You have got to see this. It’s a clip from the dvd version of X-Men: First Class due out September 9. Michael Fassbender either lost a bet, owes director Matthew Vaughn money or someone watched him bury a body and has video. I have to give Fassy props for his willingness to showcase his feminine side, and he certainly looks better than the drag evinced by Robert Downey, Jr. in the trailer for Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. Fassy in drag, however, not pretty. Rest assured he will not be joining the road company of “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert” anytime soon.

The scene takes place during Charles and Erik’s recruiting tour. The two men are demonstrating their powers to young Angel, played by Zoe Kravitz. Erik levitates a champagne bucket and playfully calls Charles “Vicar”. That much made the cut to the theatrical version. What we didn’t get to see was Charles then using his powers to make Angel see Erik in drag. I can understand why Vaughn filmed it, but I can also understand why he then decided, unfortunately, to cut it.

The focus of every stop on the press junket would have been “why was Charles Xavier picturing Erik Lensherr in drag at all?” Which is a valid question. If that scene had stayed in the version released to theaters, that’s all anyone would have been talking about all summer. (Although on the upside, it probably would have taken the spotlight off of January Jones’ Emma Frost and her skimpy outfits, and the fascination with her ‘baby bump’.) There was already a perceived homoerotic subtext. If audiences had heard “You’ve never looked lovelier, darling” from Charles, small minds would not have seen the joke and the film probably would have been boycotted or picketed.

In any case, Erik in drag is out now (oh I crack myself up) thanks to the home version and the interweb where nothing stays hidden for long.

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Poster number two for David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method is MUCH better than the first version. This one is still geared toward the European film market since it’s in French, and it still carries the Venice Film Festival logo in the upper left hand corner (which makes me wonder why it’s not in Italian. Is French the universal language of pretentious artistes and film festivals?) The difference (other than the better Photoshop), however, is that while Keira Knightley is still in the center of the two men, a metaphor to be sure, they at least don’t appear to be peering over her shoulders like the poster for a bad rom-com.

There is nothing “com” about this film and I suspect there’s very little “rom” either. The relationships in A Dangerous Method are more of the adult variety, omitting the pandering to teen-aged boys altogether. The film tells the tale of Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud and their troubled patient, Sabine Spielrein.

Viggo Mortensen, who worked for Cronenberg in A History of Violence and again in Eastern Promises, plays Freud. He is joined by Michael Fassbender as Jung and, of course, Keira Knightley as Sabine.  Vincent Cassell is also along for the ride and since it hasn’t been made clear in the trailers, I can’t wait to find out just what his character’s story is. He’s always interesting to watch. Christopher Hampton wrote the script, adapting his own 2002 play, “The Talking Cure”.

A Dangerous Method will play the Venice Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival and the New York Film Festival before opening in the US on November 23 and 10 February in the UK.

Well, he didn’t get the hat trick but Michael Fassbender does have two films in competition (not just screening but actually vying for prizes) at the 68th Annual Venice International Film Festival. David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method and Steve McQueen’s Shame will go up against Tomas Alfredson’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy , Andrea Arnold’s Wuthering Heights, William Friedkin’s Killer Joe, Abel Ferrara’s 4:44 Last Day on Earth, Emanuel Crialese’s Terraferma, Christina Comencini’s Quando La Notte, George Clooney’s The Ides of March, Ami Canaan Mann’s Texas Killing Fields, and Philippe Garrel’s Un Ete Brulant.

We’ve recently seen a trailer as well as new images for A Dangerous Method which explores the conflict between psychoanalysts Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen) and Carl Jung (Fassbender),  as well as new images for Shame, which follows the drama of 30-something Brandon (Fassbender) and his sexual escapades, and what happens when his wayward younger sister moves in with him. I was hoping Steven Soderbergh would bring Haywire as well, but I’m still holding out that TIFF might pick it up.

George Clooney’s The Ides of March is the opening night film in Venice and it as well as several others, including the two starring Fassbender, are on the docket for the Toronto International Film Festival. Unlike TIFF, it should be noted, Fassbender is the only actor with more than one film in contention. Venice is, of course, a much smaller festival but certainly no less prestigious. In fact, less of a film market place than TIFF or Cannes, Venice is basically all about the cachet. It’s also a showcase for emerging world talents as well as a big focus on Italian filmmakers (as is fitting an Italian festival.) I think it speaks to the strength of what this year’s awards season is shaping up to be that so many of the films in contention are not only in the English language, but already have big screen releases planned to order to position them for the season. No US dates for A Dangerous Method have yet been announced but I think at least a limited NY/LA release is just about guaranteed.

Hot on the heels of its announced inclusion in the Toronto International Film Festival, we get the first images from Steve McQueen’s Shame, his second collaboration with Michael Fassbender (and one of two films that Fassbender will be taking up north, the other being David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method for which we got new images a few days ago.) McQueen’s directorial debut was Hunger, the seminal story of Irish hunger-striker Bobby Sands. Fassbender put himself through some horrendous physical changes for that role. (I doubt there’s an ounce of body fat on him after a 3 day bender. By the end of the Hunger shoot, he was practically skeletal.) It’s a difficult film to watch, but it’s an extraordinary performance. Even though he’d been working at his craft for year prior to that film, Hunger along with his by turns predatory and paternal performance in Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank, put him on the map. I can not wait to see what the combination of McQueen and Fassbender come up with this time around.

Shame is the story of Brandon (Fassbender), a 30-something New Yorker, who also happens to be a sex addict and how his myriad sexual escapades coupled with the arrival of his erratic and headstrong younger sister (Carey Mulligan) cause his world to spin out of control. Hatchey matchey, they had me at Fassbender and sex addict!

With a screenplay cowritten by McQueen and Abi Morgan (The Iron Lady), Shame also stars James Badge Dale (“The Pacific”, The Conspirator,World War Z) and a lot of pretty New York actresses.

Shame has no announced released date. Judging solely on the pictures and the talent involved, I’m guessing that will change after its Toronto debut.

A batch of new images have come to light from David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method, starring Michael Fassbender as Carl Jung, Viggo Mortensen as Sigmund Freud and Keira Knightley as Sabina Spielrein, a woman who is a patient of both and the lover of one.

A Dangerous Method, with a screenplay by Christopher Hampton (Dangerous Liasons, Atonement) is just the latest in a long line of Cronenberg’s psychosexual explorations (Rage, Videodrome, Dead Ringers, The Naked Lunch, Crash, eXisTenz, Spider) and his third film with Viggo Mortensen (A History of Violence, Eastern Promises), although Christoph Waltz was initially cast as Freud. This one deals with the intense relationship between Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud that gives birth to psychoanalysis. Seduced by the challenge of an impossible case given to him by his friend and mentor Sigmund Freud, the driven Dr. Jung (Fassbender) takes the unbalanced yet beautiful Spielrein as his patient  using the methods of his master. Both men fall under Sabina’s spell.

I have to wonder if the film will address the issue of Spielrein’s contributions. For decades she was little more than footnote in psychiatric history, even though she herself actually went on to become one of the world’s first psychoanalysts. As this is a fictionalized account, I suspect they will probably emphasize the sexual nature of both her psychosis as well as her supposed relationship with Jung. I definitely plan to see it to find out!

Here’s another look at the mesmerizing trailer:

A Dangerous Method  is scheduled to screen at the Venice and the Toronto International Film Festivals and will be released by Sony Pictures Classics in the UK on 10 February 2012. Still no official date for the US.

Three weeks ago we brought you the first image of female MMA fighter Gina Carano in her big screen debut, Steven Soderbergh’s Haywire. Now we have two new images, featuring Carano and one of her male costars, Channing Tatum.

Haywire, an action thriller, also stars Michael Fassbender as well as Ewan McGregor, Michael Douglas, Antonio Banderas, Bill Paxton and Mathieu Kassovitz, although still no word on their characters.

Good News: Two Michael Fassbender Films!

The plot involves Mallory Kane (Carano), a freelance covert operative who is hired out by her handler to various global entities to perform jobs which governments can’t authorize and heads of state would rather not know about.  When an operation goes awry and Kane finds she’s been double crossed, she needs all of the skill and ability at her disposal to escape an international manhunt and at the same time protect her family and exact revenge on those that have betrayed her.

Still rumored to be headed for the Venice and/or Toronto International Film Festivals, Haywire is thought to one of Soderbergh’s last films before he “retires”. The film will be distributed by Relativity Media and my bff Ryan Kavanaugh  for a January 20, 2012 release.

Irish actor Brendan Gleeson has added another Irish actor, Michael Fassbender, to the cast of his directorial debut, At Swim-Two-Birds. The film has been in development for seven years, since Gleeson bought the rights to Flann O’Brien’s 1938 novel of the same name.

Fassbender joins other Irish actors, Gabriel Byrne, Cillian Murphy and Collin Farrell, who’ve all been attached for two years while the project found financing, as well as Gleeson’s son, actor Domhnall, who appeared as Bill Weasley in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows pts 1 and 2 (with his father). Jonathan Rhys Meyers had been attached as well but is no longer listed. No reason was given but it could be tied to the actor’s recent personal problems.

The novel, one of Time Magazine’s “Top 100 Novels of All Time”, revolves around a university student (in the film he’s been changed to a playwright) whose fictional characters begin to rebel against their creator and follows him as he writes a novel behind closed doors that seemingly intertwines with characters in his own life.  The book has been described as “a collision between Ireland’s literary, heroic past and its grimy, mundane present.”

Financing is still being put together, which is never an easy proposition for an independent film in any economic climate.  Given his newly acquired star status, hopefully Fassbender’s name will help. (It worked for Ralph Fiennes when he added Gerard Butler to his directorial debut, Coriolanus.) No word yet on what roles any actors will be playing, but the elder Gleeson has said that, in addition to directing, he will play the writer’s uncle.

Since production hasn’t begun, there are no release dates yet, but At Swim-Two-Birds  is tentatively scheduled for a 2013 opening.

Sir Ridley Scott’s next project, Prometheus, is currently filming in London at Pinewood Studios. Because of the confusion caused by a “leaked” synopsis, the studio in charge of production, 20th Century Fox, has decided to release an “official” version.

“Visionary filmmaker Ridley Scott returns to the genre he helped define, creating an original science fiction epic set in the most dangerous corners of the universe. The film takes a team of scientists and explorers on a thrilling journey that will test their physical and mental limits and strand them on a distant world, where they will discover the answers to our most profound questions and to life’s ultimate mystery.”

Sir Ridley took cast members Michael Fassbender and Noomi Rapace with him to Amsterdam for CineEurope  (a confab for European film exhibitors) and a Q &A this week, but did not bring any footage and only managed to mete out a minimum of details. He did let slip that Prometheusis not a strict prequel to Alien although it takes place in the same general “world” and stems from his desire to revisit the mystery of the “giant fossilized creature with the burst open chest” that we first see in that film.

Many of you probably know screenwriter Damon Lindelof from his work with J.J. Abrams on “Lost”. He’s also co-writer of Abrams’ Star Trek reboot and of the eagerly anticipated (by me) Cowboys & Aliens. He spoke to /Film recently and had this to say about writing Prometheus:

“It started as an Alien prequel. That is what everybody wanted it to be. Obviously, Ridley Scott has not made a science fiction movie in 25 years, since Blade Runner, so the idea that he’s returning to this genre is huge…I’ve always felt that really good prequels should be original movies. And the sequels to those prequels should not be the movie which already exists because, with all due respect to anyone who makes a prequel, but why would you ruin the greatest twist in the history of cinema, “Luke, I am your father”, by showing me three movies which basically spoil that surprise. You can do movies which take place before Star Wars, but I don’t need to see the story of the Skywalker clan. Show me something else which I can’t guess the possible outcome of. There is no suspense in inevitability. So a true prequel should essentially proceed the events of the original film, but be about something entirely different, feature different characters , have an entirely different theme, although it takes place in that same world. That was my fundamental feeling about what this movie wanted to be.”

First, I couldn’t agree with him more with reference to how a “prequel” should be structured. Second, I think that if that’s how the screenwriter of Prometheus feels about “prequels” then we have a pretty good idea that this new film is not going to try to explain the things that happened in Alienor Aliens but give us something fresh, something we haven’t seen before.

Hey, it’s Ridley Scott, it’s aliens (small ‘a’). It’s Fassbender and Idris Elba and Guy Pearce…I’m in.

Prometheus also stars the above mentioned Rapace as well as Charlize Theron, Logan Marshall-Green, Rafe Spall and Sean Harris. The production features many frequent Ridley Scott collaborators like costume designer Janty Yates and editor Pietro Scalia.  More info will surely follow.  The film is scheduled to be released 1 June 2012 in the UK and 8 June 2012 in the rest of the world.