20th Century Fox has had unusual luck at the box office in 2011 — in a generally down year for film they managed to successfully revive two moribund franchises with Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and X-Men: First Class. Both these movies will be receiving sequels (of course) and the word from Fox CEO Tom Rothman is that they’re looking to hire back Rupert Wyatt (director of Planet of the Apes) and Matthew Vaughn (director of X-men).
Going back to the same directors for the sequels is a nice gesture and all, but let’s face it, neither “Rise” nor “X-men” were particularly great movies, and what success they had didn’t have much to do with their directors. What made Rise of the Planet of the Apes watchable was the top-notch effects work by Weta Digital, and X-men was buoyed along by better-than-it-needed-to-be acting by James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender (also Kevin Bacon playing hilariously against type as a Nazi supervillain). Getting the directors back is all fine and good for the sake of consistency, but Weta Digital, James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender are who they really need to be re-hire.
Oh, and fire James Franco. Please.
via ComingSoon