20th Century Fox has rounded out the cast of X-Men: First Class, and the big surprise is that Mad Men star January Jones has been signed to play the role of Emma Frost, the gorgeous mutant with telepathic powers. At the same time, director Matthew Vaughn has set Zoe Kravitz to play Angel; Jason Flemyng will play Azazel, the father of Nightcrawler; Bill Milner to play the young version of Magneto (Michael Fassbender), and Morgan Lily to play the Young Raven. They join Fassbender, James McAvoy (Xavier), Nicholas Hoult (Beast) Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique), Caleb Landry Jones (Banshee), Lucas Till (Havoc), Edi Gathegi (Darwin), who round out the mutant contingent. Kevin Bacon is playing the villain, Rose Byrne will play McAvoy's love interest Moira MacTaggert, and Oliver Platt is playing The Man in Black. Production begins August 23 in London.

The Australian actress Rose Byrne, seen most recently on the big screen in Get Him to the Greek, is in final negotiations to play a key role in Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men reboot, X-Men First Class.  The movie, which chronicles the early years of the X-Men team, is set to begin shooting in London later this month.

 

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Byrne, who also plays Ellen Parsons in the U.S. television series Damages, is up for the role of Moira MacTaggert, an expert on genetic mutation and the love interest of Charles Xavier, who is being played by James McAvoy.

Ohhhhh I love everything about this except hearing the name "Byrne" in relation to an X-Men project. Brings back memories of a crotchety Canadian. Other than that, I approve.

Jason Flemyng is no stranger to geek culture, having already starred in Stardust (based on the Neil Gaiman novel), the much-loathed League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and even had a bit part in Kick-Ass (he was the bell hop). Flemyng now has another interesting role he can add to his resume: Nightcrawler’s father, Azazel.

Jane (Goldman) was on hand to talk about the progress of the X-Men: First Class, filming at Pinewood Studios in London. She told the audience at Movie-Con III that the crew start shooting for real in three weeks, and Goldman says she is very happy with the pre-visualisation footage she’d seen so far. Although second unit shots and FX plates have been filmed, in less than a month the principle shooting begins. And the stars are getting ready – a bevy of X-actors were walking around in their X-Men suits the other day, all wearing bathrobes on top so that no one watching could whip out a sneaky camera…

Jim Lee’s dynamic style helped define the 1990s in comics. Now the co-publisher of DC Comics, Lee still draws “All-Star Batman and Robin,” which is written by Frank Miller. To celebrate Lee’s 46th birthday, here are my favorite comic-book runs by the influential artist.

The clock is ticking on the superhero craze in Hollywood, according to Matthew Vaughn, the director now filming "X-Men: First Class" for Fox in London.

I agree, the "Martin Lawrence-in-a-fat-lady-suit" genre is due for a big comeback, rendering the comic book movie obsolete. Of course why Matthew Vaughan is doing a whole crapload of superhero movies while preaching "the end is near" is an eensy bit confusing, but whatevs.

I actually agree that the entertainment industry, by nature, eats itself and is in great danger of doing comics flicks to death, but it's just weird hearing it from the guy who is currently in the process of rebooting the X-Franchise and doing a Kick-Ass sequel.