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In truly shocking news, The Hollywood Reporter reveals that editor and composer John Ottman (X2, Days of Future Past, X-Men: Apocalypse) was quietly developing an X-Men spinoff film with aspiring screenwriter Byron Burton where Nicholas Hoult’s Beast was the lead. Titled X-MEN: FEAR THE BEAST, the screenplay (read it here) took place in the late 80’s, years after the events of X-Men: Apocalypse.
“I said, ‘Knock yourself out, but just know there’s a 95 percent chance no one is ever going to make this,'” Ottman says about Burton’s script. After reading it, he found himself interested in the project, envisioning a $90 million budgeted film which featured Mr. Sinister and the entire existing cast, including Professor X, Wolverine, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Storm, Mystique, Jubilee and others in supporting roles.
It focused on a Inuit village being stalked by a mysterious creature and Hank McCoy nearly losing control of his beastly nature due to the serum he crafted in DOFP to keep his physical appearance in check. There was also a Danger Room sequence featuring the Friends of Humanity hate group.
“The idea was we would have Mr. Sinister as this multi-film villain orchestrating things,” said Burton. “We [also] wrote a late-’80s outline of an Omega Red film where the idea is Sinister is testing the X-Men.”
Ottman offered the script to producers and 20th Century Fox, but because it used existing characters in the X-Men franchise, he would have to get the approval of longtime producer and writer Simon Kinberg, who declined to read the script due to him concurrently writing DARK PHOENIX at the time. Burton and Ottman had wanted to use Wolverine at a time when Kinberg was contemplating recasting the role after Hugh Jackman’s final appearance in LOGAN; an idea that we know never came to fruition.
Ottman and Burton are now sharing the screenplay (via THR) they worked on for the film which never got past the scripting phase.
Read it here!
Hey there… Do you have a copy of the script? Could you send it to me?