Before X-Men: First Class came out, it started out as a lame Muppet Babies origin story, then there were rumors that it was rushed and behind schedule, and everyone was basically predicting a disaster. Then it came out, and other than January Jones, it was actually pretty good. Many people credit that to Matthew Vaughn, who came into the film having directed Layer Cake, Stardust, and Kick-Ass. Well the good news is that he’s back for the sequel.

Fox has just closed a deal with Matthew Vaughn to come back and direct the sequel to X-Men: First Class, with Simon Kinberg writing the script and Bryan Singer back as producer. [Deadline]

The last one had Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz (Thor) and Jane Goldman and Vaughn (Kick-Ass) writing the script, while Simon Kinberg previously wrote the Ratner X-Men, Jumper, Sherlock Holmes, and that upcoming McG movie, This Means War, which makes him perhaps not the most promising-sounding candidate. But it’s super hero movie, so it’ll probably get six rewrites anyway. In any case, the good news is that Matthew Vaughn will be directing the next X-Men movie. The bad news is that Matthew Vaughn will be directing the next X-Men movie, and not something potentially more badass. It will also be interesting to see where they go with titles. I’m assuming the Rambo-esque “X-Men First Class Part 2″ will be the play here, but with all these reboots and origin stories and sequels of prequels of origin story reboots, these things are going to need footnotes before long. Rise of the Planet of the Apes Part 2 dash 1 to the power of Spider-Man. X-Man Up to Tha Streets.

Hubba hubba. As if Michael F. Assbender’s perfectly-parted hair, tight-but-compact frame, and steely gaze weren’t already enough to moisten your panties and/or manties, X-Men: First Class just released this deleted scene from the DVD (out September 9th) in which he dresses like a sexy lady. Actually, it’s the scene in the film where Xavier and Magneto go to the go-go club where Lenny Kravitz’ mutant daughter with dragonfly wings (Angel Salvadore) works and try to recruit her, but this time with a slightly different ending. Inside the private room, Magneto reveals his mutant powers by levitating the metal champagne bucket, while Xavier reveals his by entering Angel’s mind and changing Magneto into a lady (that’s Angel’s point of view we’re seeing above). So when you think about it, it’s just a future cripple putting a wig on a holocaust survivor to make a stripper feel comfortable enough to take her top off. Man, they really knew how to party in the sixties.

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A few days ago, Lost executive producer Damon Lindelof, who has 130,000 Twitter followers, Tweeted “Emma Frost’s THREE mutant powers: Telepathy, Transformation to Solid Diamond and last but not least, Sucking at Acting.”  It almost immediately got picked up by countless blogs and retweeted hundreds of times, because it turns out that a lot of people agree about January Jones’ acting vis-a-vis how much it sucks.  Well now Damon Lindelof is ashamed of what dicks you all are.  I guess some people have a lot of growing up to do.  Late last night he tweeted:

“I am only slightly less disgusted with the amount of play my X-Men comment got than I am with myself for making it in the first place.”

I enjoy watching the entertainment industry’s growing pains as they try to reconcile the consequences of having opinions with a forum that allows you to immediately broadcast your off-hand remarks to millions of people, even it’s 3 am and you’re sh*tcanned on booze and Ambien, NOT THAT I’M POINTING ANY FINGERS, SANJAY GUPTA.  Anyway, I just hope public figures stop self-flagellating for having the occasional controversial thought, or else we’re going to get a lot more Tweeters like Yoko Ono:

“Grapefruit is a hybrid of lemon and orange. Snow is a hybrid of wish and lament.”

Okay, that might not be such a bad thing.  On that note, I think Vespa scooters reflect the duality of anticipation and sashimi.

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It was a banner week on the Frotcast this week, as all four of us AND our guest actually saw the movie we’re discussing (X-Men: First Class).  We start discussing that around the 45-minute mark.  Other than that, we read a few emails, talked to Brandon about the book he’s writing, and generally did what we always do, which is be vulgar and keep it real as sh*t. Yes, we did a show with guys named Ben, Bret, Brendan, and Brandon. And I didn’t even plan that. We’re like an obnoxious Mormon family.  We also updated our Fantasy Summer Box Office picks from last week, if you want to play along.  I’ll repost our picks for that below.  Probably our biggest mistake was that no one chose Paul Blart: Zookeeper for their bomb pick, though it supposedly had a $90 million budget.

DOWNLOAD IT HERE. SUBSCRIBE ON ITUNES. ALSO AVAILABLE ON BLACKBERRY PODCASTS.  …Email us at Frotcast@gmail.com.

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"I sense a great disturbance in the force, as if a million balls cried out in joy and were suddenly fondled."

X-Men: First Class grossed $56 million over the weekend, which is ridiculously good for the average film, but still the worst opening of any of the X-Men films. Many people blame Wolverine for turning people off to the franchise, as well as Brett Ratner’s X3, which grossed $102 million in its opening weekend back in May 2006, despite “chugging a big bowl of monkey schlongs” (according to scientists).  The question is, what was Brett Ratner trying to say with his series of tweets yesterday to X-Men box office comparisons?  He was quick with a phony congratulations to X-Men: First Class director Matthew Vaughn this morning (complete with the multiple of exclamation points of disingenuousness).  But as Pajiba points out, hiding behind box office numbers wouldn’t be the first time he made preposterous a statement in defense of his terrible movie.

I’M THE BLOCK QUOTE, BITCH:

It was a tacky thing to do. But, I suppose that’s to be expected from the director who once said this about The Last Stand as compared to Bryan Singer’s opening installments: “Mine was the one that made the most narrative sense. And I’m not knocking Bryan’s movie but he just does a certain thing; Bryan uses his brain and I use my eye and my instincts more. It’s a whole different approach to making a movie. I’m not saying my movie wasn’t smart; I just wasn’t intellectualizing it.” [Pajiba]

That’s right, Brett Ratner doesn’t intellectualize decisions like you effeminate academics.  He goes with his gut, and you can’t learn that in any school (except maybe at the six-week Gut Seminar Ratner sponsors at the New York Film Academy, but a place that advertises in the back of magazines hardly counts as a “school”).  It’s just a wonder his gut ever tells him anything besides “MOAR NACHOS, PLZ.”  In any case, the question remains: was the Rat Man gloating?  I decided to take a look back through his recent tweets for clues, and this is what I found:

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