AN: C'mon, guys, lacking powerstones this week. Get me back to the top 20. Tonight, I'll release 2 chapters.
If I get to the top 20, I'll release another 2 chapters. 💎💎💎
--
[Titan HQ LA] [9:00 PM]
The executive conference room on Titan HQ's upper floor.
Joe Russo sat near one side of the long table with a yellow legal pad covered in handwritten notes, while Anthony had spread several printed character sheets across the polished surface. A large screen at the end of the room displayed the Titan casting database, frozen on the final group of audition photographs they had been reviewing for more than two months. At the head of the table were a couple of files and a tablet.
Alex walked in with a bottle of water and sat down in the chair at the head of the table. He had just come back from finishing the Ironman shoot. He had already spent a lot of time reviewing the audition tapes that the brothers selected. By morning, he had made decisions on all seventeen major roles.
Joe looked toward him as Alex opened the casting file on the tablet in front of him. "You went through everything we sent?"
Alex nodded while scrolling through the final list. "Yes. I'm not calling anybody back for another round because I've already seen enough."
Anthony leaned forward with immediate interest. "So you've actually locked the team?"
Alex connected his tablet to the large display, and the first name appeared across the screen.
PATRICK STEWART
CHARLES XAVIER / PROFESSOR X
Joe smiled almost immediately. "That was our choice too. He walks into the room, and you believe people would listen to him."
Alex nodded as he advanced to the next name. "He gives Charles authority without needing him to raise his voice. I want Xavier to feel compassionate, intelligent, and dangerous enough that audiences understand he's choosing restraint because he believes in it."
The next image appeared.
IAN MCKELLEN
ERIK LEHNSHERR / MAGNETO
Anthony laughed quietly and leaned back. "That combination is going to carry half the movie by itself."
"It should," Alex replied as he studied the two names beside each other. "He brings gravitas and tragic conviction, giving the ideological split with Charles genuine dramatic weight. Besides, they are veterans, and even I couldn't think of anyone better than them."
The screen shifted again.
HALLE BERRY
ORORO MUNROE / STORM
"I've already introduced her character as a cameo, so this film will pick up directly from that cameo and expand the story and will officially introduce the mutants for the first time in the MCU," Alex said.
The next portrait appeared.
JENSEN ACKLES
SCOTT SUMMERS / CYCLOPS
Anthony nodded slowly. "Good choice. He had the strongest command presence. And if you consider his acting in Supernatural, I think he's a great choice."
"That's why he's Scott," Alex said as he handed over the file. "Cyclops is the team leader. With a little guidance from us, Jensen can do well in that role. I'm sure he will be happy with the choice since he tried out for a small part as a mutant extra."
EMILY BLUNT
JEAN GREY
Joe tapped his pen against the table. "She and Jensen had excellent chemistry, although her scenes with Patrick might've been even stronger."
Alex agreed while opening one of Emily's audition notes. "Jean needs warmth because her power level is already frightening. If audiences meet somebody who's compassionate first, then every hint of what she could eventually become carries more weight."
The remaining names began appearing one after another.
KELSEY GRAMMER
HANK McCOY / BEAST
BRYAN CRANSTON
COLONEL WILLIAM STRYKER
LIEV SCHREIBER
VICTOR CREED / SABRETOOTH
KELLY HU
YURIKO OYAMA / LADY DEATHSTRIKE
MARY ELIZABETH WINSTEAD
ANNA MARIE / ROGUE
DAVID TENNANT
KURT WAGNER / NIGHTCRAWLER
ZAC EFRON
BOBBY DRAKE / ICEMAN
AARON TAYLOR-JOHNSON
PIETRO MAXIMOFF / QUICKSILVER
ELIZABETH OLSEN
WANDA MAXIMOFF / SCARLET WITCH
[Cameos]
HUGH JACKMAN
LOGAN / WOLVERINE
REBECCA ROMIJN
RAVEN DARKHÖLME / MYSTIQUE
CHARLIZE THERON
EMMA FROST
By the time the final portrait appeared, Joe had stopped writing and simply studied the full cast grid.
"That's a ridiculous lineup," Joe said with a grin as the seventeen actors remained displayed across the wall.
Alex took another drink of water and looked over the names. "It's an ensemble, so it needs people who can carry scenes without depending on a single mutant to enter and rescue the movie."
Anthony picked up the newest copy of the script and flipped toward the opening act. "That brings us to the bigger question. This version works much better than the first draft, especially if we're introducing the X-Men to people who've never read a comic."
Alex leaned forward and pulled his own marked copy closer. The cover carried the current working title in simple black letters.
X-MEN: PROTOCOL ZERO.
"I don't want our first X-Men movie opening with aliens, giant robots, time travel, or ten minutes of mythology explanation," Alex said while turning to the opening pages. "The audience needs to care about mutants before we ask them to care about mutant politics."
Joe nodded while studying his notes. "Which is why we're treating the whole thing like a rescue thriller."
"Exactly," Alex replied. "Young children and teenagers are disappearing around the world. Some vanish from foster homes, some disappear after public incidents, and others get taken directly from their families. Nobody understands who's doing it because the operations are disguised as arrests, medical transfers, immigration holds, psychiatric commitments, and military custody."
Anthony flipped several pages until he reached Stryker's introduction. "Then we gradually reveal Protocol Zero."
Alex tapped Bryan Cranston's casting photograph on the tablet. "Stryker shouldn't behave like a screaming fanatic. Bryan can make him scarier if he sincerely believes he's saving humanity. Protocol Zero begins as a classified contingency program created to identify dangerous mutants, then it quietly evolves into kidnapping, experimentation, forced recruitment, and extermination."
Joe looked toward the whiteboard where the major story beats had already been outlined. "That gives us Weapon X."
"Right," Alex said as he stood and walked toward the board. "Logan is evidence of what Protocol Zero becomes when nobody stops it. He's been experimented on, his memories are fractured, and they've turned him into something they can point at a target. His story shows the audience exactly where Stryker's program is heading."
Anthony joined him near the board. "Charles begins the movie already searching for mutants, but there isn't a school yet."
Alex nodded while drawing a circle around Xavier's name. "Charles has Cerebro in an early form and a network of contacts. He's helping people quietly, hiding some of them, relocating others, and trying to convince governments that mutants aren't a threat. Erik is helping too, although he's already much less patient."
Joe stood and pointed toward the first-act kidnapping sequence. "Then one of Charles's safe locations gets hit."
"That's our ignition point," Alex replied. "Stryker's people take several young mutants, including Bobby and Rogue. They also captured Raven. Charles realizes somebody has built an international system specifically designed to hunt his people, so he can't solve it with phone calls anymore."
Anthony traced the team formation section with one finger. "That's when Scott, Jean, Storm, Hank, and Kurt come together."
"Scott is a newbie who is learning to control his power with Charles's help," Alex said. "Then, there's Jean. A new telepath with a story of her own. Hank is researching the mutation itself. Ororo has recently joined them after Charles tracked her down overseas before Shield could intervene, while Kurt becomes part of the rescue after Protocol Zero raids the community that's been hiding him."
Joe looked toward another page. "Then Erik brings Wanda and Pietro after rescuing them from a facility while searching for Raven and the kids."
Alex smiled slightly. "And that's where the ideological tension starts becoming visible. Charles sees frightened young people who need somewhere safe. Erik sees an emerging nation that needs soldiers before humanity decides to wipe it out."
Anthony flipped deeper into the screenplay. "Emma's cameo?"
"She'll have three scenes. Charles will try to recruit her, but she'll reject. She won't be a part of the team, nor will she interfere with the X-Men. Her goal is different and she's fighting her own battles, which will be mentioned briefly and will be the main focus of the sequel." Alex explained.
Joe rested both hands against the table. "What about Sabretooth and Deathstrike?"
"They're Stryker's controlled weapons," Alex said. "Victor has more autonomy because he's useful when he's violent, while Yuriko has been conditioned much more aggressively. That gives us two examples of what Weapon X does to people, and Logan sees pieces of himself in both of them."
Anthony looked toward the climax marked across several pages. "The rescue facility in northern Canada still works better than the underground New York version."
Alex agreed immediately. "Keep Canada. Isolated military complex, brutal weather, limited communications, and enough distance from civilians that Stryker believes he can bury everything if the operation goes wrong."
Joe smiled as he pictured the sequence. "We approach it like a prison break."
"A prison break where almost everyone breaking in has a different superpower," Alex replied. "Scott coordinates the assault. Storm controls visibility and air support. Kurt handles infiltration. Jean and Charles try locating prisoners mentally. Hank breaks the security system. Quicksilver becomes extraction. Wanda destabilizes containment systems and holds back the security/army."
Anthony flipped toward the final confrontation. "Then Erik finds the execution records."
Alex's expression became more serious. "That's the moment the movie changes. He discovers Stryker wasn't planning to contain mutants indefinitely. Protocol Zero includes termination orders if containment fails, including children."
Joe looked toward the final pages. "And Erik decides the facility staff should die."
"Every last person involved," Alex said. "Charles refuses because some of the soldiers don't know what they've been protecting, some scientists were coerced, and prisoners are still trapped inside. Erik sees that mercy as the same weakness humanity will exploit again."
Anthony leaned against the table. "So the final conflict isn't really X-Men versus Magneto yet."
Alex shook his head. "They're still rescuing people together. The fracture comes from what happens after they win."
He turned toward the final whiteboard section where two words had been written beneath the climax.
THE SCHOOL.
"Charles realizes hiding mutants individually will never be enough," Alex continued. "They need a place where kids can learn what they are without being treated like weapons or diseases. That's where Xavier's school begins."
Joe looked toward the opposing note beneath Erik's name.
THE BROTHERHOOD.
"And Erik walks away after planting the seed of the Brotherhood," Joe said.
Alex nodded as he imagined the final scene. "Erik helps save everyone, looks around at dozens of terrified mutant children, then tells Charles that another Stryker will eventually appear because humanity will always fear what it can't control. Charles tells him fear can change. Erik tells him he hopes Charles is right."
Anthony smiled slowly. "Then he leaves with Raven."
"And possibly Wanda and Pietro remain conflicted about which man they should follow," Alex said. "That gives us somewhere to take them later without forcing every relationship into its final comic-book shape during the first film."
Joe picked up the screenplay and looked at the title again. "This could actually work for people who don't know anything about X-Men."
"That's the point," Alex replied as he returned to his chair. "A new viewer gets a rescue thriller about persecuted people discovering each other and fighting back. Comic readers get Weapon X, Stryker, the Xavier and Magneto divide, the formation of the school, early Brotherhood foundations, and enough character relationships to know exactly where we're going."
Anthony closed the script with a satisfied nod. "Then we're ready to start preparing everyone."
Alex looked once more toward the cast displayed across the wall, imagining Patrick and Ian opposite each other, Halle commanding a storm, Jensen leading the field team, Emily reaching into minds, Hugh tearing through Weapon X corridors, and seventeen characters gradually becoming part of something much larger.
"Send the contracts tomorrow morning," Alex said as he stood. "Tell everybody they've got the roles, and schedule the first full cast meeting for next week."
Joe gathered the audition folders while smiling. "That meeting's going to be crowded."
Alex picked up his jacket and glanced back at the enormous cast grid.
"Good," he replied with a grin. "An X-Men movie should be. And gentlemen, this is where I stop interfering. And as I've said before, go wild without worrying about money. As long as it's going into the film, I'm good."
-[POWERSTONES & REVIEWS]--
Support link: www.patr eon.com/UnknownMaster
[10 advance chs] [All chs available for all tiers] + [Streamer in Modern Family> 37 chs> All chs available for all tiers]