Posted in: Fox, Movies | Tagged: fox, Matthew Vaughn, NYCC, x-men, x3

Matthew Vaughn Says He Quit X3 Over Fox Exec Plan to Trick Halle Berry

Director Matthew Vaughn has revealed that a Fox Executive tried to deceive Halle Berry to return to the X-Men franchise with a doctored script.

We all know that shady things go down behind closed doors in Hollywood all the time. Sometimes, we learn about them in tell-all books years or decades down the line; sometimes, if the incident is so massive, there are documentaries made about them, and sometimes, people drop huge stuff out of nowhere, and we all have to remember the world we live in is run by terrible people with no moral compass [sometimes]. We know studios will do anything to get what they want, including not paying people livable wages. Still, a story that director Matthew Vaughn shared [via The Hollywood Reporter] at New York Comic Con this weekend proves just how underhanded this business can be. Vaughn was someone who worked at 20th Century Fox quite a bit, and he also made one of the best team X-Men movies. However, X-Men: First Class was not the first time he was approached for an X-Men movie. He told the story of going into a meeting for X3 but noticed that the script looked slightly off.

"I went into one of the executive's office, and I saw an X3 script, and I immediately knew it was a lot fatter. I was like, what the hell is this draft. He went, 'Don't worry about it,' and I'm like, 'No, no. I'm the director. I'm worrying about this draft,'" he recalled. "He wouldn't tell me, so I grabbed it literally — it was like a crazy moment — opened the first page, and it said, 'Africa. Storm. Kids dying of no water. She creates a thunderstorm and saves all these children.'"

This sounds like a pretty standard X-Men Storm scene, but it wasn't a scene that was in the original script. While Vaughn was on board with the idea, he almost immediately walked away once he learned what the executives intended to do with this new script.

"[I went,] 'What is this?' [They said,] 'Oh, it's Halle Berry's script. I went, 'OK, because she hasn't signed up yet.' 'But this is what she wants it to be, and once she signs up, we'll throw it in the bin,'" the director said, recounting the executive's response. "I was like, 'Wow, you're gonna do that to an Oscar-winning actress who plays Storm? I'm outta here.' So I quit at that point."

It seems almost obvious that studios would do this to try and get franchise actors to return if they are on the fence. You give them a script with a scene that is everything they have been asking for, but once the ink is dry, say that the scene needs to be cut for whatever reason. It's incredibly underhanded and disgusting, and no one would be surprised if something like this happened to other actors. Vaughn would go on to make First Class and continue working with 20th Century Fox through the Disney buyout.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!