Matthew Vaughn Leaves X-Men 3

Matthew Vaughn (DVDs), director of cockney geezah gangster movie Layer Cake, has left X-Men 3.

Vaughn had been working on the project after the original director, Bryan Singer (DVDs), left to concentrate on making Superman Returns. But now he’s bailing out as well, citing "personal reasons".

X-Men 3 would have been Matthew Vaughn’s first big budget blockbuster, and the world was fairly interested in how he was going to handle it. He’d already brought in Vinnie Jones (DVDs) as the character Juggernaut, so the signs were pointing towards a film set on a fruit and veg stand in bleedin’ Lahhhnden town, and would probably revolve around Wolverine and Cyclops trying to shift a vanload of dodgy inflatable sex dolls, like in that episode of Only Fools And Horses.

But that isn’t to be. Vaughn is reported to have realised that to direct a big American film, he’d have had to move to America for while. And he didn’t want to do that. So, with two months to go until filming starts, X-Men 3 is nothing more than a bunch of actors in silly costumes and a huge budget.

The film is still expected to be released next May, but is rudderless. Who would you like to see replace Matthew Vaughn as the director of X-Men 3? Maybe Woody Allen could give the Vinnie Jones character a forlorn, literary mindset? Or would you like to see Clint Eastwood turn X-Men 3 into a long, sad, slightly boring movie that would win a thousand Oscars?

Leave your suggestions below.