Finally confirmation of what our head man, Josh Tyler said about 24 hours before anyone else - Variety confirms that Brett Ratner has been hired as director of X-Men 3, replacing the mystery that was Matthew Vaughn.

Ratner is no stranger to troublesome comic-book movies, having been one of the original considerations for the first X-Men movie and more recently one of the many abortive directors of Superman Returns before Bryan Singer actually put his money where everyone else's mouth was.

Fox and Marvel have apparently agreed on a budget and will be using the Zak Penn/Simon Kinsberg script that Vaughn was originally slated for. Is this the imfamous and "controversial" script that Harry Knowles is claiming will see three major players die and one lose their powers? Or was that a seperate script Vaughn had been working on that had been come be known as the infamous "Six Day Script"? Only time will tell.

Cast already confirmed will be staying in place, this includes Kelsey Grammer as Beast, Vinnie Jones as Juggernaught and Maggie Grace as Kitty Pryde. There is a bizarre rumour floating around that Lalo "Enter the Dragon" Schifrin is being brought on board to do the score, but this is unconfirmed.

Shooting is slated for start in August with a Memorial Day weekend release in 2006 - yes, Fox is still planning to beat Superman Returns to the punch by a month despite starting production nearly four month later than Singer did on his project. Brave or stupid move? Only time will tell.