During a wide-ranging panel at New York Comic-Con, director Matthew Vaughn opened up about the reason he walked away from X-Men: The Last Stand after initially being tapped to replace Bryan Singer for the third film.
At the time, the X-Men movies were a blockbuster franchise that foreshadowed Marvel’s ability to dominate the box office. However, the series wasn’t immune to Hollywood politics, and that’s a game Vaughn was not interested in playing. Particularly when it involves trying to pull a fast one on Halle Berry.
According to Vaughn, the situation went south when he discovered a fake script that was designed to trick Berry into signing on to the third X-Men film. She had expressed concerns about Storm’s portrayal in the previous installments, so apparently, the plan was to pretend those concerns were addressed — until they weren’t.
“I went into one of the executive’s office and I saw an X3 script, and I immediately knew it was a lot fatter. I was like what the hell is this draft. He went, ‘Don’t worry about it,’ and I’m like, ‘No, no. I’m the director. I’m worrying about this draft,’” he recalled. “He wouldn’t tell me, so I grabbed it literally — it was like a crazy moment — opened the first page, and it said, ‘Africa. Storm. Kids dying of no water. She creates a thunderstorm and saves all these children.’”
Vaughn actually liked what he read and thought it was a “pretty cool idea.” Then the bottom fell out.
“[I went,] ‘What is this?’ [They said,] ‘Oh, it’s Halle Berry’s script. I went, ‘OK, because she hasn’t signed up yet.’ ‘But this is what she wants it to be, and once she signs up, we’ll throw it in the bin,'” Vaughn recalled. “I was like, ‘Wow, you’re gonna do that to an Oscar-winning actress who plays Storm? I’m outta here.’ So I quit at that point.”
(Via The Hollywood Reporter)
