QUESTION: How cruel a mistress is the calendar?
SINGER: Well, the days that Bonnie and Clyde could open in two theaters and then sweep America and become the biggest movie over the course of a year are over. You really have these opening weekends. You know where you stand by Friday at nine o'clock.

Yeah, it's very frustrating and it's frightening, but at the same time the dates have tremendous value. I recognize the value of being one of the first major summer films out this round.

I also believe that a film is never finished. It's merely abandoned. In the case of my films they're usually ripped from my fingers.

Like financial limitations, scheduling limitations breed creative solutions. I try to work within them responsibly. But if I were to do a more independent movie, a more exploration film, I would go the style prior, where you put your money together, you make your film and then you put it out there when someone buys it.

QUESTION: Is there a time when you might say no to money?
SINGER: I take a mixed philosophy about that, somewhere in between the two. It is my responsibility to the project to fight for as much resources as I can get, within the context that I think is necessary for that film.

I did a movie called Apt Pupil some time ago with very little money, but the plot didn't require, and it would have been irresponsible if I had spent a lot more money because it was very daring and quite dark. The gamble wasn't worth it.

In the case of X2 you feel more comfortable spending more money because you know there's a wider audience and you know you're building on a saga, a universe, franchise, whatever you call it. But I also respect the fact that with all my battles, I always set my mark higher than the actual budget.

In the case of X-Men 1, I was trying to make a $100 million picture for $75 million. In the case of X2 I'm trying to make a $200 million picture for $120 million. So, I'm always tasking myself and always presenting those limitations. I believe in what Spielberg says, that truly those kinds of limitations breed amazing creative solutions, as he discovered with the classic scenario of the shark in Jaws which never worked. As a result we got the barrels in the water and everyone's terrified.

QUESTION: I've read that you are committed to making a movie that is both a blockbuster and an intelligent movie. Were there struggles the first time around in making the movie that you wanted to make?
SINGER: There were. I would be lying to you if I told you there weren't. But they also new that I was the director of Unusual Suspects and Apt Pupil and my first feature Public Access and they had seen those movies and they understood the style at which I approached filmmaking.

ESSENTIAL WOLVERINE VOLUME I TPB

I remember Bill Mechanic and Tom Rothman at the studio at the time, had just seen Apt Pupil which is incredibly dark, and we walked out the screening and I said, "Do you still want me to do this X-Men picture?" And they're like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. This thing's not supposed to make money. You'll do great. I love your style." I was like, "OK."

So I approached it and I took this universe as seriously as I would take, as I imagine Robert Wise took The Day The Earth Stood Still. In that way I would please fans, because the X-Men fans take this universe very seriously and they support it and have supported it for forty years, and also I would help, because I never came from a comic-book reading background, bridge the gap between the fans and the uninitiated.

QUESTION: Do you now get mobbed by fans, or have people running after you saying, "Why did you do that," or "Why didn't you do this?"
SINGER: I just keep cutting my hair so nobody knows what the hell I look like.

I enjoy going to comic-book stores. I look around and see what's there and occasionally someone will say, "Hi." I also enjoy going to the comic conventions. I was terrified to go when the first X-Men movie was about to come out because there was so much skepticism. Then I found myself before several thousand people at the convention in San Diego and it was a very warm reception.

It's kind of interesting to me because I never grew up reading comics and now things that I directly created in the film have now translated in the evolution of the comic book and that's just baffling and astonishing to me.

QUESTION: How have the fans treated you?
SINGER: They're very sweet. I was a Trekkie and a sci-fi fan myself, hard-core, just comic books were never my fortes. I may have betrayed them if I was too mired in the comic book early on. I surrounded myself with people who are very knowledgeable about the comic book, and I'm extremely knowledgeable about it, but who are entrenched in it and also entrenched in the fan base, who can advise me one way or another. Like, "I'm gonna make this one character do this one little, extra thing. Is that gonna be cool? Is anybody gonna complain?"

I override the lore a little, but still maintain the essence of the characters.

QUESTION: How was it to be on the bridge of Star Trek in Nemesis? SINGER: Oh, it was a thrill. The two thrills of my life, besides having the opportunity to make movies and all that stuff, is spending 12 hours on the bridge of the Enterprise in a Starfleet uniform as it was rocking back and forth with pyrotechnics on a giant gimble with the entire cast.

And when Patrick Stewart, two weeks later, invited me to have dinner over at his house and he said he had a surprise. I was like, "Oh, what's the surprise? Maybe it's pictures of me in my Starfleet uniform," which he had. But we're sitting there having a little hors d'oeuvres and suddenly the doorbell rings and William Shatner comes in and joins us for dinner. Then I went upstairs after dinner and played Next Generation pinball with William Shatner at Patrick Stewart's house.

Rob Allstetter, Deputy Sports Editor for the Detroit News, has been a comics journalist for the past decade, having written for numerous publications. He currently publishes The Comics Contiuum. He can be reached at: RobAlls@aol.com.

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The Trailer Park Archive

July 2 2003 - Hellboy June 25, 2003 - Ang Lee June 18, 2003 - Eric Bana June 11, 2003 - Spider-Man Animation June 4 , 2003 - Lou Ferrigno May 27 , 2003 - Teen Titans May 20 , 2003 - Bryan Singer May 14 , 2003 - Al Gough May 8 , 2003 - Kelly Hu April 22, 2003 - Aaron Stanford April 18, 2003 - James Marsden April 15, 2003 - Jaime King April 8, 2003 - Halle Berry April 2, 2003 - Anna Paquin March 26 , 2003 - Scott McNeil March 21 , 2003 - Alan Cumming March 18 , 2003 - Michael Rosenbaum March 14 , 2003 - Ted Raimi: The "Other" Raimi Is Coming Back March 11 , 2003 - Maria Canals likes the call of the wild March 7 , 2003 - John Shea - Welcome to Mutant X March 4 , 2003 - Anthony Cistaro - Witchblade February 27 , 2003 - David Kaye - Professor X February 18 , 2003 - Victor Webster February 14 , 2003 - Ben Affleck February 11 , 2003 - Colin Farrell February 7 , 2003 - Comic Controversy? January 31 , 2003 - Static Shock January 24 , 2003 - Jennifer Garner