Entertainment
James Cameron Wanted to Make an X-Men Movie in the ‘80s with the Wildest Cast
Being such a hot commodity in the industry for over 40 years, James Cameron is frequently a studio’s dream choice to helm a major project, whether as a producer, screenwriter, director, or all three together. Cameron, whose interests range from historical fiction to comic books, has been attached to a litany of movies throughout the years, some of which never materialized and others that ended up in the hands of other directors. In an alternate world, the selective and patient Cameron, who has only directed four narrative films in the last 30 years, would have put his stamp on properties such as Planet of the Apes and Wicked. Among his list of unrealized films, his most enticing abandoned project was the attempt to assemble a superteam to bring Marvel Comics’ crown jewel, X-Men, onto the big screen in the 1980s and ’90s, which never came to fruition due to the precarious nature of Hollywood dealmaking.
James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow’s Plans for an ‘X-Men’ Movie Were Abandoned
Following his breakthrough with The Terminator and Aliens, James Cameron represented dollar signs, and studios entrusted him with the opportunity to handle something that, ironically enough, seemed to be adverse to the screen: a comic book adaptation. Revealed by long-time X-Men writer Chris Claremont in a 2012 panel at Columbia University, the original mutant movie, years before Bryan Singer‘s adaptation in 2000, was initially attached to Cameron as a producer, his then-wife Kathryn Bigelow as director, Bob Hoskins as Wolverine, and Angela Bassett as Storm, roles that would be played by Hugh Jackman and Halle Berry, respectively. This was Claremont’s dream lineup, remarking, “I would have been happy as a clam.”
Upon establishing his own production company, Lightstorm Entertainment, Cameron was ready to serve as his own boss and generate numerous projects for him and his collaborators to direct. Things looked to be set into motion when Cameron set up a meeting with Marvel Comics guru and mascot Stan Lee about a film adaptation. During the meeting, the tides irreversibly shifted when Lee interrupted the negotiation by saying to the director, “I hear you like Spider-Man.” This kicked off a new round of spirited discussion, and it presumably got Cameron’s wheels turning about his unrealized Spider-Man treatment.
Kathryn Bigelow, fresh off her eventual cult classic vampire thriller, Near Dark, a film that mirrors X-Men in its portrayal of non-humans marginalized by society, had a treatment for the Marvel property. According to Claremont, the treatment was “eaten alive” by executives he called “idiots,” who were more interested in adapting Spider-Man. These deals were nearly impossible to finalize, as Marvel, which was facing bankruptcy in the ’90s, was selling off rights to their characters to many studios, including Universal, the now-defunct Carolco (with which Cameron had a partnership), and 20th Century Studios, which ultimately acquired the X-Men rights. Claremont held no ill will towards Singer’s film or the casting of Jackman and Berry, but he still fancies what Cameron’s vision would have looked like.
The Failed James Cameron ‘X-Men’ and the History of Superhero Movies in Development Hell
Long before the dawn of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Disney’s acquisition of Fox, a studio’s legal department was just as essential to getting superhero movies off the ground as the writers’ room. Today, the behind-the-scenes drama and managerial decisions are widely understood by the public, so much so that they can be running gags in the uber-meta Deadpool & Wolverine. Property protection determines the fate of every comic book adaptation, and even the mighty James Cameron was left creatively compromised by Carolco’s failure to acquire rights to X-Men or Spider-Man, which ultimately led to the studio’s discontinuation. Since then, movies in an extended universe getting postponed or stuck in development hell, evidenced recently by Marvel’s never-ending production of Blade, have been a staple for the genre. With so much financial backing at stake, studios are quick to get cold feet with a current project when a more enticing character origin story opens up.
Bryan Singer’s X-Men was an overall success, performing well at the box office and satisfying critics. Because superhero movies were viewed as disreputable to many, the didactic commentary on race and class issues in the film lent it an aura of prestige. While it’s hard to argue against the 2000 film’s casting, the prospect of Bob Hoskins, who fit the bill for Wolverine’s short stature and pugnacious energy in the comics, and Angela Bassett, an actor of immense gravitas fitting for Storm, in an X-Men film by James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow is the alternate universe audiences deserve in the next multiverse saga. Back when superhero movies were envisioned as sheer genre exercises, sci-fi, horror, and thriller masters in Cameron and Bigelow could’ve made a mean, lean, and technically virtuosic showcase.
X-Men is available to stream on Disney+ in the U.S.
- Release Date
-
July 13, 2000
- Runtime
-
104 minutes
- Director
-
Bryan Singer
- Producers
-
Avi Arad, Lauren Shuler Donner, Ralph Winter, Richard Donner