X-Men: First Class Details

X-Men: First Class is a wonderful 8-issue comic that was created back in 2006 ending in 2007 by Jeff Parker and penciled by Roger Cruz. The original issues followed the teenage Beast, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Iceman and Angel while they attended Professor's Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. It was announced last year that Fox had decided to give the series a film treatment and more recently, "X-Men: First Class" news has been swirling, so it felt necessary to sum up the details to date.

Josh Schwartz, creator of The O.C., Chuck and Gossip Girl was hired to pen the script. The film will be a prequel and not a spin-off or a re-boot. The film will follow young Scott, young Jean and young Beast in their first year or as the first class of the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. The film is planned to become a potential franchise watching key X-Men as they grow up. The film will be a lighter touch to the X-Men franchise and will provide both laughter and action.

Producer Lauren Shuler Donner has revealed most of this news through her interviews with SciFi Wire and Comics Continuum. Her are some of the highlights from her interviews. She first spoke about where in the X-Men Universe the story will take place and where they intend to take the story, "It is the first class of Xavier's school, way back when, so it's young Scott, young Jean, young Beast and that'll be really fun. I think (the plan) is to follow some of the characters into their own stories, and weave them back into the X-Men world." "And hopefully First Class will become its own franchise and we can follow them as they grow up." Shuler Donner later talked about how the film will be a lighter treatment than the previous X-Men films have been and what it is like to do a teenage based film, "I like kids. I did produce Pretty in Pink and St. Elmo's Fire. I do like those kind of teenage movies; I really do. Part of it takes me to my roots. It's action. There seems, to me, to be more humor, or more potential for humor. I really like that idea. The relationship ... I don't want to get into what the script is about, but it provides a bit of a lighter touch to the franchise."

More "X-Men: First Class" news as it develops....

What say you? Are you game for a more kid friendly X-Men movie? Have you read X-Men: First Class comics? Strikeback...