It's been obvious for a long time that Bryan Singer would eventually find his way back to the X-men franchise he helped build. After helming the first two pics and leaving them as the best-received comic book movies up to that point, he departed to take on Superman Returns, as well as some of his TV projects. But with Matthew Vaughn recently leaving the X-men: First Class sequel without a director, Singer has been pulled back into the fold a little bit early.
After being at the top of Fox's shortlist last week, Deadline reports Singer has officially signed on to direct X-men: Days of Future Past. It was expected that Singer would come back when X-men 4 finally got off the ground, but this may be a smarter move for all involved. Singer, who has maintained atleast a producer credit on all X-men films with the exception of X-men: The Last Stand and X-men Origins: Wolverine, has kept close with the franchise and recently spoke of the "connectivity" they're trying to build.
The film will be based on the classic comic book storyline that takes place in the present and an alternate future where the X-men failed to prevent the assassination of Senator Robert Kelly from the Mystique and her Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. In this future, the government has sanctioned the use of giant robots known as sentinels to kill or capture mutants, placing them in internment camps. A future version of Kitty Pryde sends her consciousness back in time to warn the X-men of the importance of their mission.
Clearly, they can't use the story in complete form, but it has the potential of fixing many of the egregious errors in X-men: The Last Stand. I'll be curious to see how Singer pulls this off, but we'll have to wait until July 18th 2014 to find out.
