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Trivia / X-Men

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  • Ability over Appearance:
    • Hugh Jackman is a foot taller than Wolverine in the comics, but his performance has won over the fandom, and it's now difficult to imagine someone else replacing him, so Fox never did.
    • Magneto is very muscular in the comics, but the slender Ian McKellen was cast because he's one of the finest actors on the planet. It was never really in the cards to cast an actor old enough to be a Holocaust survivor who also has a supervillain physique.
  • Ascended Fancast: When the film was announced, fans and comic creators agreed Patrick Stewart was the choice for Professor X, citing his physical resemblance to the character as well as his acting gravitas and his career in sci-fi. After he got the role, the producers often said he was always the first choice.
  • Blooper: When Cyclops sets the dial on his visor to crack the slime on Jean's face in the museum fight, he's using his right hand. When he actually fires the shot, the shot is mirrored so he's using his left hand.
  • California Doubling: While set in New York state, the primary filming location was Toronto. For instance, the mansion interior was filmed in Casa Loma.
  • Cast the Runner-Up: Kevin Nash was originally cast as Sabretooth with Tyler Mane as his Stunt Double. When Nash dropped out, Mane got the part.
  • Cowboy BeBop at His Computer:
    • A review, this one appearing in the New Times Los Angeles, blasted the film for departing from the comic's signature yellow-and-blue costumes, and for giving Magneto, the "master of all evil", a sympathetic Holocaust-survivor Backstory. Which shows that he did actually read the comic... in the '60s, and not once since. Similarly, a New York Times piece on Valkyrie erroneously claimed that Bryan Singer came up with the idea of Magneto's Holocaust backstory.
    • Referencing Magneto's holocaust backstory and Wolverine's Dark and Troubled Past, a negative review in People Magazine said, "Since when do superheroes have such traumatic backstories?" They pretty much always have. Both Batman and Superman's birth parents were also killed when they were children. Even older superheroes such as The Shadow, Doc Savage, or The Phantom also tended to have tragic backstories.
  • Creator-Chosen Casting:
  • Darkhorse Casting: When Dougray Scott dropped out of the film, Bryan Singer chose unknown Australian actor Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, At the time, Jackman's only other film credit to his name was Paperback Hero.
  • Deleted Scene: See here.
  • Dyeing for Your Art:
    • Hugh Jackman admits to having taken the role of Logan without understanding what it meant to have a superhero physique. He showed up on set having done only a few weeks of physical training and director Bryan Singer immediately rearranged the shooting schedule so that they would shoot Jackman's shirtless scenes towards the end of production and told Jackman to hit the gym. He apparently never left, because later installments of the series showcase Jackman's now-ridiculously chiseled physique.
    • Rebecca Romijn said that due to waking up early to spend hours receiving Mystique's make-up, "I had almost no contact with the rest of the cast; it was like I was making a different movie from everyone else. It was hell." The eyeball-covering yellow lenses (used only here, as to make it easier on her, the sequels painted her eyes in post) and being basically naked during a really cold winter only made things more uncomfortable.
  • Enforced Method Acting:
    • When Wolverine first confronts Magneto, the initial look of shock at Magneto's entrance was a result of Hugh Jackman's fear of what was happening around him. He was told Magneto would tear open the train car; he thought this meant ripping off the door, not half of the train being literally pulled apart by hydraulics. He mentioned having to study that shot when doing the reaction shots so he could reproduce all the various twitches and tics he went through.
    • When Sabertooth throws Wolverine off the Statue of Liberty, the next scene is Logan slamming his claws into the side of the torch to stop falling. In an interview with Wizard, Jackman says the harness slipped and pinched him in a very uncomfortable place, as a result his screams of rage are actually genuine screams of pain.
    • When Senator Kelly is being assaulted by Mystique in the helicopter, Bruce Davison is really being struck in the face - Rebecca Romijn couldn't avoid hitting him with her foot given the yellow lenses made it hard to see.
  • Fake American: The Dutch Famke Janssen as Jean Grey, the New Zealander Anna Paquin as Rogue, and the Canadian Shawn Ashmore as Iceman.
  • Fake Nationality: The Canadian Wolverine is played by the Australian Hugh Jackman. American Halle Berry attempted a strange Kenyan accent for Storm (an actual African), although she dropped it after this film. It seemed to be a (poor) imitation of the rather odd British-African accent American Iona Morris used for X-Men: The Animated Series. And British Ian McKellen as the Polish Jew Magneto.
  • Follow the Leader: The success of this film, followed by the great success of the Spider-Man Trilogy, unleashed a deluge of modern Super Hero-inspired live-action like Daredevil (2003) and Batman Begins. Even obscure properties like Namor were optioned for movies. In can also be considered the precursor to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, especially given that MCU head honcho Kevin Feige was a producer on the film.
  • Irony as She Is Cast: Neither Patrick Stewart nor Ian McKellen knew how to play chess during filming. A chess master came in to teach them.
  • Logo Joke: Watch carefully when the 20th Century Fox fanfare ends and you'll notice the first of many Sigil Spam uses of X throughout the film: the image fades to black, but the X stays lit just a little bit longer than the rest.
  • Making Use of the Twin: Amusingly enough, averted. Mystique impersonates Bobby "Iceman" Drake (Shawn Ashmore), and in one scene, the real Iceman walks by a door shortly before the fake Iceman comes out of it. The director states in the commentary that he didn't know he'd managed to hire somebody with an identical twin who could easily have played the double and went to the bother of doing two takes spliced together.
  • No Stunt Double: Hugh Jackman did most of his own stunts. One day, he almost impaled a cameraman with his claws.
  • On-Set Injury: Hugh Jackman got his testicles caught in his harness after a six foot jump off the set's Statue of Liberty.
  • Orphaned Reference:
    • In Hugh Jackman's audition, Logan tells Rogue he's already saved her life once, in reference to a scene in the original script where he rescued her from an attempted rape.
    • Senator Kelly tells his aide (actually Mystique) that Jean is a mutant, despite no prior indication he knew her secret. This is because there was supposed to be a scene where Jean accidentally outed herself as a mutant by using her powers in front of Kelly. This was cut very close to filming, which is why there's also a deleted scene on the DVD where Xavier scolds Jean for losing control of her powers in public.
    • The infamous "toad hit by lightning" line is itself one, Toad was supposed to brag about things Toads can do throughout the film, with Storm's line as a comeback.
  • Promoted Fanboy: Hugh Jackman was thrilled to get to work with two of his heroes, Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen. Ian McKellen was likewise quite happy to work with Jackman, who he claims to have had a bit of a crush on since Oklahoma.
  • Reality Subtext: Stewart and McKellen had worked together on and off together for decades prior to this film (Royal Shakespeare Company), and (from all accounts) are friends in real life. This definitely spilled over into the on-screen chemistry, making the long standing Friendly Enemy status all the more believable.
  • Refitted for Sequel: Beast was planned for the first movie but was saved for the sequels. Concept art can be found on the X-Men 1.5 DVD.
  • Saved from Development Hell:
    • The road to an X-Men film began in 1984 when Marvel Comics writers and chief editors Gerry Conway and Roy Thomas wrote a screenplay when Orion Pictures held an option on the film rights, but development stalled when the studio began facing financial troubles. Throughout 1989 and 1990, Stan Lee and Chris Claremont were in discussions with Carolco Pictures for a film adaptation, with James Cameron as producer and Kathryn Bigelow directing. Bigelow wrote a story treatment with Bob Hoskins being considered for Wolverine and Angela Bassett being considered for Storm. The deal fell apart when Lee piqued Cameron's interest in a Spider-Man film, Carolco went bankrupt, and the film rights reverted to Marvel.
    • In December 1992, Marvel discussed selling the property to Columbia Pictures to no avail. In 1994, Lauren Schuler Donner bought the rights for 20th Century Fox, who were impressed with the success of X-Men: The Animated Series. Andrew Kevin Walker was hired to write the script. His draft involved Professor Xavier recruiting Wolverine into the X-Men, which consisted of Cyclops, Jean Grey, Iceman, Beast, and Angel. The Brotherhood of Mutants, which consisted of Magneto, Sabretooth, Toad, Juggernaut and the Blob, try to conquer New York City, while Henry Peter Gyrich and Bolivar Trask attack the X-Men with three 8-foot-tall Sentinels. The script focused on the rivalry between Wolverine and Cyclops, as well as the latter's self-doubt as a field leader. Part of the backstory invented for Magneto made him the cause of the Chernobyl disaster. The script also featured the X-Copter and the Danger Room. Walker turned in his second draft in June 1994.
    • Laeta Kalogridis was brought on for a subsequent rewrite in 1995. An early script kept the idea of Magneto turning Manhattan into a "mutant homeland", while another hinged on a romance between Wolverine and Storm. Michael Chabon pitched a six-page film treatment to Fox in 1996 that focused heavily on character development between Wolverine and Jubilee and included Professor X, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Nightcrawler, Beast, Iceman, and Storm and the villains would not have been introduced until the potential second film.
    • In 1995, Glenn Danzig was invited to audition for Wolverine, as his height and build closely resemble that of the film's protagonist, as described in the original comic books. However, he declined due to scheduling conflicts with his band.
    • Brett Ratner was considered to direct and Robert Rodriguez was offered the job, but he turned it down. Paul W.S. Anderson was approached after the success of Mortal Kombat: The Movie, but he turned it down, wanting to shift away from making another PG-13-rated film in favour of Event Horizon. Hot off The Usual Suspects, Bryan Singer was looking to do a science fiction film and Fox offered him Alien: Resurrection, but producer Tom DeSanto felt he would be more appropriate for X-Men. Singer was hesitant to direct a comic book film, but changed his mind after DeSanto presented the themes of prejudice in the comic that resonated with Singer, being both gay and Jewish.
    • Ed Solomon began work on the script in August 1996. Singer was installed as director in December, while Solomon completed a re-write that month. Solomon's hiring was publicly revealed in April 1997, and Singer went on to film Apt Pupil. Fox then announced a Christmas 1998 release date. John Logan and James Schamus provided script revisions, with the latter focusing solely on fleshing out the characters. In late 1997, the budget was projected at $60 million. In 1998, Claremont returned to Marvel and, seeing how Fox was still struggling with the script, sent them a four-page-long memo where he explained the core concepts and what differentiated the X-Men from other superheroes.
    • Fox rejected the treatment due to budget concerns. As a result, Beast, Nightcrawler, Pyro, and the Danger Room had to be deleted before the studio green-lit the film.
    • In mid-1998, Singer and DeSanto brought Christopher McQuarrie from The Usual Suspects and together they did another rewrite.McQuarrie was initially slated to work on the script for only three weeks but had not yet delivered his draft by October 1998. Joss Whedon was brought in to re-write the last act. Whedon was highly critical of the script and instead performed a "major overhaul". His draft featured the Danger Room and concluded with Jean Grey dressed as the Phoenix. According to Entertainment Weekly, it was rejected because of its "quick-witted pop culture-referencing tone" and the finished film contained only two dialogue exchanges that Whedon had contributed. Whedon also claimed to have been invited to the table read, completely unaware that his script had been thrown out. David Hayter, who was then Singer's assistant, was hired to do another re-write. Production started in September 1999 and finished in March 2000.
  • Scully Box: Hugh Jackman is 6'2 and Famke Janssen is 6'0. While James Marsden is reasonably tall at 5'10, the filmmakers didn't want Cyclops to be noticeably shorter than both Wolverine and his own love interest. A number of tricks were done to make up the difference, including Marsden standing on apple boxes or wearing platform shoes. Janssen also went barefoot in some scenes where her feet aren't visible. A behind-the-scenes feature showcases Marsden humorously grousing about needing such tricks.
  • Sleeper Hit: X-Men had its release date moved forward and its budget slashed (with some planned action sequences and characters cut from the movie in pre-production), with then-Fox exec Tom Rothman fully expecting that the movie would bomb and that the company could sell the rights back to Marvel in order to cut their losses. Instead, the movie managed to nearly quadruple its production budget in raw gross and help revitalize a genre that would go on to completely change the face of Hollywood. Amusingly, Fox would become very apprehensive about sharing the X-Men rights for decades, until Marvel's parent company bought them out.
  • So My Kids Can Watch: Tyler Mane wasn't familiar with X-Men before he appeared in the movie; he prepped for the role with his son, who was a big fan of the comics.
  • Star-Making Role: For Hugh Jackman and James Marsden.
  • Throw It In!:
    • Reports suggest that the actual script of the movie didn't have Wolverine saying "bub," but Hugh Jackman threw it in. Some reports state that he actually "threw it in" many, many times. They just only kept some of them. When Wolverine meet Professor X, he says "What do they call you — Wheels?" where the Wheels part was ad-libbed. The scripted line was "What do they call you — Baldie?"
    • The scene in the train station where a young boy smiles at Cyclops and he smiles back was unplanned. The boy was a huge X-Men fan, and Cyclops was his favorite. The scene originally called for Cyclops to look at the train schedule, but according to Bryan Singer, the boy could not stop smiling at James Marsden. Finally, during one shot, Marsden just looked back at him and smiled, much to the boy's delight. Bryan Singer liked the idea so much, he kept it in the film, and told the actress playing the boy's mother to react the way she did.
  • Troubled Production: Though it was long assumed that the film had a comparatively trouble-free production outside of some effects issues, series producer Lauren Schuler Donner admitted two decades later that this wasn't remotely true, as the later much publicized bad behavior of Bryan Singer was in full force, leading to him a chaotic pre-production where lots of writers took a stab at the script and Singer throwing tantrums while suffering from an addiction to pain medication (for more detail, see Singer's folder here, showing he had a tendency for this!). One of Donner's assistants, Kevin Feige, certainly used it as a learning experience for when he ended up being hired to oversee something called the Marvel Cinematic Universe later that decade.
  • Uncredited Role: Only David Hayter, then a little-known voice actor who worked part-time as one of Singer's assistants, got a credit for the final script, spliced together from a bunch of rejected drafts. Word is that Christopher McQuarrie and Ed Solomon wrote most of the filmed script but asked for their names to be removed out of anger at the messy process. One of the many writers brought in was Joss Whedon, whose only surviving contributions were two lines with most of their previous context removed (including the infamous "toad hit by lightning").
  • Wag the Director:
    • During filming, Halle Berry refused to wear white contacts that covered her eyes (like in the comics) and wanted more lines/scenes.
    • According to Hugh Jackman, Bryan Singer banned comic books from the set, but the cast read them anyway. The instigator encouraging them to defy Singer was supposedly Kevin Feige himself.
  • What Could Have Been:

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