Can you tell us how you came to have two casts?
AndDays Of Future Pasts framework was a really great jumping-off point, because its such a great book.
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Its been a while since youve done anX-Menmovie.
Yeah, I think so.
Does the structure of this film hark back toThe Usual Suspects,which played around with time?
In fact, in two ways.
One, structurally, and also in the way Ive shot it.
It was like shooting a little movie first.
That movie starred Kevin Spacey, Chazz Palminteri, Dan Hedaya, Giancarlo Esposito.
And they all left and the suspects came.
Well, weve got the same thing here.
Are they stylistically different, those two halves, and how are you approaching them?
Yeah, the future is tonally very cold.
And the 70s is the 70s.
Whats the most challenging aspect of shooting in 3D?
And I found that it was very educational because I learned what worked better or worse in 3D.
I feel it would have been impractical.
I also think it works for certain things, and other things its not so good for.
A friend of mines working with Marc, and I hear we both like tweeting a lot.
I do all the tweets myself, which is why theyre sometimes misspelled and a bit stupid.
Its also a way to reassure people and take a bit of control of your press.
It was like, Oh God, theyve got to go back to LA to do reshoots.
And its like, no, we had a desert scene and there are no deserts in Germany!
We had three days in the desert.
It wasnt fun to be, Calm down everyone.
Are you aware of how positive the response has been to that?
But people read them and tell me, Oh theyre happy with this!
I remember one, they were like, Oh no, no leather uniforms.
And I had the pleasure of tweeting, No, theres no leather.
And they were, [Relieved] Oh.
Did you get a picture of Peter [Dinklages] birthday cake for Twitter?
He likes the cake, actually.
Peter and I are both from New Jersey, and were both very shy.
Were both, No happy birthdays.
But we did the cake.
I did tweet it, yes.
But no one seems to have reacted to it.
Or maybe they did.
Talking of uniforms, which are we going to see this time?
In the past, less.
Some, but less.
In the future youll see.
The futures more of a warzone.
How do you translate such a crazy, wild comic book story?
To me, thats the thing that made it more appealing than just doing a sequel.
That part is challenging and kind of fun.
You get into a lot of stuff with that.
I thought Id cracked it.
It was a real trip, one of the most fun conversations Ive had in years.
He gave me all the physics behind it.
So yeah, its trying to create a time travel film with integrity.
Speaking of powers, is this why Quicksilvers in it?
Obviously hes being used by Marvel as well, so can you talk a little bit about that decision?
He was in our script quite early.
Its not a big part in the script , hes not there throughout the picture.
Super speeds been played throughout the series Twilight uses it… Can you bear with me for a second?
So I started development with super high-speed photography and stuff like that, so yeah.
Its a fun character.
Point of view throw in stuff?
He looks like a strong personality.
We saw some artwork of his room and his look.
He has a little Walkman jot down-thing.
Yeah, thats modelled after the first portable tape player.
Weve seen Bishop as well.
What other new characters are there?
Blink, Bishop, Sunspot, Warpath but hes an old character.
Those are all in the future.
The only new one in the past is, is Quicksilver, I think.
Is Scarlet Witch in it?
There may be a reference, but no, no.
I really wanted Peter [Dinklage].
It took me so long to figure that out.
[Consults monitor again]
Youre working with the younger cast fromFirst Classfor the first time as director.
Is there a different vibe with those guys?
Every day they dance and play music in their trailer, Im told, and then they come here.
Ive never had a cast like it.
More than Ive ever seen on any other film, and my sets are usually pretty happy.
Can you tell us about Bingbing Fans character, Blink?
Shes a very dark character.
Shes more Mystique than Raven, and part of the movie deals with a battle for the soul.
Or will time travel open up the door to change things?
I dont want to give that away.
Were respecting the continuity of the previous movies as best we can.
Its not easy bringing certain characters back to life, but were doing our best.
Those are my favourite movies, the movies of the 70s.
How does this movie interrogate the themes of the earlier films?
It establishes that some villain characters may have been right with their fears.
And it confronts the notions of hope and second chances.
Its characters that are lost trying to find themselves.
InX-Menone and two, the characters had come into their own and knew who they were.
In this one, theyre all lost.
And theyre trying to keep it together.
How has technology changed since the first films?
We have so much more technology.
We re-watched the firstX-Menfilms.
We didnt have the effects stuff we have now.
But we still do as much practically as we can.
One of the best things aboutFirst Classwas the friendship between Erik and Charles.
Obviously theyre in different places here, but how is that in this movie?
And he looks like a homeless guy.
Hes a really great character.
In this one, theyre on the journey to becoming Patrick and Ian.
Is Nixon a villain in this film, or is he just a pawn in a much bigger game?
[Laughs] Not all of that speech is going to make it.
I just asked for some filler dialogue that is a bit draconian.
Hes not really so [aggressively] Rrrr!
Then once that happened, we thought it was a story worth telling, this could be fun.
Especially for people like my mother, who arent particularlyX-Menfans.
Time travel movies are very specific.
Because you cant just make it for the comic fans.
Was your mom a reference point?
I wouldnt want to see that movie.
Theres so many explosions!
But you cant get too geeky.
No, I care primarily about the fans.
I know youre never going to hey every fan.
But I am conscious of the audience outside the fan base.
Its its own thing it exists on the outside.
I didnt initially know who Wolverine was.
But I knew who Spider-Man was.
I knew who Batman was.
So its important to make a film that can reach outside theX-Menbubble of exposure and interest.
What were you into as a kid?
I was intoStar WarsandStar Trek.Every night Id watchStar Trekwith my friend at his house.
Are you keeping an eye on that franchise?
Jumping into someone elses franchise scares me.
We saw in the production department some of the art for the future sequences.
I was wondering if that scratched yourStar Trekitch.
Have you figured out how you died in the Star Trek movie?
I think I got sucked out of a front window.
I think Im in about 19 frames of that movie.
[Laughs] And I have a trading card, aStar Trektrading card!
Bryan Singer, thank you very much.
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