I think all this is just a clever ploy to make me write about the same story so many times that I get carpal tunnel. After this weekend when it was reported that KICK-ASS director Matthew Vaughn was in talks to take over X-MEN: FIRST CLASS from Bryan Singer, it was then followed-up almost immediately with a story stating that Vaughn had passed on it.
Now Deadline is reporting that Vaughn and 20th Century Fox have kissed and made up, and that both parties are working hard to close the deal. I always knew it'd be Vaughn who ended up either with X-men: First Class or X-men 4, based on statements by producer Laura Schuler-Donner and the fact that Vaughn had been so far into X-men: The Last Stand when he pulled out. Fox hopes to have production underway by late summer or fall.
Vaughn could probably use a safe, lucrative franchise right about now after Kick-Ass failed to measure up to lofty expectations. He and co-creator Mark Millar have expressed interest in continuing that story as well as other independent projects, but to do that requires lucini fallin' from the sky, and who better than Fox and those wacky money making mutants to help pay the bill.