Items marked with () come from reliable sources who document their facts. Items with () are rumors from outlets that don't name their sources. Items marked with () are opinions expressed by Comics2Film.

Magneto: Ian McKellan (Gods and Monsters)
Toad: Ray Park (The Phantom Menace)
Mystique: Rebecca Romijn-Stamos (The Spy Who Shagged Me)
Sabretooth: Tyler Mane (a.k.a. Big Sky: WCW Wrestler)

Senator Kelly: Bruce Davison (Apt Pupil)
Henry Gyrich: Matthew Sharp (Saving Private Ryan)

X-Men Club
X-Men/Cyclops eye-wear available from: Oakley
X-Men/Wolverine Motorcycle available from: Titan Motorcycle Co. of America

Last year's hit comic-book adaptation X-Men did well at Tuesday night's Saturn awards, taking home six trophies. The movie was named "Best Science Fiction Film".

Awards also went to Director Brian Singer, actor Hugh Jackman, supporting actress Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, writer David Hayter and costume designer Louise Mingenbach.

The results of the MTV Movie Awards air set to air on Thursday but the winners were announced on on Monday. The film had been nominated for a "Best Movie" award, which goes to Gladiator instead. The mutants also missed-out on the "Best On-Screen Team" award, which instead went to Charlie's Angels. Finally "Breakthrough Performance, Male" went to Sean Patrick Thomas for his part in Save the Last Dance and not to Hugh Jackman's Wolverine.

The CHUD website sat down with Jackman for an interview recently. While they neglected to ask Jackman about the MTV shut-out they did get some of the rising star's thoughts on X-Men 2. Jackman told CHUD he things they'll be shooting the movie in January or February.

" Everyone's back. Bryan's directing and I think there's going to be a few more characters introduced," The actor said. " The script is almost ready, but not quite. I ask for it all the time and it's not quite ready."

The accolades for X-Men just keep coming. E! Online has presented the list of nominees for the MTV Movie Awards. Everyone's favorite Mutant movie is up for three of them.

The film is up for Best Movie, squaring off with the likes of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Erin Brockovich, Gladiator and Hannibal.

Halle Berry/Hugh Jackman/James Marsden/Anna Paquin also have a nom for Best On-Screen Team. Other nominees include Tom Hanks/Wilson (the volleyball) in Cast Away, Drew Barrymore/Cameron Diaz/Lucy Liu in Charlie's Angels, Robert De Niro/Ben Stiller in Meet the Parents and George Clooney/Tim Blake Nelson/John Turturro in O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Finally, Hugh Jackman gets a nod for Breakthrough Male Performance. Wolverine seems a shoe-in against weak competition from Jack Black in High Fidelity, Patrick Fugit in  Almost Famous, Tom Green in Road Trip, and Ashton Kutcher in Dude, Where's My Car? and Sean Patrick Thomas in Save the Last Dance.

The Hollywood Reporter ran a recent rundown of the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films' 27th annual Saturn Awards nominations. Everybody's favorite mutant movie X-Men topped the list garnering 10 nominations. It's next closest competitors with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas each bringing in 8 noms.

X-Men competes for best science fiction film against The Cell, Hollow Man, The 6th Day, Space Cowboys and Titan A.E.

The article also reveals that Spider-Man director Sam Raimi is set to receive the George Pal Memorial Award.

Variety reports that X-Men has been nominated for an excellence in-costume-design award by The Costume Designers Guild. Louise Mingenbach, the designer behind the threads in last summer's hit comic book adaptation, has been nominated in the category of "Contemporary Film." Other designers to receive a nod in this category are Joseph Aulisi for Charlie's Angels, Jeffrey Kurland for Erin Brockovich, Laura C. Bauer for High Fidelity and Louise Frogley for Traffic.

X-Men continued to be a box office smash for 20th Century Fox last week, this time dominating the home video marketplace. According to Variety the home-video release of X-Men took in more income than even most holiday-weekend theatrical releases. The DVD and VHS versions of X-Men raked in over $50 million in sales and rentals, compared to the $47 million take of also comic-themed Unbreakable, which debuted in theaters in the #2 spot. X-Men the big-screens just four months ago, earning $57 million there in its first weekend.

"This incredible consumer response proves that X-Men was not only an event at the box office, but that it is also an event at retail cash registers," Fox spokesman Steve Feldstein is quoted as saying. Fox estimates that 1 million copies of the DVD and 1.12 million copies of the VHS tape will have been sold by the end of the holiday weekend.

Also opening strong in the video market is Gladiator from DreamWorks. Sales on the DVD version of that film will likely outstrip the merry mutants. However, the VHS version of Gladiator is carries a hefty, priced-to-rent sticker price, which translates to dramatically lower sales.

X-Men director Bryan Singer went on record this week saying he hopes to bring another, feature-packed DVD of his superhero movie out next year. The director has said the Fox has committed to doing the additional DVD.

However other reports indicate that the disc is not happening. Sources tell C2F that the head of FOX DVD has stated that there are no current plans for another X-Men package. One would imagine that announcing a second edition DVD just weeks before the first edition is set to go to market would have a negative impact on sales.

Yet Rob Allstetter of the Comics Continuum has word from sources about what may be on the disc. According the Allstetter Singer has footage of the Weapon X experiment and a video diary of the shoot.

Also Bill Jemas, president of Marvel Comics told Allstetter that Ultimate X-Men may appear on the expanded edition. Marvel recently published Ultimate Spider-Man online shortly after the release of the print version.

The New York Post talked to X-Men director Bryan Singer about the rumored second DVD edition of his smash comic book movie. Apparently Singer does feel much more could be included on the disc to make it a truly special edition.

"20th Century Fox has committed to doing a second X-Men DVD, in which I would use a slightly longer version, including two new scenes which I’d like to shoot, a commentary track and at least a dozen outtakes," Singer told the Post. 

"I would also include hundreds of hours of video-camera footage of the shooting of X-Men, chronicling the experience, which was inspired by Heart of Darkness, the documentary about the making of Apocalypse Now.”

Thanks to Empire Online for the lead.

The CHUD website presents a story that will likely aggravate DVD aficionados. According to a report from that website, the X-Men DVD that's set to hit the shelves in the next few weeks will be followed by a better disc to be released in the unspecified future. The report claims that the the more basic edition is being rushed to market, while an enhanced edition is developed in secret.

Although the source of the information is not give, the report claims that Fox has plenty of behind-the-scenes footage that won't be appearing on the disc released November 21. Likewise, the November disc does not contain a commentary track (a staple of "special edition" DVDs).

Fox has officially announced the release of the X-Men DVD, being slated an 11/21/2000 release. The movie can now be preordered from most online vendors. The announcement also came with good news for VHS viewers: the tapes will come with some of the extras that are usually reserved for the DVD crowd. The movie carries a suggested priced of $22.98 ($26.98 Canada) on VHS and $29.98 ($41.98 Canada) on DVD. Several online vendors are listing the DVD for less than $18.00 (US).

The press release provides these descriptions for both packages: 

"VHS: Spectacularly packaged in a collectible foil video sleeve, X-Men VHS is presented in pan & scan format. It includes 10 minutes of never-before-seen footage, including and exciting 'animatic' animated storyboard, created to demonstrate Bryan Singer's vision for one of the movie's action sequences, as well as a fascinating interview with director Bryan Singer from PBS' Charlie Rose Show.

"DVD: In addition to the elements included on the VHS release, the X-Men DVD also features many more extras, including hot actor Hugh Jackman's screen test for the role of Logan/Wolverine and is presented in a special 'Extended Branching Version' to preserve the integrity of the film in its original theatrical form while allowing consumers to view six never-before-seen sequences. The X-Men DVD is presented in anamorphic widescreen format (aspect ratio: 2.35:1) with a spectacular 'reference quality' video transfer and English 5.1 Surround, English Dolby Surround, French Dolby Surround and English and Spanish subtitles.

DVD fans looking for a deal might want to check out Express.com. The website is offering the X-Men DVD for free when customers purchase their $24.99 coupon book.

The X-Men DVD is officially set to go on sale November, 12. Many online vendors have already started to take pre-orders for what is sure to be a big seller. The disc will reportedly have the following features and extras:

IGN DVD reports that the DVD release of X-Men is set for November 28 at a price of $26.98. They cite The Digital Bits as the source of the information, and caution that this is unconfirmed.

Among the features said to appear on the disk are:

Fans have been speculating over the identities of the various youngsters seen at Xavier's school in the movies.  While the official credits identify the Iceman, Shadowcat and Jubilee characters there are several others that display familiar powers.  Singer confirmed that a young Colossus appears sketching a picture in one scene, but denied that the kid teleporting on the basketball court was intended to be Nightcrawler. "Nightcrawler would be blue and have a tail."

Fans were treated to a blooper reel from the movie. Outtakes included Professor X having difficulty navigating his chair and an unexpected walk-on by Spider-Man.  Singer was unsure if these clips would be included on a DVD of the movie and seemed to be inclined to just keep them for the fans.

The Box Office Guru website reports that the X-Men movie opened this weekend to record box office numbers.  BOG reports the movie took in $57.5million in ticket sales over the weekend, according to studio estimates. 

If this number holds up in the final analysis, the X-Men will hold the #4 spot in terms of movie openings and the #1 spot for non-sequel openings. This would also represent the best July opening for a movie, knocking down the most financially successful comic to film conversion: Men In Black, which had a $51.1 million opening in 1997.

Thanks to Mike Oeming for the tip.

Of course, a hit movie needs a DVD package that is worth of it.  X-Fan reports that such a package is on the way. According to their write-up, the X-Men DVD will rival Fight Club in terms of extras.  Many extras will presumably be culled from the Senator Kelly promos.

The disk may also include interviews, featurettes and deleted scenes which will be completed before being pressed onto disks.

Speaking of Senator Kelly, has anyone tried calling the phone number at the end of the MutantWatch TV ad?  Noel Curtin did. Curtin was surprised to learn that dialing 1-310-369-4443 connects the caller to a live voice mail system. The caller is greeted with an audio message spouting more of Kelly's anti-mutant rhetoric.  Presumably, one could leave a message for Kelly if one knew his PBX extension.  For those readers who do not want to make a long-distance call, Comics2Film has recorded the greeting for you.  Thanks to Noel for sharing the discovery.  You da man Noel!

With the final countdown to the X-Men movie underway, online and and offline events are springing up everywhere.

Corona Coming Attractions reports the following schedule for online chats with various members of the X-Posse:

Corona isn't just giving readers information, but they are giving away X-Men STUFF too! For a chance to win a pair of Oakley Cyclops Juliets and other prizes create your own mutant and send it in to the boys at Corona.  Details can be found on CA's contest page.

Our friends over at the X-Fan site will be participating in a live webcast of the movie's premier. Click here for details on that even.

X-Fan also tipped us off to Fox's Auction of X-Men props now underway. Most of the items are street-clothes wardrobe from various characters.  However, the current big-ticket items are Magneto's Cape, Sabretooth's animal skin (both exceeding $1000 at the time of this writing) and Wolverine's black battle suit which is heading for a $10,000 price tag.

With so many mutants to choose from, many fans are bummed that their favorite didn't make the cut for the big screen.  Now MovieHeadlines is reporting on a sequel that includes Angel, Colossus and Psylocke.  The sequel is actually the X-Men Movie Special comic book that was packaged with the new Wizards of the Coast collectible card game which was released last week.  The comic presents a sequel to the movie storyline. Both the comic and the card set feature movie-made-over versions of other X-Men characters.  The comic also supports design illustrations that show how other characters were given the black leather treatment.

Comics2Film was alarmed to find the following message in our mailboxes late this afternoon:

The mutants, clearly fed up with Kelly's attack on their people have managed to deface the MutantWatch website. The word "Sucks" has been spray-painted over the site's logo, while references to the politician who runs the site have been altered to read "Senator Smelly".

But the alterations were not limited to simple defacement. Clicking on some of the altered images took us to the secret website of the Mutant Underground.  At that site we were able to register to win a Wolverine jacket, which is a pretty progressive recruiting incentive for a terrorist organization!

Thanks to BloodFang for the tip.

This all apparently has something to do with the so-called X-Men movie that is due out in a few weeks.

If you are interested in that film, you might check out the audio interview with X-Men screenwriter David Hayter at the Entertainment Tomorrow.

Likewise, you can read the thoughts of Tyler Mane (a.k.a. Sabretooth)  by checking out his recent interview at the X-Fan site.