More "X-Men"? Yes, please

Finally, something that can erase the nightmarish memory of Ratner's "X-3." With "Wolverine" already in the works with Hugh Jackman as the steel-clawed mutant, now comes the inevitable word that "Magneto" will soon follow.

First, the obvious bad news: Since this is the story of how Magneto became Magneto, Sir Ian McKellen will probably only make a brief appearance, if at all. That means some young dude to be named later will land a great role.

The movie will be directed by David Goyer, who along with writing all three "Blade" movies also wrote the script for a little movie some of you may have heard of called "Batman Begins." He also, apparently, has a movie called "The Invisible" coming out in this weekend's pre-"Spider-Man 3" dumping ground. I can solemnly swear to you I won't be going to see it.

The story of Magneto, however, is just cool. Magneto comes to grips with his mutant ability to manipulate metal objects as he and his parents try to survive in Auschwitz. He meets Professor Xavier when the good prof. is a soldier liberating the concentration camp.

Magneto hones his powers by hunting down and killing Nazi war criminals who tortured him, and his lust for vengeance turns Xavier and Magneto into enemies. It's hard for me to see how Goyer could screw up a story this good, but it's certainly been done before.

And, for my money, the world needs more movies about villians. As commenter Jonathan mentioned the other day, a sequel to "Unbreakable" featuring Sam Jackson's Mr. Glass is what the world really needs, but if "Magneto" is all we can get for now, I'll take it.

Ivana Baquero sets English debut

The promising young star of "Pan's Labyrinth," Ivana Baquero, will soon start work on her first English-language film.

Baquero will star in the title role of Gold Circle Films' "The New Daughter." Written by John Travis and based on a short story by horror-thriller writer John Connolly, the story follows a single dad who has moved his two children to a remote farm where a strange mound in the surrounding fields appears to be the key to his daughter's increasingly ominous behavior.

Sounds like it could be more of the generic "horror" that now pollutes our multiplexes or a throwback to the old Stephen King flicks. Here's hoping it moves toward the latter, and young Ms. Baquero gets a winner.

Quentin Tarantino taking on slavery?

According to the great Filmick blog, QT had this to say to London's Telegraph about a 'Southern':

I want to explore something that really hasn't been done. I want to do movies that deal with America's horrible past with slavery and stuff but do them like spaghetti westerns, not like big issue movies. I want to do them like they're genre films, but they deal with everything that America has never dealt with because it's ashamed of it, and other countries don't really deal with because they don't feel they have the right to. But I can deal with it all right, and I'm the guy to do it. So maybe that's the next mountain waiting for me.

Modest much, Quentin? Ego aside, this could be really good or horrendously awful, but if he actually did it I'm sure it at least wouldn't be boring. Somehow, though, I get the feeling this was just him talking out of his posterior in his constant quest for attention. Stay tuned to this one.

Two fun pictures

Here, courtesy of, respectively, Cinempire.com and Iwatchstuff, are two great pictures to get your Friday started with a smile. The first is of Javier Bardem in a scene from the Coen Bros. movie "No Country for Old Men," which will be in competition at this year's Cannes fest.

The second is apparently a picture of Cate Blanchett as Bob Dylan in a scene from Todd Haynes' upcoming "I'm Not There." If you tell me you could tell that by looking at the pic, I'm not sure I can believe you, because I thought it had to be a still from "Don't Look Back." This flick is just gonna be wild.



The origins of Hot Fuzz?

According to Filmick, this clip from British TV starring Bill Bailey and Simon Pegg was directed by Edgar Wright. Though the video is of understandably horrendous quality, you can definitely see the origins of Nicholas Angel in Pegg's hilarious pursuit of a missing piece of luggage. Enjoy!