Y'know, the original Days of Future Past isn't all that complicated. Future versions, sequels, homages of the classic X-men story were far more convoluted, but the original is much simpler than it reads in description. Basically, the X-men's inability to prevent Mystique from killing a U.S. Senator causes a future where mutants are hunted by giant robots known as sentinels. A future version of Kitty Pryde goes back into the present to help the X-men prevent her timeline from occurring. Easy, right? So why the heck does Bryan Singer need James Cameron's help figuring it out for X-men: Days of Future Past?
In a recent interview with Empire, Singer revealed that he had a chat with Cameron about how the whole time travel thing should work. I suppose because Cameron dealt with it at length in two Terminator movies, that makes him an expert on how it should work in an X-men movie? Not sure that's true, but whatever.....
Singer: "It's epic. I don't think people realize how big this movie's going to be. We get to bring both casts together. We've cracked it in a way that it makes sense. I had a two-hour conversation with James Cameron about time travel, string theory, multiverses and all that. You have to create your rules and stick wtih them. That's why Terminator and Back To The Future work so well. And there are certain mechanisms in X-Men, certain powers, perceptions and characters, that make this possible."
He also assures us that every single film in the series is considered canon, so there won't be any ignoring the damage Brett Ratner did with X-men: The Last Stand. Actually, I'm quite happy about that, as someone who is something of a continuity wonk when it comes to the comics. I'd much prefer a story be acknowledged than ignored, regardless of how crappy it was....
Singer: "I’m taking into account every movie – I’m not just grabbing my first two movies and First Class and smashing them together. I’m taking into account the entire universe as it’s been laid out so far on the screen, and really respecting it and trying to work with that. People took things in various directions, so there’s some clean-up. But ultimately I’m not just ignoring them either."
Confirmed for the July 18th 2014 film are James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Ellen Page, Hughe Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Anna Paquin, Shawn Ashmore, and Nicholas Hoult, with Singer promising to use his Twitter account to reveal more.
