Wanted and Kick-Ass writer Mark Millar says Fox just offered him X-Men 4. Presumably he’s referring to the upcoming X-Men prequel First Class. Millar is pretty vague. He also doesn’t say is in what capacity they wanted him. We know Fox is in the hunt for a new director after J.J. Abrams bailed on them do to scheduling commitments, and while Millar has so far only worked as a screenwriter, in the past he’s shown an interest in making the transition to big screen director. I guess it doesn’t matter since Millar says he turned them down.
On his official site Mark explains that while he loved what Fox told him about the project, he’s more interested in creating his own, new characters than picking up an existing franchise. He’d rather work more with Kick-Ass director Matthew Vaughn. Millar says, “Vaughn and I already have our next movie planned out, based on a book I'm doing with Leinil Francis Yu in September.”
Though he turned it down, Millar does offer some insight into what Fox might be doing with the project. He says, “the exec in charge now really knows his stuff and said they'd be open to something quite radical.” Keep in mind here that when Millar says radical, he’s Mark Millar, and radical probably means something really radical. Is X-Men about to get Spider-Man’d?
There’s a hitch here. Not everyone seems to believe Fox really offered Millar an X-Men movie. Pretending to turn down a high-profile project you haven’t really been offered is a great way to raise your profile, no doubt, but would Millar really pull that kind of stunt? Bleeding Cool seems skeptical and points out that he’s done it before. Even the fans on his message board seem skeptical.
But I’ll believe you Mark. Faking something like this doesn’t make any sense. He’d never get away with it. Someone at Fox would be bound to talk. Besides, they really are out there looking for someone to make X-Men: First Class happen. Mark Millar is a sensible choice. Now on to the next one.
