Not many other directors have thrown themselves into the comic-book fray as hard as Bryan Singer has, and his dedication has paid off. His fourth take on the X-Men property, X-Men: Apocalypse, is coming in 2016, and it's looking to be a major culmination, the final chapter in a mythology that will ultimately include six movies. That's a lot of story, and to wrap it up, Singer says he's looking at an extended runtime for X-Men: Apocalypse. As CBM reported earlier, he said as much at the San Pedro International Film Festival, in an interview about the 20th anniversary of The Usual Suspects, which TheMovieReport.com got on tape.
Here's video of Singer talking about the runtime and an upcoming trailer for X-Men: Apocalypse:
As he said, "It cuts a little long," and that seems fitting for an attempt to bring so much extensive backstory to full boil and satisfying conclusion. As for the footage from the new trailer, Singer only seemed to signal that fans will not be disappointed. Here's what Singer said about the runtime and trailer exactly:
"I think it's gonna be a longer X-Men movie. The X-Men movies, I usually I keep under two hours, but this one I may actually let be a longer movie because it's sort of a wrap-up of six movies. There's even an homage at the end. There's a scene - it's gonna get spoiled because that decided to use it in the trailer which comes out, like six months, but it's a really cool trailer - but the [homage] is kind of a wrap up of six movies. So, it might run a little bit long, but it's not boring."
An extended runtime is almost presumed at this point, frankly, so this isn't entirely surprising news, but it at least gives confirmation that Singer has a good idea about how big the task at hand is. Meanwhile, he's gotten some time off to see Steve Jobs and loved it, and he was quick to praise his X-Men star, Michael Fassbender, signaling out a specifically emotional scene that made the director cry. Here's what he says:
"Michael Fassbender did something so wonderful in this movie... We're at the end of the scene, and he asked me not to call cut and when the scene was over, he continued and did something that made me cry in the tent; I've never done that before. The head of my company grabbed a Kleenex. Simon Kinberg, the writer who has no emotions at all, actually became emotional. It was so beautiful, I've never seen an actor do this for me and [Fassbender] just took the scene to a whole 'nother level. It's a heartbreaking scene, not a typical comic book movie scene at all, so let's hope it makes the cut. But after he did it, I went up to him, hugged him and said 'Thank you, Michael, for that gift. Now I need you to do it again.' And he did it, and [frick]ing rocked it again... with full emotion."
"This guy's amazing, he can go from the most emotionally devastating moment to breakdancing to 'Blurred Lines' in between takes. He, James McAvoy, and my villain Oscar Issac are among the three greatest living actors in cinema, in their age category by far. They will not be lauded, or rewarded, because they're in an X-Men movie and comic book movies just don't get that kind of shit. But they deliver some extraordinary performances particularly in X-Men: Apocalypse. The movie is very emotional. I love the pathos of the characters and their relationships"
If anyone, Fassbender has help solidify the new films' emotional core, although Jennifer Lawrence and James McAvoy deserve credit as well. From the sound of it, Singer is looking to turn everyone's waterworks on with the latest entry, bringing the film's more obvious melodramatic tendencies up to a full boil with the arrival of Oscar Isaac's Apocalypse.
