Simon Kinberg, widely rumored to have written and ghost-directed the feculent final 20 minutes or so of Fox’s last “Fantastic Four” movie, may be preparing to write and direct the next X-Men movie for the same studio.
This would be the first official directorial effort for Kinberg, who joined the X-Men franchise when he scripted Bret Ratner’s 2006 sequel “X-Men: The Last Stand.”
Interestingly, the next X-Men movie has been long expected to deal with the Dark Phoenix saga, which was already depicted in Kinberg’s “Last Stand” script more than a decade ago.
Kinberg also wrote last year’s “X-Men Apocalypse,” which proved one of the least-loved entries in the 17-year-old motion picture franchise, receiving positive reviews from only 36 percent of “top critics” polled by the Rotten Tomatoes website.
Kinberg’s other screenwriting credits include “xXx,” “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” “Jumper,” “Sherlock Holmes,” “This Means War,” and “X-Men: Days Of Future Past.” For television, he created -- and scripted four episodes of -- Disney XD’s “Star Wars Rebels” cartoon series.
If you're asking me, Fox would be better served by rehiring "Logan" writer-director James Mangold for the next X-Men movie; "Logan" is much much much much better than "X-Men Apocalypse."
Still unknown is whether Wolverine will appear in the next X-Men movie. If he doesn’t, who will kill Jean Grey this time around?
Find all of Collider’s exclusive on the matter here.
