Can somebody give me some good news about X-Men 3? Alan Cumming has announced on his official website that he will not be playing Nightcrawler in the next movie. Now, if Cumming had decided he wanted to do other things, I probably wouldn’t be that concerned. But according to his post, 20th Century Fox chose not to pick up Cumming’s option. I understand the need to add new characters and cut back on some old but I’ll take Nightcrawler over Beast and Kitty Pryde.

Coupled with the news that Halle Berry will return as Storm, my pessimism is reaching dangerous levels. Josh Tyler, our own billionaire playboy, made his own stunning revelation about this movie. Berry demands more screen time because that damn Oscar has her convinced she's a good actress. Singer leaves and Fox decides that Berry must return. We then hear rumors of MAJOR X-Men characters dying. Why would they die? Oh, to give Berry more time to suck the life out of the movie. THAT'S WHY!

Filming will begin in August with Fox demanding a May 2006 release. Lord knows people only see movies in May. If the studio execs were as focused on the quality of the movie and less on an arbitrary release date, I would be a little more optimistic.