O.C. and Gossip Girl creator to pen X-Men reboot

Although it will doubtlessly inflame fans, Fox has hired Josh Schwartz, the man who brought us Gossip Girl and The O.C., to write the script for a youthful reboot of the X-Men franchise.

The studio’s record with X fans had already swerved downward after it hired Brett Ratner to fill in for Bryan Singer as director of X-Men: The Last Stand, released in 2006. This new movie, called X-Men: First Class after the comics, signals Fox’s intention to continue the enormously popular series outside of the spin-off films already planned. The first in that cycle, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, is scheduled to open in May; X-Men Origins: Magneto is expected next.  

Schwartz is also a potential director for the film, but according to Variety, he will remain a scribe only for now. If First Class goes ahead as planned, Schwartz would join fellow TV wunderkind J.J. Abrams in a swift ascension to high-profile film work.

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