"Rogue Cut" of 'X-men: Days of Future Past' to Arrive in 2015

Not sure what 20th Century Fox's marketing division is thinking with this move, but we have to applaud their honesty. X-men: Days of Future Past is set to hit Blu-Ray in just a couple of weeks on October 14th, and considering it was one of the year's top grossing films it will probably sell a ton of copies. Or perhaps not, because now we're learning about the promised extended edition which will be titled the "Rogue Cut" and re-issued for the home release market in 2015. Somehow I think fans will be holding on to their cash for a little while.

As the title suggests, this version will put more than ten minutes of scenes featuring Anna Paquin's Rogue and other characters back into the movie. We'd heard previously about the Rogue scenes that were taken out. One had Rogue absorbing Kitty Pryde's powers after she's injured by Wolverine. The other was an extended fight scene where she's rescued from the sentinels by Iceman, Professor X, and Magneto. Here's what screenwriter Simon Kinberg had to say when revealing the news about the "Rogue Cut" Blu-Ray...

"It's a big chunk, a substantial part of the movie," Kinberg said of Paquin's storyline as Rogue. "We want to give (fans) the fullest picture of the film — behind the camera, and in front of it," with the "Rogue Cut" and provide "more of the process we went through" to make the film.

"Every movie has scenes that are cut out, but not every movie has scenes cut out with such a beloved character."

Look for the X-men: Days of Future Past "Rogue Cut" to be released around next summer.  [Variety]

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Anna Paquin is Back in 'X-men: Days of Future Past'

With practically every X-men ever to grace the screen appearing in X-men: Days of Future Past, one could be forgiven if they missed one, or maybe thought one was in it that really isn't. But if you check out the film and happen to see Anna Paquin's Rogue, it's not your eyes playing tricks; she's actually there.

A few months ago we learned that Bryan Singer had cut Rogue from the film, a casualty of having so many darn mutants running around. But the gang over at Buzzfeed caught her name in the credits and confirmed that she is indeed in the movie in what is basically a cameo. She was reported to have only had one scene, anyway, but Vulture says she was never actually removed because the scene is so pivotal.

Apparently there are also three more mutant cameos nobody knows about yet; cameos so secret that to even give clues could reveal a major spoiler. I'm intrigued. It's not Channing Tatum as Gambit, is it? Or maybe it's an X-force cameo?

X-men: Days of Future Past opens May 23rd.

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Anna Paquin's Rogue Cut from 'X-men: Days of Future Past'

There are a couple dozen mutants running around Bryan Singer's X-men: Days of Future Past; mutants from the future, mutants from the present, retro mutants. There are so many that losing one shouldn't be a big deal, but when it's a fan favorite like Rogue that does sting a little.

EW reports that Anna Paquin's one scene as Rogue has been dropped from the film, with Bryan Singer saying it was just a part of the editing process....

Singer: "Through the editing process, the sequence became extraneous. It's a really good sequence and it will probably end up on the DVD so people can see it. But like many things in the editing process, it was an embarrassment of riches and it was just one of the things that had to go. Unfortunately, it was the one and only sequence Anna Paquin was in, the Rogue character was in. Even though she's in the materials and part of the process of making the film, she won't appear in it."

Paquin was only on set for a week shooting the scene, said to be a rescue sequence involving her, Iceman, Magneto, and Charles Xavier. Maybe this will spur Singer on to make her a part of X-men: Apocalypse? He does keep open the possibility of working with her again in the future...


Singer:"She was awesome in the sequence. She’s a brilliant actress. I would work with her in a heartbeat…She completely understood. It’s very disappointing, but she’s very professional and she knows that stuff happens, particularly with material you shoot early on in production. Films evolve."

X-men: Days of Future Past opens May 23rd 2014.

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Anna Paquin Almost Appeared as Rogue in 'The Wolverine'

The Wolverine was initially pushed as a standalone film that wouldn't lean on the prior X-men films, but that wasn't really how it played out. Whether it was due to 20th Century Fox moving forward on their plans to expand the mutant-verse with X-men: First Class and other features, the film draws significantly from the events of X-men: The Last Stand, with Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) still agonizing over Jean Grey's death. Famke Janssen made numerous cameo appearances as Jean, haunting Wolverine's dreams and driving him towards the edge of madness. But as it turns out, the story could have been very different, as one of the early drafts had a different X-woman making her return....

While talking to Creative Screenwriting, co-writers Scott Frank and Mark Bomback revealed that Rogue (Anna Paquin) would have made an appearance, and it sounds as if they had some solid ideas for her pairing with Wolverine before deciding to change course....

Bomback: "I love Rogue and I just think that there's something about this idea that Rogue is tremendously empathetic but incapable of safe human contact. That always moved me and I thought that's what really got to the heart of what makes the X-Men franchise so unique. So I was trying to do something with Rogue in the script. I even had a set of ideas that the old man possessed a version of Rogue's power and that was going to be indicated by a white stripe in his hair. Eventually it became very goofy, and I threw it out because I started realizing throughout the script that it became more problematic than cool."

Wolverine has always had something of a mentor relationship with Rogue, as well as other young mutants like Jubilee and Kitty Pryde, but her presence in this particular story wouldn't have made any sense and she would have been lost in the shuffle. Besides, they capture the nature of the relationship pretty well in Wolverine's partnership with Yukio.  In the comics, Rogue plays a crucial role as Wolverine battles the Silver Samurai and Viper, but the source material is very different from what was depicted on screen.

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Anna Paquin, Ellen Page, and Shawn Ashmore returning for 'X-men: Days of Future Past'

If there was any doubt that Bryan Singer was pulling out all of the stops for his return to the world of Marvel's mutants with X-men: Days of Future Past, then let's put all of that to rest right now. It's become pretty clear now that the film, already a sequel to X-men: First Class, is also going to serve as some sort of follow-up to X-men: The Last Stand. Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, and Ian McKellen are confirmed to return, Singer has now taken to Twitter to guarantee a few more.

Very excited to welcome #annapaquin, @ellenpage & @shawnrashmore to #XMen #DaysofFuturePast - thank you @brettratner for letting them live!
— Bryan Singer (@BryanSinger) January 26, 2013

Anna Paquin and Shawn Ashmore played teenage lovers Rogue and Iceman through all three flicks, while Page played Kitty "Shadowcat" Pryde in the final film.  So it looks like that love triangle they shared will be coming back in full force. Since this is based on the classic X-men time travel story, which actually centered on Kitty Pryde to a large extent, Singer could do any number of things with these characters and not have to worry too much about continuity.

So let's just look at this for a second. We can figure that James McAvoy's Professor X, Michael Fassbender's Magneto, and Jennifer Lawrence's Mysique are going to remain central figures, and then you throw in their adult counterparts and already the cast is pretty big. With these three additions, one has to assume Singer will be reaching out to others, such as Famke Janssen and Halle Berry. That's a lot of X-men packed into one Danger Room. And where's Rebecca Romijn in all of this? Is she coming back as the older Mystique or what?

X-men: Days of Future Past opens on July 18th 2014. 
 

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Sure Shots: Evan Rachel Wood; Tom Hiddleston; Russell Crowe

* After being stalled for the last year with Zac Efron in the lead, production on The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman has ramped up with Shia Labeouf having taken his place just a couple of weeks ago. Evan Rachel Wood and Danish super stud Mads Mikkelsen(Casino Royale) are the latest to join the Frederick Bond-directed film, about an American who sustains one crazy beatdown after another to protect and woo a troubled Hungarian woman from her abusive ex-husband. Mikkelsen will of course play the heavy, although I long for him to get a shot at playing the romantic lead in an American film the way he did in After the Wedding. But I'll jump at the chance to watch him beat the snot out of Labeouf for a couple of hours. [Variety]

* Tom Hiddleston(Thor) and Anna Paquin(25th Hour) have joined the cast of Black Wings Has My Angel, the long gestating project based on Elliott Chaze's revered crime novel. The film has been around for years, with Elijah Wood for an unspecified role and as a co-producer. Hiddleston will play hardened criminal Timothy Sunblade, who commits a daring armed car robbery. Paquin is Virginia, the call girl who helps in the crime and turns out to be the girl of Timothy's dreams and of his nightmares. Alfonso Pineda Ulloa co-wrote the script and will make his directorial debut.  [ScreenDaily]

* It's funny how things work. Just a few months ago, Jaume Collet-Serra was attached to Warner Brothers' live-action Akira remake, but production was basically shut down due to the budget and an inability to secure top notch stars. So with his schedule now free, Warner Brothers is keen to get the ball rolling on Harker, a reimagining of Bram Stoker's Dracula which has been in the works for over a year. To help kick things into high gear, the studio is reportedly in talks with Russell Crowe to star, playing a newer version of Jonathan Harker who works for Scotland Yard and is tracking the creature's string of grisly murders. [Vulture]

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Trailer Time: Margaret, starring Anna Paquin and Matt Damon

The road to seeing Margaret finally hit theaters has been a long, bumpy one fraught with legal entanglements. The follow-up directorial effort by Kenneth Lonergan(You Can Count On Me), the film stars Anna Paquin as a flirtatious teen whose reckless behavior inadvertently causes a fatal bus accident. Matt Damon stars as one of her teachers she seems to form some sort of relationship with. Mark Ruffalo, Allison Janney, Jean Reno, and Matthew Broderick also star.

Part of the issue surrounding the film had to do with Lonergan's rare status as a director with "final cut", which meant that neither studio or the producers could release anything other than his own vision. Margaret was completed way back in 2005(!!!), and Lonergan has been editing the film ever since. Screenings were set up then cancelled back in 2006 because Lonergan couldn't decide on a cut he liked. Lawsuits were filed, blah blah blah, and now finally we have a completed film, although the 150 minute run time indicates Lonergan didn't cut a hell of a lot out. Frankly I'm amazed he had final cut rights to begin with based solely on You Can Count On Me, although it did get nominated for two Academy Awards.

A trailer has been released for Margaret ahead of it's September 30th release, and it looks like an incoherent, heavy handed mess. Kinda reminds me of another film Mark Ruffalo starred in which was equally misguided, Reservation Road.  Here's hoping the performances by the extraordinary talent involved will make this film better than it appears here...

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Luke Wilson joins Anna Paquin and Ryan Phillippe in Straight A's

Luke Wilson's acting career began right alongside his more famous brother, Owen, with the much loved comedy caper, Bottle Rocket. Since that time Owen's career has taken off to the point where he's one of Hollywood's top comedic leading men, while Luke has sorta struggled to find a niche. He's been really good as a leading man in things like Old School, Idiocracy, and Henry Pool is Here. Yet his supporting bits in films like Charlie's Angels, The Royal Tenenbaums, and Anchorman probably earned him the most notoriety. He'll be starring opposite Laura Dern in the HBO series, Enlightened, in the coming weeks, and in the meantime he's just signed on to a film featuring another of the cable network's biggest draws.

Wilson has joined the cast of Straight A's, a comedy featuring Ryan Phillippe(Cruel Intentions) and Anna Paquin(True Blood). James Cox is directing, based on a script by Dave Cole, telling the story of a man(Phillippe) who has been in and out of rehab for ten years. Haunted by the ghost of his dead mother, he is encouraged to go back home to Shreveport to the family he left behind. There he encounters his brother's wife(Paquin), who still yearns to be with him since he was her first love. Wilson will play the brother, who I'm guessing won't be too happy with the situation. Or he'll be totally clueless. [Variety]

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Trailer Time: The Romantics

Maybe I am just a sucker for a good quirky romance, because I love the look of this trailer. Paramount has released the trailer for The Romantics, a new romantic comedy from writer/director Galt Niederhoffer. The film is actually adapted from Niederhoffer's own novel, about a group of friends who reunite for a wedding, only to see sparks fly when the bride and maid of honor clash over the groom.

The cast is phenomenal, featuring Josh Duhamel, Anna Paquin, Elijah Wood, Adam Brody, Malin Ackerman, and Katie Holmes looking like she's returned to form somewhat. It's easy to forget how cute and energetic she used to be on screen. 

The Romantics is due out in theaters on September 10th, 2010. Check out the trailer followed by the official plot synopsis.

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