BRYAN SINGER TO SKIP X-MEN: FIRST CLASS?

Man, X-Men: First Class can’t get a break. First, the Magneto film was reportedly added to the huge mutant dogpile that is the X-Men’s first adventure.  And now, it looks like the film might not be directed by X-Men and X-Men 2 director Bryan Singer after all.

Hitfix is reporting that Fox is searching for a new director (with experience with comics or comic book movies, natch), as Singer is hip deep in preproduction for the Warner Bros. film Jack the Giant Killer and most likely won’t be able to meet the  X-Men: First Class production schedule.

So, if he can’t do that one, is he up for other X-Men films? The LA Times ran a story about this for their weekend section that includes other pitches producer Lauren Schuler Donner gave to Singer for later movies:

Shuler Donner also has pitched Singer on doing a fourth installment of the previously established ‘X-Men’ franchise and Jackman had that lunch with Singer to coax him into a project as well, which may or may not be a ‘Wolverine’ film, which Jackman has said will be set in Japan and released in 2011. ‘I wish I could be four people,’ the director said with a moan. ‘I could make everybody happy.’

While I’d be interested in seeing Singer take on the X-Men again, I don’t know if it’ll necessarily make me happy. Heck, if Superman Returns is any indication, he could be planning to just have Wolverine standing around for two hours, talking about his feelings and how great it is to have a kid.

[Hitfix]