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While X-Men: The Last Stand definitely has its fans, the primary consensus was that folks would've preferred X-Men and X2 director Bryan Singer behind the camera to complete the trilogy he started, which began with a very impressive origins film and continued with what some claim to be one of the greatest comic book films ever made. Unfortunately at the time, Singer gave up directing duties on The Last Stand to Brett Ratner in order to helm Superman Returns -- a move that kinda came back to bite him in the ass on not just one front, but two.

Now, though, Singer is talking to 20th Century Fox about returning to the franchise that's given him the most success as a filmmaker. Speaking at Korea's Pusan International Film Festival, Singer said, "I'm still looking to possibly returning to the 'X-Men' franchise. I've been talking to Fox about it." He added, " I love Hugh Jackman. I love the cast." While The Hollywood Reporter doesn't mention any specific X-Men films, back in August it was reported that Singer was potentially interested in directing the upcoming X-Men: First Class film, though the Wolverine sequel is also currently without a director. Either way I'm sure fans would welcome him back to the franchise with open arms, hearts and minds.

If it was up to you, which upcoming X-Men film would you like to see Singer helm? First Class, Wolverine 2 or a big X-Men reunion film?

When we last heard about New Line's adaptation of Jack and the Giant Killer, the fantasy tale was being helmed by D.J. Caruso. It started popping up on Bryan Singer's To Do list when they announced the inexplicable Excalibur remake -- but now it's become official, as The Hollywood Reporter has announced that Jack will be Singer's next film, leaving Caruso free to work on Y: The Last Man if he so chooses.

Jack is a slight reworking of (shocker!) Jack and the Beanstalk with a dash of The Brave Little Tailor. It dispenses with that "I'll sell you some magic beans, and some oceanfront property in Arizona" trope, and is instead set in motion when a giant kidnaps a princess. Obviously, that premeditated action is unacceptable, and it threatens the longstanding peace between men and giants. A young farmer named Jack is given the task to lead an expedition to the giants' kingdom in the hopes of rescuing her. Mark Bomback and Darren Lemke penned the script, which is reportedly a more mature take on the fairy tale than you or I might expect. I don't think that means any rampant sex, violence, or cussing but rather that it'll feature the kind of unblinking action that Lord of the Rings did. I mean, Jack's fighting giants. That's hardcore when done realistically.

The project has no start date, but is being fast-tracked and will be Singer's next film if something else doesn't catch his eye. There's no rumors yet as to who might play farmer Jack, but if they run into a crunch, I think our own Erik Davis still knows the script by heart. He already did a fine job on stage from all reports, and going with an original cast member is always good for the material.

It would seem the Lady in the Lake has found another group of knights to wield Excalibur -- or at least John Boorman's version of it. Variety reports that Warner Bros and Bryan Singer have finally won the rights to Boorman's Excalibur, and are set to remake the 1981 film. Singer is on board to produce, but may decide to don his directing armor, and lead the charge himself.

I find this to be rather perplexing. Boorman's film was based on the "definitive" medieval Arthur tale, Morte d'Arthur and was simply adapted by the director and Rospo Boorman. It departs from the original in a few trippy and sexy ways, but it stays relatively close to the original text. It's been a long time since I've seen it, and it always has a horrible fever dream quality for me, so I may be remembering poorly. Frankly, I just remember Gabriel Byrne not bothering to take off his chainmail before sexing it up with Igraine, and that Lancelot wore nothing under his armor.

So why not just, you know, write a new adaptation of Morte d'Arthur? An insistance on obtaining Boorman's film rights suggests nothing more than a shot by shot remake which is silly. There's plenty of sex, violence, and fantasy to be wrung out of the original Arthur legends. The whole myth has been begging for someone to tackle it, and bring a Pre-Raphaelite version (only R rated!) to life instead of another dull "Here's the true story behind the Arthur legend" film. I'd criticize more harshly, but frankly I'm just perplexed by anyone who opts to remake rather than return to the source material.

The revamped Battlestar Galactica series might have just wrapped up in March, but it's already getting a new big-screen re-telling. Sources told HitFix on Wednesday that Bryan Singer, the man behind the first few X-Men films and the love-it-or-hate-it Superman Returns, would produce and possibly direct Battlestar for the big screen. The news has since been confirmed by Universal, and Singer is definitely helming the space adventure.

So why am I commenting on speediness? THR says: "Insiders have said the feature is to be a complete reimagining and will stand separately." Reimagining a show that was super-popular and just ended this year is all sorts of ridiculous. Even if it's aiming to focus on the original show, that's still reimagining source material that was just reimagined to great success. That's more than enough "reimagination" for anyone.

Read the rest over at SciFi Squad

Oh, the obvious jokes you can make about Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci being involved with a project called License to Steal. Considering they penned both of Michael Bay's robot-gasm installments, and Star Trek, plus produced The Proposal, one could say that this was their Hollywood life story.

But it's not. According to Variety, License to Steal is actually based on Marc Weingarten's Salon.com article The Learjeat Repo Man, which examines world of repo men. Not just any repo men that come after your flatscreen or your Prius, but the "big game" hunter who steal / repossess private jets, yachts, helicopters, and whatever else it is rich, corrupt people own. For the dangers they face (and oh, do they face dangers) they receive a cut of the overall value.

The script is being penned by Shane Salerno, Kurtzman and Orci are its executive producers. The project was shopped around by WME to three major studios, all with directors lined up to bid, and Salerno pitching it each and every time. McG took the project to Warner Bros., Timur Bekmambetov took it to Universal, and Bryan Singer took it to Sony. But Paramount snapped it up before anyone else had a chance to bid, and without a director attached. But Paramount has the dynamic duo pulling the strings, so they'll undoubtedly pull some major name in to tell the story they describe as "a smart, lighthearted action movie ... with a lot of unexpected plot twists." As you wait for the talent to hook themselves up, you can read the Salon piece, and dream of success and adventure ... either those enjoyed by Weingarten's repo men, or that of Kurtzman and Orci.

(Oversight! Thanks to ScreenRant for the photo up there! -- Weinberg)

Poor Bryan Singer. He may have X-Men and X2 under his belt, but a lot of fans will never forgive him for selling out the mutants in favor of Superman ... and we won't go into the Superman thing again.

But Singer is sorry. Very sorry. In fact, he told Total Film that he made a terrible mistake and that he regretted not directing X3 "before I was watching it, during watching it, after watching it." (Join the club, Singer.) He was quick to amend his longing with praise for a little praise for Brett Ratner, though. "It's weird for me to watch it, because I'm so close to the universe. And also Brett is a good friend of mine. But, of course, I would love to return to that universe." How to return is a problem now that the series has devolved into spin-offs and prequels, and he's understandably reluctant to return through one of the avenues open to him: a Magneto origin story. "The only thing that concerns me about Magneto is that if the prequel were to follow the track I used in X-Men, which is Magneto's history in the concentration camp, then I've lived in that world. Apt Pupil, X-Men and now Valkyrie ... I've lived in that Nazi universe for quite a while. I just might need to take a little break before I do something like that."

Now that J.J. Abrams has reinvented, and especially, reinvigorated Star Trek for an all new generation of fake-pointy-eared fans, it would be unfair to let the filmmaker simply take time off to garden or crochet, much less celebrate the film's projected $72 million opening weekend. Especially since there are just so many other franchises and film series that deserve – or perhaps more accurately – need his golden touch. As such, we've thoughtfully assembled a short list of franchises that Abrams could and should take over, tackle, and reboot. And while we tailored our selections to suit the filmmaker's writing and directing strengths, we encourage you to leave your comments and suggestions which films and franchises you think might be better suited to Abrams' cinematic style.

In no particular order:

Sometimes the movie business seems like a giant game of Jenga doesn't it? Just when you think you have a solid little tower on your hands, boom! Some jerk yanks out the support beam and suddenly you're looking at a bunch of wood. But one of the hottest spec scripts in Hollywood right now has gotten one very high-profile block added to the pile. The Hollywood Reporter's Risky Biz Blog is reporting that Christian Bale has unofficially "attached" himself to star alongside Mark "Say hi to your mother for me" Wahlberg in the thriller, Prisoners.

There aren't many details about Aaron Guzikowski's script, but here's the official synopsis so far: "After his 6-year-old daughter and her friend are kidnapped, a small-town carpenter butts heads with a young, brash detective in charge of the investigation. The father is a Bible-reading, deer-hunting survivalist. The cop, meanwhile, can't wait to get to the city. Feeling failed by the law, the father captures the man he believes responsible and begins to torture him in a desperate attempt to find out what he did with the girls, whom he's convinced are still alive." When Wahlberg first signed on, there was no mention of his role in the film, but I'd like to play fantasy casting director if I may and suggest Bale as the bible-thumping survivalist and Wahlberg as the cop?

Okay, so what are we going to do about Superman? Obviously Bryan Singer is done with the Man of Steel; he's moved on to other projects. Meanwhile, Mark Millar (the brains behind Wanted and Kick-Ass) has been extremely vocal in his quest to take over the superhero franchise ... but his (and our) cries and screams seem to have been ignored by Warner Bros. Now, however, Millar has returned to update fans on his blog and unfortunately it doesn't sound very promising. He says, "Warner's talked to us and a few other writer/ director teams, but things seem to be in stasis right now. As far as I understand, nothing is happening with Superman at the moment and so the director and I are just working on another project. If it happens, great. If it doesn't, no biggie."

Millar went on to vent a little more, adding a cheap shot or two ("The idea of taking notes from the guys who liked the idea of Superman lying in bed for the final act of Returns doesn't sound good to me"), and looks to be just about out of the running for a reboot that really needs to succeed this time around. And that's probably why Warners is taking so much time with it -- they desperately need to get Superman right, and they desperately want that one-two punch of Supes and Batman. As Millar notes, "I think Avika Goldsman (Batman and Robin dude) has been charged with rethinking them to match the Marvel juggernaut."

But how do you reboot Superman in an age where folks want their superheroes dark and a little bit dirty? Do you start from the beginning or pick it up somewhere in the middle, like Singer did? What do you want to see? Which villains should they include? And who the hell do you get to play the big S?