While some may remember Nicholas Hoult as the kid in About a Boy, over the past few years he’s proven that he’s definitely capable of playing adult roles in films like A Single Man, X-Men: First Class, and Clash of the Titans.  While Hoult was certainly becoming more well-known as an adult actor, he hadn’t ever lead a film before.  That all changes in 2013.  With leading roles in Warm Bodies and Bryan Singer’s Jack the Giant Slayer, Hoult is starting a new chapter in his career, and based on what I saw while visiting the set of Jack back in 2011, I think he’s going to easily make the jump.

Recently I landed an exclusive phone interview with Hoult.  We talked about the success of Warm Bodies, what it’s been like promoting Jack, how the film changed during production, deleted scenes, working with all the CGI characters, and more.  In addition, we also talked about George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road, X-Men: First Class and the sequel X-Men: Days of Future Past, and his other upcoming projects.  Hit the jump for what he had to say.

One thing’s for certain when it comes to the sequel X-Men: Days of Future Past: director Bryan Singer has put together one hell of a cast.  Not only are James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, and Nicholas Hoult reprising their roles from First Class, but Singer is tackling a beloved comics storyline that involves time travel and dystopian futures, so he’s also bringing back a bounty of characters from previous X-Men films like Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellan, Hugh Jackman, Anna Paquin, Shawn Ashmore, and Ellen Page.

Though the ensemble is looking great (with Peter Dinklage being the latest addition), McAvoy recently let slip that the young and old versions of Professor X likely won’t be seen interacting onscreen.  Hit the jump for more.

Over the past seventeen years, Bryan Singer been able to jump from genre to genre with great results.  While he’s previously made superhero movies (X-Men, Superman Returns), thrillers (The Usual Suspects, Apt Pupil), and a film about trying to assassinate Hitler during WWII (Valkyrie), in his upcoming Warner Bros. fantasy Jack the Giant Slayer, he’s tackling a classic children’s fairy tale with a modern twist.  As usual, he’s delivered a fun ride that audiences will love.

Recently I landed an exclusive phone interview with Singer.  We talked about making the film, the CGI and 3D, his thoughts on 48fps, how they rewrote the whole film during pre-production, Twitter, X-Men: Days of Future Past, his Battlestar Galactica remake, and so much more.  Hit the jump for what he had to say.

When Peter Dinklage joined the cast of X-Men: Days of Future Past, I jumped on the bandwagon that speculated he would play Puck.  It was revealed later in the week that Dinklage will actually play the “main antagonist” the X-Men: First Class sequel, which rules out Puck.  It was thought that perhaps Dinklage was hired to portray this all-CG character that director Bryan Singer teased.  But after confirming that Dinklage won’t play Puck, Singer also dashed the CG Dinklage hopes:

“He’s not going to be a CGI character.  He’ll be himself.”

Hit the jump for the full quote.

Director Bryan Singer has been making excellent use of Twitter lately, as he’s been using the social media website to actually break casting news for the upcoming sequel X-Men: Days of Future Past.  Now, as production on the film looms closer, Singer has started teasing the actual film on Twitter.  Just yesterday he shared an image of the wheelchairs for the young and old versions of Professor X, and today he’s revealed a photo of a set that will look very familiar to fans of the past X-Men films.  Moreover, Singer’s caption of “How many days until Comic-Con?” appears to confirm that Days of Future Past will indeed have a panel at the convention as we previously surmised.

Hit the jump to take a look at the set photo.  The film stars Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Ian McKellan, Patrick Stewart, Anna Paquin, Ellen Page, Shawn Ashmore, Hugh Jackman, and Peter Dinklage.  X-Men: Days of Future Past opens in 3D on July 18, 2014.

Bryan Singer is doing a good job keeping his Twitter followers up to date on his next film, X-Men: Days of Future Past.  In addition to tweeting casting announcements, he’s also been revealing the occasional set photo.  Today, he’s showing fans a tale of two wheelchairs: the one on the left belonging to present day Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and the other belonging to 1970s Charles Xavier (James McAvoy).  Sadly, it looks like we still won’t get the cool hoverchair Xavier used in the animated series and some of the comics.

Hit the jump to check out the full image.  The film also stars Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Ian McKellen, Anna Paquin, Ellen Page, Shawn Ashmore, Peter Dinklage, and Hugh Jackman.  X-Men: Days of Future Past opens July 18, 2014.

With James Mangold’s much-anticipated The Wolverine opening on July 26th and Marvel’s continued success with solo superhero films, the door is wide open for some lesser-known heroes to take to the screen.  While Logan is easily the most popular and famous of the X-Men, he’s able to carry a solo film in part because his character is not defined by being a team player…quite the opposite.  So today we’ll make a case for another X-Man who has a fantastic backstory that’s not directly tied into the mutant team and possesses more than enough personality to shoulder a standalone film.  Hit the jump to find out more.  Hollywood!  Adapt this: Marvel’s ragin’ Cajun, Gambit.

X-Men: Days of Future Past is raising my expectations too high.  Judging by his latest interview with Steve, Bryan Singer looks like he hasn’t missed a beat when it comes to the franchise, and he’s assembled an amazing cast.  The film only got stronger yesterday when we learned that Emmy-winner Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones) had joined the film.  While it was speculated that he would be playing the Alpha Flight character “Puck”, today we’ve learned that Dinklage has landed the villain role.

Hit the jump for more including speculation on who he might play.  The film also stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Anna Paquin, Ellen Page, Shawn Ashmore, and Hugh Jackman.  X-Men: Days of Future Past opens July 18, 2014.

Bryan Singer is active this week, revealing plenty about X-Men: Days of Future Past, the sequel that takes place 11 years after First Class.  He teased an all-CG character and the significance of Richard Nixon in the story.  Now singer has tweeted an exciting piece of casting: Peter Dinklage will join the ensemble alongside Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Nicholas Hoult, Jennifer Lawrence, Ian McKellan, Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman and more from the X-Men repertory.

I don’t know the X-Men comics well, but the responses to Singer’s tweet tell me that Dinklage will likely play Puck.  Hit the jump for more on the character.

With the critical and commercial success of director Mathew Vaughn’s 2011’s X-Men: First Class, the X-Men franchise had been sufficiently revitalized and fans were eager to see more of the First Class characters in a sequel.  Though it would have been easy for 20th Century Fox to simply continue the story in the 1970s as we follow the rift between Michael Fassbender’s Magneto and James McAvoy’s Professor X, the studio is taking a more ambitious approach to the follow-up.  X-Men and X2 director Bryan Singer is onboard to direct X-Men: Days of Future Past, and the film’s story will follow the comics arc of the same name that involves time travel and dystopian futures, with a number of past actors from the X-Men franchise reprising their roles.

Steve recently spoke with Singer in anticipation of the director’s upcoming fantasy adventure Jack the Giant Slayer, and the filmmaker talked at length about X-Men: Days of Future Past, revealing that filming will take place from April to October of this year and talking about how he assembled the giant cast and how he came to replace Vaughn as director.  Singer also revealed that he’ll be shooting the movie in 3D (not at 48 fps), Richard Nixon is a character, and it will be the biggest movie he’s ever made.  Hit the jump to read on.

Director Bryan Singer is currently doing the press rounds for his epic fantasy adventure Jack the Giant Slayer which opens next month, but he’s doing a bit of multi-tasking as he’s also plenty busy prepping to helm X-Men: Days of Future Past which begins filming soon.  We already know that Singer is bringing back a number of familiar faces from past X-Men films for the First Class sequel, as the story involves time travel and alternate futures.  The filmmaker recently talked a bit more about the project, revealing that he’s considering including an all-CG character in the film and teasing a possible appearance by Halle Berry’s Storm.  Hit the jump for more.

While some had issues with Ridley Scott’s Prometheus (I thought it was great), I’ve never heard a bad word about the visual effects.  At last night’s VES Awards (visual effects), I got to speak with Prometheus Visual Effects Supervisor Richard Stammers.  We talked about collaborating with Ridley Scott, which shot was the hardest to get right, the mixed reaction to the movie, and more.  In addition, Stammers talked about what visual effects work he’s doing on Scott’s next film The Counselor, and revealed he’s working on Bryan Singer’s X-Men: Days of Future Past.  Of course, I asked if he’s started developing Sentinels.  Hit the jump for what he had to say.

Prior to last Sunday, Zero Dark Thirty was my favorite pic of 2012 by a considerable margin. However, after my matinee viewing of Silver Linings Playbook, that margin has been replaced with a draw. Whereas Zero provided me with a tension that left me on the verge of breathless at moments, Playbook‘s spectacular performances and head-on portrayal of mental illness and our ability to help each other cope/prevail proved not only hugely entertaining but also quite cathartic.

My 2012 movie scorecard aside, this week’s Top 5 includes our set visit coverage of Oz the Great and Powerful, Duncan Jones being tapped to helm the World of Warcraft movie, more visit coverage from the set of Jack the Giant Slayer, a slew of news from X-Men: Days of Future Past, and a Sundance 2013 wrap-up. A brief recap and link to each of the above is promised after the jump.

In the past, we’ve been forced to take reports from comic book writer Mark Millar with a grain of salt.  He has a nasty habit of taking development matters that are in flux, and then declaring them as fact.  However, now that he’s a creative consultant on Fox’s Marvel properties, his insider info carries a little more weight.  In a recent interview with SFX magazine, Millar commented on Bryan Singer‘s X-Men: Days of Future Past, the role of the Sentinels, what Kitty Pryde fans can expect, and more.

Hit the jump for Millar’s comments on the upcoming sequel.  The film stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Anna Paquin, Ellen Page, Shawn Ashmore, and Hugh Jackman.   X-Men: Days of Future Past opens July 18, 2014.

As we move closer towards the production start date of the sequel X-Men: Days of Future Past, details are starting to trickle out regarding the First Class follow-up.  We know that director Bryan Singer is bringing back a bounty of actors/characters from the previous X-Men films, and now it looks like the time period for Days of Future Past has been revealed.  According to a casting call, the majority of the film takes place in the year 1973.  That’s a decade after the events of First Class, and it also means that previous director Matthew Vaughn’s idea of opening the movie with the JFK assassination seems unlikely.  Hit the jump for more details.