What the hell, Fox?!

Just when I was starting to feel cautiously optimistic that things were going all right on X-Men: First Class, rumors are flying that Fox is quite possibly still up to their interfering ways.

Case in point:  Benjamin Walker's casting as Hank McCoy/Beast.

A few weeks ago, it was reported by the NY Times that Walker was offered the role in Matthew Vaughn's X-Men prequel.  While it doesn't appear that the casting was ever officially confirmed, it seemed like a done deal, or at least close to it, anyway.  He even mentioned he was doing the movie during an appearance on Live With Regis & Kelly last month while he was promoting his off-Broadway hit, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson.

Well, what a difference a few weeks (and a few summer box-office bombs) makes at Fox.  Showbiz411's take-it-with-a-grain-of-salt Roger Friedman is reporting that Fox, most notably Tom Rothman, who seems to hate the X-Men even more than Magneto does, ditched Walker's casting as Beast in favor of a younger, more Twilight-esque hottie for the role.  They apparently even checked the availability of Taylor Lautner. 

With Lautner unavailable, and the screen tests of other actors failing to impress the studio, Fox decided to just re-offer the role to Walker.  However, Walker has reportedly done the right thing by giving the studio the finger and signing up to reprise his title role in Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, which is set to transfer on Broadway later this year.   

How ridiculous.  First of all, good for Benjamin Walker.  I didn't get the chance to see him in Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, but I heard amazing things about his performance and I think he made the right choice by sticking with a job where he won't risk getting replaced in favor of a shirtless Twilight model.  I'll definitely be checking this out when it comes to Broadway.

Most importantly:  X-Men does not need to be Twilight-ed.  Ever.  If Fox is really concerned about the survival of this franchise, they just need to take a good look at how this series has gone downhill by pulling crap like this.  And I don't even hate X3 or Wolverine with the venom that a lot of fans do.  But this franchise deserves far more respect than it's gotten.   

X-Men's audience isn't screaming teenage girls, nor should it be.  Right now they've got Matthew Vaughn directing, Bryan Singer back on board as a producer, James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender set to star (who, I might add, are plenty nice to look at, as was Walker), and it looks like they had a really good thing going by casting a rising star in the theater world.  Should someone remind them that Hugh Jackman was also a musical theater star when he was cast as Wolverine?  That seemed to work out well for everyone involved, didn't it?

Please Fox, don't screw this up.  We don't want a mindless Twilight-wannabe posing as an X-Men film.