Yahoo Movies Brett Ratner: I Wasn’t Told About X-Men: Days Of Future Past Timeline
Warning ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’ spoilers ahead.
Brett Ratner admits he wasn’t consulted over the storyline of ‘X-Men: Days Of Future Past’, which totally erased ‘X-Men: The Last Stand’ (which he directed) from the franchise’s timeline.
We asked Ratner, currently in London promoting ‘Hercules’, whether Bryan Singer had warned him about what was about to happen.
"No. We’re just friends, he doesn’t have to report to me,” Ratner told Yahoo, “He did the first and second [‘X-Men’] films… and if someone directed ‘Rush Hour 3’, I’d happily come back and do ‘Rush Hour 4’".
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He hinted that the decision to erase the events of the critically reviled ‘Last Stand’ was down to the writer Simon Kinberg.
"I know that the writer [Simon Kinberg] who wrote ‘Days of Future Past’ also wrote my movie [‘X-Men 3’] too so…”
Simon Kinberg, who is currently working on the next X-film ‘Apocalypse’, revealed to Screencrush earlier this year that had regrets over ‘The Last Stand’.
“[‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’] was sort of my opportunity, a little like the characters in ‘Days of Future Past’ going back and improving their younger selves with the lessons they’ve learned as wiser men.
"It’s sort of a chance for me to go back and do differently what I did ten years ago on X3.”
When Bryan Singer returned to the ‘X-Men’ franchise to direct this summer’s ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’ he and writer Simon Kinberg went down the “soft reboot” route. The events of the time-travelling adventure effectively reset the timeline to the one first established in Matthew Vaughn’s ‘X-Men: First Class’.
[Read more: 'X-Men' Franchise Hits $3bn In Global Ticket Sales]
This “reboot” would allow the younger cast of James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender as Professor X and Magneto to lead the franchise going forward, seemingly retiring the original cast of Sir Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellen from the series. It also apparently excised the events of Ratner’s film from the whole series, as many characters who died in that film returned at the end of ‘Days of Future Past’.
‘X-Men: The Last Stand’ is widely considered to be the least successful film of the franchise by hardcore fans, and was beset with production problems from the start. Bryan Singer was originally attached to direct before he dropped out to make ‘Superman Returns’, then Matthew Vaughn signed up before dropping out due to the tight scheduling imposed by 20th Century Fox.
Ratner came on board at the eleventh hour to deliver ‘The Last Stand’ on time, which until the release of ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’, was the highest-grossing film in the series’ history.
It’s not really surprising to hear that Ratner hadn’t been consulted, after all, he was a gun for hire on the gig, but it’s still interesting to hear what he had to say.
Brett Ratner’s next film ‘Hercules’ is coming to UK cinemas 25 July, 2014.
Image credit: 20th Century Fox/Getty
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