'Still Standing Firm'

After two successful trips to the box office and over $700 million in box office receipts, the 'X-Men' are ready for a third outing.

A "cure" for the mutant X gene has been discovered, which threatens the very existence of mutants like Magneto (McKellen) and Professor X (Stewart). The two leaders have opposing viewpoints on the situation: Magneto insists on a violent revolution to stop humans from exterminating their kind, while X prefers tolerance and working with the goverment on a compromise. But the balance is shifted by the shocking return of Dr. Jean Grey (Janssen), who appeared to die in a great flood. Now she's more powerful than ever as Dark Phoenix, and if Wolverine (Jackman) can't persuade her not to join Magneto's crew, a war could be at hand.

Sitting down with director Brett Ratner late last year in a freezing cold, and snowy Vancouver, I first asked him why he choose to take on the 'X-Men' at basically the last hour? "I was such a fan of the 'X-Men' series. And actually I was talking with Hugh about this the other day. He said, "You probably made history - you've directed more movies with a 3 at the end of it than any other movie." Even though 'Red Dragon' didn't have a 3 at the end, it was the third in the series. But the benefit I had with 'Red Dragon' was that I had 3 different movies that existed - 'Manhunter,' 'Hannibal', and 'Silence of the Lambs' - that were in the exact same genre, but very different movies. Moreso with this movie, I had two movies that existed with one director. He created a fantastic tone, with some of the best actors in the world. So I said, "Oh, this was going to be an easy job." "Little did I know. We're in December in Vancouver in the freezing cold. But the truth is that I was such a big fan of what was established and I knew that if I stuck to the tone of this movie and the formula, and we had all the same actors coming back, that it was going to be so much fun for me. And a huge challenge, by the way, because I've never done a visual effects movie before."

Can you pinpoint a specific element that you put your personal stamp on once you came aboard? "Yeah. Like I said, it's been very important for me to stick to the tone that Bryan (Singer) and the actors created. My input really has been just trying to make a more emotional film. A film with more heart and more pathos. I wanted to try and tell a story and act if this is a trilogy and the third in the series. Go in there and not reinvent it, not make it a Brett Ratner film, but stay with the formula that's worked in the past and add more heart. I'm a very emotional guy and I like emotion and I like feeling something in the movie. The audiences care about these characters so much and it was very important to me to stay true to who they were and not try and reinvent it."

Should this film be looked at as the third part in a trilogy, or just another story in a continuing series of stories? "Because I feel so reverential to the first two, I'm not reinventing anything that's already been done, but I am informing some back story that maybe you hadn't seen but makes total sense to the first two. And we are paying off some of the arcs of the characters and resolving some of the arcs somehow-I don't think it's the final arc. I think there's a lot of opportunity to go further with it. But I think because I'm referring to the first two movies and I'm making sure that we're consistent with the first two movies as far as the characters are concerned, as far as what they went."

"Bryan and these actors have created kind of the universe and there are rules that come with that universe. And I'm not going outside of those rules, but I am looking to show the audience something that kind of pieces it all together. Like, 'Oh, that's why in the first movie they were in this location here.' That sort of all pays off. So in that sense maybe it is a trilogy, I'm not saying that Fox wouldn't make a fourth or fifth 'X-Men' ...!"

Are you deliberately setting things up in this film that might be paid off in subsequent movies?! "See, I don't have a contract to do 'X4' - it depends on the performance of this movie if they ask me to come back, which is the reality. But the truth is I am introducing some characters that I know that Fox is gonna go, 'We've gotta to put Kitty Pryde in 'X4.' We've got to bring them back'. I'm setting things up where I'm introducing little things that whether I'm doing it or not, I just love planting those little seeds, and bringing things into this movie that for some reason or another, Bryan wasn't able to bring in ... that only the hardcore fans would really know about that wouldn't really make a difference to the moviegoer."

"But for instance, like the Fastball Special - I don't know if I can talk about that," he laughs. "But stuff like that, stuff that the fans are gonna be like, "Yeah!" and gonna be cheering, that for one reason or another weren't able to make it into 'X-Men 1' or '2'."

What kind of story arc did you want to put in for Storm? What are you going for with this? "When I met her (Halle) the first time I said, "There really wasn't a huge presence for you in this movie as far as personality was concerned, and I wanted to really define who you were, give you a point of view." Because there's two issues in this movie - there's political issues, and there's emotional storyline. I wanted to make sure, where do you stand in these issues, this character? And I just love photographing Halle Berry. I want her in the movie as much as I can," he laughs again.

"But for her, to give her a lot of credit, when we first talked she said, "Look, I don't care about giving me a lot of dialogue. When I'm on screen, I want it to matter. I don't want it to just be there." So I kind of went through the script and looked for the opportunity of really enhancing her character, and giving her more of a point of a view and a perspective and a purpose. It's hard like everyone said, to pay off 20 different characters in a film, but Halle I think understands more going into it who she is, what her reason for being in each scene is. When it's 20 people standing around, it's hard to kind of know. That's the hardest thing, just listening and standing there and not knowing 'What are you doing here, what's your point of view'? In her mind, at least she understands what the purpose and motivation is for her in each scene."

Is there a romantic thing involving Storm? "With me? No," he laughs louder this time. "I can't divulge that, but you'll see. I think fans of her character are going to be excited because she has much more to do in this movie. And physicality, this is one of the most beautiful women in the world and I wanted to really take advantage of that, and shoot her in a way that was really exciting for the audience."

How are the costumes this time around? "They're the same, with some enhancements. They're pretty close. They're in the world. There's some new characters, so they have obviously some new costumes, but otherwise ... that's when I have to pinch myself kind of when I'm in the 'X-Men 1' room and they're in their X suits and the villains-mostly the villains, the X suits don't go too far out-when Magneto's in his cape and his helmet, and the other character's in a helmet, I'm like, 'This is just so bizarre,'" he laughs. "It's like, what's going on? I stop for a second but then I realize, you know what?"

"What's brilliant about this movie and this franchise is that it's all based in reality. And my approach to every scene is that this is really happening; this is really going down. It's important to me to capture the essence of that, and in the performance and in the decision of the sets, the props - every single choice informs that. Real, real, real. These are real characters, this is really happening. Because the audiences believe that and they want to believe it and we're creating the reality within that frame. It's very important that I do that and that's my approach to every scene. We figured out and we debated, and we were here last night and we were figuring out the nuance of how to throw a punch, or how to take a step forward, is all based in reality. And it's debated. Believe me, I have a lot of work on my plate because these actors definitely have an opinion - they're not just letting me create my own reality. They're saying, 'You know what, Magneto wouldn't do that!' And I'll say, 'Magneto would do that or wouldn't do that', but I have to give a reason why he would or wouldn't."

"There's a lot of challenging and it's to better the performance and better the movie. There's no egos involved and everyone wants to make a great film. It's the best bunch of actors I've ever worked with, and they really care. Their character is important to them from Pyro to Rogue. And I call them by their names, not really by accident because when I look at them, I'm looking at Magneto. I'm like, "Magneto, come here." And I believe he's Magneto and the same with Storm and Logan."

Tell us more about the fact that Storm can now fly! "Yes, we've incorporated that into the storyline. But, it's not just 'Let's watch Storm fly now!' It's part of the plot and Simon Crane is one of the best second unit directors in the world and he's been shooting some fantastic action sequences with these guys. And I'll look at the dailies at the end of every day and I was shocked. You know, I don't know why Halle actually does it because nobody is going to believe it's her anyway," he laughs. "But there is this thing where Storm has an action piece and she's up in the air hovering, and she literally to create a kind of wind/tornado effect, she actually spins. She's on a wire, or rope or something -she must have done like 87 turns from here to that wall and then the camera stops and I just see her go, 'Whoa'."

"She didn't really have to do it but she actually did. So it's like Jackie Chan's doing his own stunts; Halle Berry's doing her own stunts. The thing is when I saw the scene, the actual execution of it, I said that Simon Crane's brilliance came in. Because all the action is not just action for action's sake. It's motivated by the plot, it's driving the story forward, and it's showing off the powers of these characters. It's using the claws in a clever way to jump down a building. The same way that Jackie Chan would use this in a fight. This bottle of water. They're using his claws to break a fall going down on metal, so there's sparks. It's really thought out. It's not just, 'Okay, let's just have him swinging his claws around'. It makes sense. It's all motivated. All the pieces are working and I'm really happy with all of the action stuff. The truth is that the heart of this movie is the fact that there's a small story within the big film. There's a small story, and that's really the relationships between these characters, and that's why I love this film."

Tell us more about the new actors, and the new characters? "I just signed like a 100 page document before I walked into this room about nondisclosure," he laughs. "But, OK ... Juggernaut, played by Vinnie Jones, is a fantastic character and just a great actor and just a great guy to work with and be on the set with. Juggernaut joins Magneto's group, I won't tell you how, but Magneto picks him up along the way and he becomes part of the Magneto crew. There's Kitty Pryde who's an 'X-Men' that had very small parts in the first two movies, but we decided in this version to expand that character. That's Ellen Page, a brilliant young actress who's done mostly independent films-she's in this brilliant film coming out soon called "Hard Candy"."

Does she have a few scenes with Wolverine? "She has a bunch of scenes in this movie. She's one of the 'X-Men'; she has scenes with everybody. For Beast ... I can't take credit for casting Kelsey Grammer but I can tell you that now that he's put that costume on, I don't see another actor who could play that part better than him. I think Kelsey Grammer was probably born to play Beast and not Frasier," he laughs once more. "This guy-his intelligence as a person and as an actor, his voice, and the way he's personified. When I see Kelsey Grammer I get freaked out on the set because it's not him, he's Beast. He's been cured, temporarily during the day. He is fantastic. I think all the new characters ... and what I've done really is taken Bryan Singer's essence and put it into me. I don't know if that's said properly," he gently laughs.

"If Bryan was directing this movie, who would he hire? So I was very careful and it wasn't because I wanted to make sure that he was happy with the movie at the end when he sees it-even though I care what he thinks because I do respect his work-but it's moreso that I didn't want to all of the sudden have some 'Where did that come from'. I knew the focus on these movies cause you can't complain about Ian McKellen cause he was in the first one with Hugh Jackman and Halle Berry. But what did Brett bring to this movie as far as the new actors and new characters? And so I was very careful in choosing the new characters, the new actors for the new roles and making sure that it was within the universe and it wasn't like 'Where did that come from'. You know, like Brett was catching butterflies over there while he was casting this movie. I stayed very true, I think, to the universe. There's some other evil mutants. We refer to as 'muties' -I don't want to give you their names because it's not official right now-but there's muties that have actually joined Magneto, and a very talented young actress by the name of Dania Ramirez who is one of Spike Lee's muses or favorite actresses, and I put her in this film. She's fantastic. And Angel, that was a hard thing. Every handsome, gorgeous young actor came in and wanted that part."

"Even Edward Norton who I worked with on 'Red Dragon' called me and goes, "I wish I wasn't in China right now making a movie! I wanna play Angel!" I mean, it's like everyone's favorite character. And for me the important part was getting a great actor. In the comic he's drawn as kind of a beautiful, angelic actor but I wanted to go for the guy that personified him. Angel is a pretty tormented character, and I think one of the most powerful scenes in this movie is with Angel, I believe, emotionally. So I saw hundreds of actors and Ben Foster just came in and stole the part. He was just like, "I am this guy" and I believed him. He's done a fantastic job at acting out the complexity of Angel, because you could have been safe and just had a beautiful young man who can spread his wings and fly, but there's more to that. These actors and these characters especially have a lot of dimension, and you need an actor that could bring that dimension to the role."

"Ben Foster definitely did it. And he's worked out harder than Robert De Niro in 'Raging Bull'. This guy works out like 12 hours a day and his body has just completely transformed himself for the part. They're heavy wings, you can't just be a skinny little Jewish kid and carry them on your back. You gotta have some muscle so he put some mass on. He's devoted to the part."