Beyond offering news of the “Kick-Ass” reboot and news of when he’ll start work on the next “Kingsman,” filmmaker Matthew Vaughn also spoke about past projects as part of his New York Comic Con panel.
Arguably the most interesting story to come out of that was his exit from “X-Men: The Last Stand”. Vaughn came close to helming that third film in the original trilogy but ultimately passed with Brett Ratner taking over.
At the time, Vaughn indicated that he didn’t have enough prep time to do the film. However, now that 20th Century Studios is a very different entity from what it used to be and that incarnation of the “X-Men” franchise over, Vaughn opted to spill some tea about his dealings on the film.
Specifically, he indicates the catalyst that led to him leaving the film was a comment of shocking disrespect from one unnamed studio executive in regard to making sure one of the film’s biggest stars was onboard. Allegedly it seems the studio had a draft of the script made specifically to lure said star onboard, a draft never intended to be used for filming:
“I went into one of the executive’s office and I saw an X3 script, and I immediately knew it was a lot fatter. I was like what the hell is this draft.
He went, ‘Don’t worry about it,’ and I’m like, ‘No, no. I’m the director. I’m worrying about this draft’. He wouldn’t tell me, so I grabbed it literally – it was like a crazy moment – opened the first page, and it said, ‘Africa. Storm. Kids dying of no water. She creates a thunderstorm and saves all these children.'”
The executive then told him that the draft would be “thrown in the bin” once Berry signs on. Vaughn says he thought to himself: “‘Wow, you’re gonna do that to an Oscar-winning actress who plays Storm? I’m outta here.’ So I quit at that point.”
Ratner replaced Vaughn and the film released to widespread mixed – a far cry from the two well-received first films – but was still a strong box-office hit for 20th Century Fox.
Vaughn ultimately returned to the series to direct the prequel trilogy opener “X-Men: First Class” which scored very good reviews upon release.
Source: Collider
