Geek Chic

.
Hollywood has a raging hard-on for making movies from comic books; not a suprise considering the teen and young adult male demographic is one of the largest groups of American movie-goers. And those young males are not all thrusting their codpieces through the bottom of a popcorn bucket for a cheap feel, some are actually watching the movies. The latest offering for these young brain trusts is "X-Men: First Class", a prequel to the hugely successful X-Men movies which began in 2000 and has since spawned four movies for the franchise. The prequel will supposedly show the characters as youngsters, and how they got their powers.


(above: james mcavoy; right: aaron johnson;

left: kevin bacon)
 
After watching actors in the previous X-men movies showing off their well-toned and muscular bodies, i.e. Hugh
Jackman, Halle Berry, Ryan Reynolds, etc., we wondered if they'd find young actors with comparable bodies. Not exactly; the cast of the younger X-Men movie is more like a celebration of geek chic. The cast is attractive, they're just not going to make anyone drool down their soda straw. James McAvoy will play Professor Charles Xavier, and our new favorite young actor from "A Single Man", Nicholas Hoult will take the role of Hank McCoy/Beast. The director of the film, Matthew Vaughn, has been very candid about the fact that he wanted Taylor Lautner for the role of Beast, but alas, Lautner passed.

(upper right: alice eve; left: nicholas hoult;
lower right: jennifer lawrence)



Other young actors in the cast include Alice Eve as Emma Frost, Aaron Johnson as Cyclops, Michael Fassbender as Magneto, Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique and Lucas Till as Alex Summers/Havoc. You might remember Lucas Till as the boy who starred opposite someone named Miley Cyrus in her star project/waste of good celluloid, "Hannah Montana: The Movie". It's good to see that Hollywood isn't holding that against him. Hey, everyone deserves a second chance.
.
.
(left and right: michael fassbender)
.
.
.
.
.
.
.



.

(right: lucas till)

This cast is not set in stone, with every day that goes by, some names drop out of the film's line-up, while other's drop in. "90210" actor/model Kevin Pennington was rumored to be in the "X-Men" cast, but more recent news reports have said that he's out. But we're guessing whomever is lucky enough to end in this movie will climb the Hollywood star ladder just a few rungs higher.



.
.
(lucas till, evidently wincing from having just come from dailies where he was forced to watch film footage of miley cyrus "acting"... we feel your pain, lucas, but just remember, it's all in the past, put it behind you)