For most of us, it's hard to imagine what the world was like before comic book movies. However, there was a time when making a film featuring comic book characters was a struggle to turn into reality. A new report reveals that there were actually plans to produce an X-Men movie back in the 1980s. Interestingly, the cancelled flick would have focused on Kitty Pryde as she eventually embraced her Shadowcat persona.
The in-depth report by Polygon reveals that Stan Lee wanted to bring Marvel characters to the big screen after the success of Richard Donner's Superman films. After several rejections, Lee's associate Alice Donenfeld-Vernoux managed to make a deal with Nelvana in 1982, which was then known for animation. With a studio finally ready for the project, Marvel writer Chris Claremont was assigned to work with Nelvana on which characters will be used and the story for the film.
So what would have happened in the movie? Claremont had two outlines which are listed below.
Both outlines are certainly interesting but perhaps people weren't ready for an X-Men movie just yet. When Marvel's Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway were brought in to work on the script, their screenplay kept getting rejected by Orion Pictures, which got a distribution deal with Nelvana. In the end, the project was ultimately scrapped when Orion went bankrupt.
What did you think of the original outline for the X-Men movie? Let us know in the comments below.
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