian Shaw, Alice Eve as Emma Frost, Nicholas Hoult as Hank McCoy aka Beast, Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique, Caleb Landry Jones as Banshee, Lucas Till as Havok, and who ever they finally settle on for Cyclops!

X-Men: First Class will begin shooting this summer in London, for a release on June 3rd 2011. (Source)

“X-Men: First Class” begins shooting in London next month so, understandably, there is a great thirst for information on who exactly is in the film and what story it will tell. There have been no new casting revelations – despite fans waiting to hear which actors will play Cyclops, Storm and Jean Grey – but Jennifer Lawrence has spoken a little about her recently-announced role as the young version of Mystique.

Lawrence told the Orlando Sentinel she was “ignorant of the whole fanbase behind these films” and had to devote a day to watching the existing X-Men trilogy. Even after that, she admitted: “I was still a little worried because I didn’t really understand the whole mutant thing.”

The 19-year-old – who revealed she faces 12 hours of prosthetics work to become the scaly, blue-skinned shapeshifter played in older form by Rebecca Romijn – added: “I have to take Mystique back to the beginning, before she became who we saw later. I don’t know exactly what I can talk about, but this is going to be fun.”

Over at The Playlist, they claim a behind-the-scenes source has revealed some details from an early script for the film, prior to its reworking by Jane Goldman. The information – which I should warn is mildly spoilerish – indicates that the younger Magneto (Michael Fassbender) and Xavier (James McAvoy) travel around trying to save mutants from government-led operations and end up founding the school seen in the trilogy.

It adds that there is a love triangle between Eric, Charles and Emma Frost (Alice Eve) and that we see the advancement of Beast’s mutation from a human look to the blue-furred form played by Kelsey Grammer in X-Men: The Last Stand. (Source)

Earlier this week, we brought you a report that Kevin Bacon was reportedly in talks to star as the main villain in Matthew Vaughn’s upcoming X-prequel, X-Men: First Class. Now, Variety reports that Bacon has indeed signed on to star in the movie as a yet to be named lead villain.

Jennifer Lawrence (Winter’s Bone) has also joined the cast and will play the young Raven Darkholme/Mystique, a role previously rumored to go to Amber Heard (Zombieland, Drive Angry 3D).

Bacon and Lawrence join previously confirmed cast members James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Alice Eve, Lucas Till, Caleb Landry Jones, and Nicholas Hoult. (Source)

Kevin Bacon is a great and often under-appreciated Hollywood actor. He’s been in plenty of blockbusters but does his best work in more dramatic roles. His last big foray into Hollywood villainy came in 2000 with Paul Verhoeven’s madcap mo-cap Hollow Man. Now according to Deadline, K. Bac (it might catch on) has been offered the main villain in X-Men: First Class.

The exact nature of the role has yet to be revealed, but one imagines it will cause Michael Fassbender’s Magneto and James McAvoy’s Professor X some problems, and they might have to team up. Remember, they were good friends before their philosophies split off. A little bit like Freud and Jung or Malcolm X and Martin Luther King.

Recent cast additions to Matthew Vaughn’s much anticipated X-Men movie include Alice Eve, Nicholas Hoult, Lucas Till and Caleb Landry Jones. Expect to find out whether Bacon takes the part in the next few weeks. I’m sure fans will want to a top draw character actor like him involved. (Source)

It’s pretty remarkable how much news has come out of X-Men: First Class in the last month. Plans to make the film go back as far as late 2008 and since there has been nothing more than directing shifts and screenwriting shifts. But in the month of June alone, Michael Fassbender, Rosamund Pike, Alice Eve, Amber Heard and Caleb Landry have all either signed on or been in talks for a prominent role in the film. Now another potential casting has emerged and it’s for a character that you’ve likely never heard of.

Straight 2 DVD recently spoke with Erica Hosseini, who recently tweeted that she was auditioning for a role in X-Men: First Class, and got her to reveal some details about the character that she’s up for. According to Hosseini, she was trying out for the lesser-known X-Man Willow, a character from the short-lived comic series X-Nation 2099 that came out in the mid-1990s. Much like Mystique, the character is a shapeshifter, however distinct marks remain on her face when she changes. Also known under the names Peregrine and Avian, the character has only been featured in six comic book issues.

Up until now Fox has stuck almost entirely to prominent characters in the X-Men universe, so this news certainly comes out of left field. Only the most obsessive of obsessive comic fans are going to know anything about the character, but that may end up working in Fox’s favor. After all, it’s pretty hard to screw up a mutant that nobody has any loyalty too. (Source)