What's happening to the X-Men franchise we've all been asking, ever since we first heard that X-Men: The Last Stand was just that, the last stand for the cast we all know and love. Well now we have X-Men Origins: Wolverine to watch, and if that goes well perhaps an X-Men Origins: Magneto, as well as the ill-advised X-Men: First Class.

Is there going to be anything else though? Apparently so. How about an origins film (an ensemble film just like the first three but thinly disguised as a single character film) for Deadpool or Gambit? Oh, and how about getting Bryan Singer to direct them?

That's what Lauren Shuler Donner would want if she had her way according to her comments made during the press day for X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and right there is a big clue to how much salt you should take with this comment, press day.

That's a day for the people behind the film to market their product to all the press who are happily bounding around on a day of freebies, and not just the product of the film that everyone is there to watch for free, but the product of themselves and their other projects, and like any clever marketing person that also means manipulating the media for the projects you want.

So Lauren Shuler Donner does the clever thing of talking about the other X-Men projects, something that all X-Men fans want to hear about, me included. She talks about the key characters that many fans have been talking loudly about on the internet for some time, Gambit and Deadpool, and while she's at it she throws in a name that everyone would like to see behind the camera for another X-Men film, Bryan Singer.

Speaking at the event to IESB she says:

"Nothing would please me more than to bring Bryan [Singer] on for another movie. And, if it's like the first Deadpool or the first Gambit, I think, I mean, I hope he would be interested..."

Her interview is a skilful lesson in how to avoid revealing anything, but she does suggest that she would love to have Bryan Singer back in the directing chair and it's clear that she's a fan of Gambit, so could Singer direct an origin film for either of these two?

I'm not so sure. I don't think these characters would be enough for him and I do wonder if he would want something a little more complex and meaty. I could definitely see him directing another ensemble film, a proper one that is not just a lead with ancillary characters, so what about X-Men: First Class? Again that strikes me as just being a little too twee for him, the idea of all the mutant children coming to save the day over the adults.

I think he would revel in the chance to kick start the main franchise again, and with a full, adult, ensemble cast. That, by the way, is also what I would want to see.