Call Now to Enroll in Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters

If you have an extraordinary child (and who doesn't?), Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters might be the right place for him or her to hone their talents. Let's flashback to 1983 and this "commercial" for the special school, or maybe it's just a clever way to promote X-Men: Apocalypse? Yeah it's probably that.

It's a fun way to spend a minute and perfect for Throwback Thursday so just out the video below. The Bryan Singer-directed film is in theaters on May 27.

Synopsis:
Following the critically acclaimed global smash hit X-Men: Days of Future Past, director Bryan Singer returns with X-MEN: APOCALYPSE. Since the dawn of civilization, he was worshipped as a god. Apocalypse, the first and most powerful mutant from Marvel’s X-Men universe, amassed the powers of many other mutants, becoming immortal and invincible. Upon awakening after thousands of years, he is disillusioned with the world as he finds it and recruits a team of powerful mutants, including a disheartened Magneto (Michael Fassbender), to cleanse mankind and create a new world order, over which he will reign. As the fate of the Earth hangs in the balance, Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) with the help of Professor X (James McAvoy) must lead a team of young X-Men to stop their greatest nemesis and save mankind from complete destruction.

Cast: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Oscar Isaac, Nicholas Hoult, Rose Byrne, Tye Sheridan, Sophie Turner, Olivia Munn, Lucas Till, Evan Peters, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Alexandra Shipp, Josh Helman, Lana Condor, Ben Hardy



-Larissa Mrykalo

Marvel's 'Secret Wars' Officially Announced

Every part of the present Marvel business model will be on display this May with the release of Secret Wars. It's another event-driven plot that basically issues a relaunch of titles where hints of resurrected heroes come in to play. That covers the big three things, right? At a live announcement today, Editor-in-Chief, Axel Alonso, and Senior VP and Executive Editor, Tom Brevoort, officially unveiled plans for the MU-changing Secret Wars it has been teasing for months now.

Did you think all those teaser covers of past Marvel events were just gratuitous, tongue-in-cheek ways of paying homage to Marvel history? Well, they were, but they also served the purpose of giving fans a preview of each world that will be inhabiting Battleworld, even if they didn't realize it. Battleworld looks a lot like Earth. In fact, it is Earth, but after the conclusion of the Time Runs Out thread that's been playing out through Avengers and New Avengers for the past couple of years. Jonathan Hickman will continue the meta-plot he's been guiding in Avengers and New Avengers since their respective relaunches and help create an entirely new world for Marvel with Esad Ribic manning the pencils.

Bryan Singer Gives 'X-Men: Apocalypse' Scriptease

Hot on the heels of the success of X-Men: Days of Future Past, Bryan Singer is already working with Simon Kinberg, Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris on the script for X-Men: Apocalypse. We now know the next installment will be set in the early 1980s in what Singer has called an "inbetweenquel" which bridges to the original X-Men movie. Of course, with the timeline changes of X-Men: First Class and DoFP, there are absolutely no guarantees the original movie will stand as is.

Why should people be excited about Singer's Instagram photo showing the first page of the script? First thing is, the writers. In addition to Singer, Kinberg wrote the screenplay for DoFP, which has gotten great reviews, helped us forget his involvement with X-Men: The Last Stand, and will provide some style continuity for the upcoming movie. Dougherty and Harris were involved with the screenplay for X2, which was also a hit back in 2003, so the writing team has Xperience and success behind them.

The Future of the X-Men After the Future has Passed

X-Men: Days of Future Past hasn't been released yet, but the hints and speculation about the next X-Men movie are already out there and picking up steam. Back in January, Hollywood Reporter published 20th Century Fox's intention to release X-Men: Apocalypse in May of 2016.

Since then, there's been rampant guesswork about who will appear in the movie and how director Bryan Singer intends to bring everything and everybody together to fight the iconic villain, Apocalypse. A multi-film crossover concept is also being beach-balled around the internets wherein Apocalypse's story unfolds through not only the X-Men, but hinted at through Days of Future Past and the X-Force movie being talked about (bring on Cable!!).

Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen on Being Besties and 'Waiting For Godot'

Within the theatre, they are master British thespians, knighted for their contributions to the craft. Within fan culture, they have geek god status—one as a Starfleet captain, the other as a fierce wizard and friend to Hobbits, both as powerful mutant leaders. In social media, they are something of a viral Internet phenomenon as they adventure throughout New York City and send holiday greetings to fans.

But really, Sir Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellen are perhaps most beloved for being best friends and collaborators who have used the combined might mentioned above to create one of the more buzzed about and compelling theater experiences around. Even before beginning previews last October, Waiting for Godot and No Man’s Land -- the duo’s two plays in repertory at Manhattan’s Cort Theatre, directed by Sean Mathias and also starring Billy Crudup and Shuler Hensley – the two big actors in the Big Apple were causing a stir. Not only were they reteaming on stage following their Godot performances in London in 2009 and 2010, but they seemed to be having so much fun doing it. Here was Stewart and McKellen eating hot dogs on Coney Island; there they were posing with Elmo in Times Square -- or sitting on Santa's lap or handing out hot chocolate on Super Bowl Sunday. McKellen even performed the ceremony for Stewart’s wedding last September.

'American Horror Story: Coven' Or 'X-Men: The Phantom Menace Of Hogwarts'

BY AARON SAGERS
“American Horror Story: Coven” might share more pop culture DNA with geek culture than horror and the supernatural. Sure, the third season of the anthology series revolves around witchcraft and voodoo, but I mainly noticed all the homages to “X-Men,” “Star Wars” and the Harry Potter books.

Personally, I happily exist as a well-rounded geek who loves horror, super heroes, fantasy and more. And, not to lean on my Campbell too much, but the archetypes and themes of great stories are often repeated. So it is possible I could be reading too much into this but there were multiple shout outs to mutants, Muggles and Siths than can be dismissed -- and we should all know by now that "AHS" creator Ryan Murphy loves his shout outs.

These are just the five I noticed in the first episode of Season Three. Whether these continue or not, we’ll see soon enough, but based on the premiere alone, I’m ready to re-name “American Horror Story: Coven” to “X-Men: The Phantom Menace of Hogwarts.” Let me know what I missed.

'X-Men' Sentinels revealed

We've hoped for it since the second X-Men film back in 2003, a whole decade, that everyone’s favorite, loveable mutant-hunting giant robots Sentinels would be making an appearance on the big screen. Actually, you can see the original designs on the X-Men 2 Bonus Features. You could also argue that they made their debut in X-Men: The Last Stand during the Danger Room simulation, but they were completely shrouded in fog and we only see a decapitated head.
But when it was officially announced the X-Men First Class sequel would be using the story arc “Days of the Future Past" -- wherein The Brotherhood assassinates a political leader, initiating ‘The Sentinel Program’ and causing an alternate future where mutants are hunted and placed in camps -- it we knew it would finally happen.

They've kept it under wraps for some time, but this past comic-con, Trask Industries finally revealed them and what can you say? They look awesome! Check out the Trask Industries website to see a timeline of how they shaped the future for the better without those pesky mutants, photographs of Sentinels during historical events and even a commercial showcasing all they have achieved from 1866 to 2020!

Then Future Past director Bryan Singer unveiled this image last week of him standing next to a big boy Sentinel. Yup, this looks promising indeed.

X-Men: Days of the Future Past hits theaters on May 22, 2014.

-Andrew Peters

Apocalyptic predictions: 'X-Men: Days of Future Past' cast keeps growing

There are plenty of rumors being released regarding the upcoming movie, X-Men: Days of Future Past. The good news is that we know Bryan Singer (X2) is directing and that the plot is based on a two-issue story arc (Uncanny X-Men 141 and 142) written by John Byrne and Chris Claremont. The screenplay may bring out a mix of excitement and trepidation, as writers, Jane Goldman (X2 and X-Men: First Class) and Simon Kinberg (X-Men: The Last Stand), take charge of the script, depending on how viewers feel about past X-Men projects.

Of course, most of the rumors are concerned with who is involved (there has been some speculation on whether or not Phoenix and/or Cyclops may be included). There's been speculation by MTV Geek!, which has reported that Peter Dinklage has been cast as Bolivar Trask, which would seem to lend credence to the rumor that the Sentinels will somehow be involved in the movie. Also, FirstShowing.net and others have recently reported a Bryan Singer tweet that confirms the additions of the characters Bishop and Warpath.

Marvel announces all female 'X-Men' book

Any legit nerd who has spent time in a comic shop in the last decade or so knows that plenty of women read comics - and not just the ones who are trying to become nerd-chick celebs.

So Marvel's launch of an all-female X-Men comic book makes sense, especially since the X-books have had a strong cast of female characters for a long time. Debuting this April, the book will be written by Brian Wood and penciled by Olivier Coipel. It will have a team lineup of Storm, Psylocke, Jubilee, Kitty Pryde, Rachel Grey and Rogue. It’s main star will be Jubilee but Wood plans on making all the characters stand-out.

Wood told USAToday.com, "I'm definitely an X-Men fan, but I'm not deep into the world ... I'm not a writer who's been writing it forever, so my natural instinct is to go basic and simple and to its core."

Wood also tells USAToday.com that, when it comes to the 50-year-old title, "Cyclops and Wolverine are big names, but taken as a whole, the women kind of rule the franchise."

-Larissa Mrykalo

Bryan Singer to helm 'Munsters' remake

X-Men and Superman Returns director Bryan Singer will be directing the pilot for one-hour dramatic re-imagining of 1960s show The Munsters, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Executive producing the show alongside Bryan Fuller (Dead Like Me, Pushing Daisies), Singer's version will be an "edgier and slightly darker take exploring origins of Herman and Lily Munster (originally played by Fred Gwynne and Yvonne De Carlo) and how they arrived at the famed 1313 Mockingbird Lane address." The original show, which aired 70 episodes from 1964-66 on CBS, featured a Frankenstein monster (Gwynne) created by a Dracula-esque Grandpa (Al Lewis) as a mate for his vampire daughter (De Carlo). Together, they had a werewolf son (Butch Patrick), a human niece and a pet dragon. Yup, sounds like it's just right for a dramatic treatment.

In the words of Gwynne himself, from his character Jud Crandall of Pet Sematary, "Sometimes dead is better."

 

'X-Men: First Class' premiere feed

Because of a special partnership with Marvel Comics, we'll be hosting a live feed of the X-Men: First Class special event screening tonight at NYC's Ziegfeld Theater at 5:50 p.m. ET. Host and Senior Editor of the X-Men titles Nick Lowe will speak with the biggest names from the film as they walk the red carpet live, and you can hear everything they say right here!

Scheduled to appear are: James McAvoy (Professor Charles Xavier), Michael Fassbender (Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto), Kevin Bacon (Sebastian Shaw), Rose Byrne (Dr. Moira MacTaggert), January Jones (Emma Frost), Lucas Till (Alex Summers/Havok), and Zoë Kravitz (Angel Salvadore)!



About the film: First Class unveils the epic beginning of the X-Men saga – and a secret history of the Cold War and our world at the brink of nuclear Armageddon. As the first class discovers, harnesses, and comes to terms with their formidable powers, alliances are formed that will shape the eternal war between the heroes and villains of the X-Men universe.