Think X3's Ratner's a Hack? You're an 'Idiot'

Marvel Chief Urges Patience for Ratner's X-Men

from Zap2it

LOS ANGELES - Marvel CEO Avi Arad has just finished a lengthy discussion on the dangers of Internet rumor-mongering and the evils of reviewing unfinished projects, which perfectly segues into the excitable mogul's feelings about online reaction to the selection of Brett Ratner to direct the next X-Men film.

"Idiots," he says plainly, before continuing. "Idiots."

Ratner, best known for relentless self-promotion and the blockbuster Rush Hour films, became a last-minute fill-in director on X-Men 3 after original director Matthew Vaughn bailed last month to spend more time with his family. From the second Ratner's name entered the equation, netizens from Aint-It-Cool-News to IMDB messageboards began spewing outrage, sadness and resignation, jotting off open letters to imaginary executives at Fox and launching purely hypothetical petitions to enlist a new director. Arad, who was close to hiring Ratner several times previously, is just confused by all the vitriol.

"Did you see Red Dragon? Did you see that?" Arad asks, referring to Ratner's reasonably well-reviewed Hannibal Lecter remake. "And you saw Family Man, which is totally different, a very emotional story. Then, you have two giant comedies. What are they thinking? This is a great filmmaker. Do you know how much experience this guy has? Let alone his new Jessica Simpson video? This guy knows what he's doing."

Although Arad can't find positive words for Money Talks or After the Sunset, he's certainly effusive about his new employee. Fans, though, aren't as certain. Although few details from the sequel have come forth since Ratner's introduction, rumors of the addition of a new hooker mutant who may or may not be little-used character Stacy X have produced reactions from confusion - several new characters including Beast and Juggernaut already need to be introduced - to general disgust. Arad won't confirm or deny any specific changes, but he says that Ratner has, indeed, already left his fingerprints all over the script, originally written by Zak Penn and Simon Kinberg.

"Brett Ratner came onto this thing and from the get-go, you felt experience," notes Arad. "He's made lots of changes in the script that are very good, because he's thinking picture, not words. He's very cinematic."

Arad doesn't really sound concerned. He's been through the same thing before.

"Tell me a director they didn't go after," he challenges. "Maybe the only guy who got away with it was Sam [Raimi]. When Bryan [Singer] came on board the first time? Oh boy."

Working in Arad's favor is the overwhelming fan community support for the first two X-Men and Spider-Man films, as well as the fact that all four films have reached blockbuster status.

"So far, so good," he chuckles. "Give us a little break. Not much, just a little bit."

Production on X-Men 3 is slated to begin in August, as Fox has already claimed Memorial Day 2006 for its premiere.