Bryan Singer To Direct X-Men: Days Of Future Past

Wolverine cameo in X-Men First Class
(Image credit: 20th Century Fox)

It's been almost a decade since Bryan Singer directed an X-Men movie, the last one being 2003's X2, but apparently he's ready to return: Singer will be back to direct X-Men: Days of Future Past.

A source over at Coming Soon has confirmed the news, which has been spinning around as rumor for the last week or so. On Thursday the news broke that Matthew Vaughn, who helmed the critically-hailed X-Men: First Class in 2011, would not be coming back for the direct sequel, and it was said at the time that Singer was considering coming back to the director's chair. Apparently he has signed on the dotted line and will be coming back. Production on the movie is scheduled to start in the early months of 2013 and Twentieth Century Fox has already announced that they will be bringing the comic book flick to theaters on July 18, 2014.

X-Men: Days of Future Past is being written by Jane Goldman, Simon Kinberg and Matthew Vaughn and will see the newly formed titular team working to prevent an alternate future where mutants are hunted by giant machines called The Sentinels. Stars such as James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jennifer Lawrence will return as Professor X, Magneto and Mystique.

While Singer earned a great deal of praise for his first two X-Men movies, his projects since haven't been as successful. In 2006 he helmed Superman Returns (which disappointed many of the Man of Steel's fans) and in 2008 he made Valkyrie (the movie in which Tom Cruise tries to kill Adolf Hitler). His next feature effort, the recently retittled Jack The Giant Slayer, will be in theaters March 1, 2013.

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Eric Eisenberg is the Assistant Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. After graduating Boston University and earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he took a part-time job as a staff writer for CinemaBlend, and after six months was offered the opportunity to move to Los Angeles and take on a newly created West Coast Editor position. Over a decade later, he's continuing to advance his interests and expertise. In addition to conducting filmmaker interviews and contributing to the news and feature content of the site, Eric also oversees the Movie Reviews section, writes the the weekend box office report (published Sundays), and is the site's resident Stephen King expert. He has two King-related columns.