BY DAVID SERVER

Hey there, X-Fans! David 'Typhon24' Server here, back from a bit of a hiatus with some X-Men 3 scoopage for you! CountingDown recently attended the junket for Layer Cake, directed by Mathew Vaughn, and it occurred to us that he was supposed to be directing a certain mutant epic next...so we made sure to try and bring you some answers about what to X-Pect from the next X-Flick! Here's the lowdown, and be sure to come back for our full Layer Cake coverage, including more from Vaughn and star Daniel Craig, soon! But for now, here's the latest mutant scoop:

Q: Is it daunting working on a project with a script in place and so much history?

Vaughn: I rewrote it myself. Just sat down and did it. They had two writers, and we just sat down, the three of us, and we actually wrote the first draft in 6 days.

Q: What about taking on a project of this scope and size?

Vaughn: It's a juggernaut, yeah...but I'm not phased by making movies. I think it's easier to make a film with 200 million dollars than 960 grand. So I am concerned about the amount of time we have to make it, cause it doesn't matter how much money you have, you can't create more time. But that's my only concern. If I seem comatose, it's just because I've been spending half the day publicizing Layer Cake, and the other half prepping X-Men, so I haven't had a break in 6 weeks...

Q: What drew you to the X-Men franchise?

Vaughn: I liked the other two movies, I was struggling to find a film to make that I felt excited about, and I really want to make a large budget movie with a heart, and soul, and X-Men seems to have that going on. But I'm going to do what I think is right [for the project].

Q: Will Halle Berry be returning as Storm for this film?

Vaughn: Halle's probably the only member of the X-Men I haven't spoken to yet. [Storm] is in the script, I've written her a very good role without even knowing her. But I'm hoping she'll be enthusiastic. I talked to Fox, and I told them the only thing about Storm that was better in X2 than X1 was her haircut. So it's not going to be hard to give her more to do.

Q: Is there any truth to the rumors of Alias' David Anders being on the shortlist for Angel?

Vaughn: Since I haven't got a clue who he is...well, you can take it from there.

Q: Which is your favorite X-Men character?

Vaughn: The character I like the most out of the X-Men is Stacy X. I doubt they'll let me use her, but I find her just fascinating. I thought she was cool. But she's a bit too risque for Fox...

[Ed Note: Stacy X was a mutant character briefly introduced during Joe Casey's run on the X-Men comic books, who worked at a mutant brothel and had the ability to control pheromones. Vaughn has certainly been doing his research!]

Q: Maybe if you sign on for X-Men 4...?

Vaughn: In the R-Rated version, yeah, haha.

Q: Are you being told to make the films PG-13?

Vaughn: A movie this size, yeah, I can understand it.

Q: Is Vinnie Jones officially on board yet as Juggernaut?

Vaughn: He's not confirmed yet, no. We're talking to him, and the whole Juggernaut thing was strange, because I went into where they make all the prosthetics, and the clay model they made, I was laughing because I thought it was Vinnie. And they wanted to take that mask, and put it on another actor...

Q: Does the Juggernaut suit retain aspects of the comic book's design without looking too silly?

Vaughn: Have you met Vinnie? Biggest head you've ever seen. He just looks like a living cartoon. But yeah, I'm comfortable with the design.

Q: Are you going to be bringing your production team from Layer Cake onto X-Men 3?

Vaughn: I wanted my [director of photography] to do this film more than *anything*, but he can't do it, which really bummed me out. So I'm trying to find a new DP at the moment, because I don't want the standard American lighting. I think my DP did a brilliant job [on Layer Cake], I'd like to give it that sort of look.

Q: Will you be storyboarding out the entire film in advance?

Vaughn: If I've got time, yes, I'll try.

Q: And how are special effects tests coming during pre-production?

Vaughn: Really good, I'm enjoying it, it's fun. I've got good people working on it who'll hold my hand and guide me through it.

And that's all we could squeeze out of the director. However, Layer Cake star Daniel Craig did also confirm for us that there were preliminary discussions for him to make an X-Men 3 appearance, but that they were unable to work out scheduling difficulties. When pressed for further specifics, Craig laughed us off! Oh well - we tried! Check back soon for more details on Layer Cake, and keep it here for all the latest mutations on X-Men 3!