X-TREME ACTION
In a film series noted for its huge set pieces and explosive fighting sequences, X-MEN: THE LAST STAND takes the action to a new level. Simon Crane, one of the industry's top second unit directors and stunt coordinators, worked closely with Brett Ratner to create the action sequences, and design the fights and fighting styles.
Crane had just wrapped the blockbuster action film "Mr. and Mrs. Smith," where he put Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie through their paces, when he was approached for X-MEN: THE LAST STAND. His mandate was to create action never before seen on film, to find new ways of filming fight scenes, and stage action that's motivated by the story and drives it forward.
Crane worked closely with Academy Award® winning visual effects supervisor John Bruno, judiciously blending stunts, special effects and CG to make the action sequences both massive and believable.
One of Crane's principal tasks was to re-create from the comics, Wolverine's "berserker rage" fighting style - a mad, white rage that makes him virtually unstoppable. "Wolverine's fighting style in the first two films was great, but for the new film we wanted to explore the comics' fighting style," says Crane. "Most of the time, Wolverine's fighting only for Wolverine. Here, he's fighting for something bigger and therefore he fights harder, fiercer. We're going to see a Wolverine who's really angry."
Hugh Jackman, whose preparation for the action scenes included spending hundreds of hours in the gym, and a special fight training program, elaborates: "In 'X-Men' and 'X2,' my fighting style was 'slicing-and-dicing.'. But for this film, I wanted to go back to the comics, which had brilliantly conceived fight scenes."
Although Wolverine is decidedly earthbound, he took to the air - with help from Colossus' super-strong right arm - for scenes depicting a fan-favorite element from the comics called the "fastball special." Crane and his team hurtled the actor on a wire - at speeds up to 80 miles per hour - through a forest. "It was a phenomenal experience," says Jackman. "And no CG!"
Halle Berry's Storm can fly, a capability left unrealized in the first two films. "I know it seems like a little thing, but I've been saying since the first movie: 'I just want to fly!'" laughs Berry.
In X-MEN: THE LAST STAND, Berry finally gets her wish. For a scene in which Storm takes to the skies, spinning like a tornado, Berry completed 24 revolutions in just two or three seconds. Says Brett Ratner: "It's such a spectacular stunt, that nobody's going to believe Halle did it. But she did." The dizzying wirework had Berry taking Dramamine to combat motion sickness.
In addition to devising new fighting and flying techniques, Crane oversaw the film's big action set pieces. In one scene, Magneto throws cars from the Golden Gate Bridge onto Alcatraz, as Pyro ignites them in mid-air, and the fiery vehicles rain down on the X-Men.
The Golden Gate Bridge figures in the film's biggest event, as Magneto takes control of the San Francisco landmark, ripping it off its foundations and using it, literally, as a gateway to Alcatraz: ground zero for the cure's development and distribution. This scene, the biggest in any "X-Men" film, again represented the work of Crane, visual effects supervisor John Bruno, and production designer Edward Verreaux - all under Brett Ratner's watchful eye.
"The Golden Gate Bridge sequence is Magneto at his most intense," says John Bruno, an Oscar® winner and frequent James Cameron collaborator ("Titanic," "Terminator 2: Judgment Day"). "It's the biggest visual effects scene in the series." The visual effects and art direction groups built a full-size section of the bridge and a section of Alcatraz. Bruno and his team digitally extended the latter, blending the practical sets with the computerized images. In addition, they built detailed miniatures that were used for reference.
To help realize the film's massive scale and requirements for hundreds of state-of-the-art visual effects, the production brought aboard several top visual effects companies, including WETA Digital Ltd., which won Academy Awards for its work on "King Kong" and all three films in the "The Lord of the Rings" series. WETA worked on creating key elements for the Alcatraz compound and on Dark Phoenix's powers. Framestore CSC, a London-based house worked on the Golden Gate Bridge scenes. Other visual effects houses working on the picture were Moving Picture Company; Hydraulics; and Klesier-Walczak, which helped bring Mystique to life.
For a flashback scene that opens the film, John Bruno utilized proprietary "rejuvenation" software called LOLA. "It's been attempted before in short doses on other films, but we used it for the first four minutes of the movie. What we've done is take Professor X and Magneto back 20 years in time and make them younger." The software uses 3-D patches which are put over the actors' existing facial features.
Visual effects heightened the enormity of the practical sets. On a ten-acre tract of land that previously housed a Vancouver woodworking factory, the production created enormous outdoor sets, covering a total of 270,000 square feet. At one end of the site, the 250 ft. long Golden Gate Bridge set was flanked by a 50 ft. high green screen at each end and spanned by a 250 ft. green screen 40 ft. high. Another mega-set on that site: Alcatraz Island.
Eighty-six generators powered the massive outdoor sets. ("X2's" largest outdoor set - Stryker's base - took the equivalent of fifty-four generators to run.) In laymen's terms, the electrical output was equivalent to that required for 176,000 - 60 watt light bulbs. Surrounding the sets, two hundred and fifty ton cranes held 60'x 80' bounces to provide the fill light, and catwalks 65 ft. in the air became home to stalwart lamp operators. "The final effect is that everything looks natural…and beautiful," says two-time Academy Award-nominated director of photography Dante Spinotti, ASC/AIC ("The Insider," "L.A. Confidential"), reinforcing the realistic aesthetic that informs all three "X-Men" films.
Production designer Edward Verreaux's approach was elegant realism. "What happens in the movie is fantastic, so I felt, and Brett Ratner agreed, that the sets should be grounded in reality," says Verreaux.
X-MEN: THE LAST STAND revisits many of the iconic locations and sets from the first two films, including the X-Jet; Xavier's school and the highly stylized hallways below the mansion's classrooms and living space; and Alkali Lake, where Jean Grey met her "demise" in "X2." "We wanted to stay true to the look of the two earlier 'X-Men' movies," says Verreaux. "The mandate is that we're in a world that's already been established, but we want to embellish on that look, make it more interesting and compelling. We're aided in this by the story arc, which ultimately leads us to a sort of apocalyptic landscape."

BRETT RATNER (Director), in a very short time, has established himself as one of Hollywood's most successful directors. Ratner's first five feature films have grossed nearly one billion dollars.
At 26 years old he directed his first feature film, the surprise box office hit "Money Talks," a comedy starring Charlie Sheen and Chris Tucker. His second film, the action comedy "Rush Hour," starred Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker and earned $250 million worldwide. He followed that success with the romantic fantasy drama "The Family Man," a critical and box office hit starring Nicolas Cage and Tea Leoni. A year later, Ratner delivered Hong Kong-style action with Chan and Tucker in the hit sequel, "Rush Hour 2," which grossed more than $342 million worldwide.
Ratner made his first foray into the world of suspense thrillers with his fifth feature film "Red Dragon," the "Silence of the Lambs" prequel starring Edward Norton, Anthony Hopkins, Ralph Fiennes, and Emily Watson. Ratner's latest feature film, "After the Sunset," starring Pierce Brosnan, Salma Hayek, Woody Harrelson, and Don Cheadle enjoyed success in theatres nationwide.
Raised in Miami Beach, Ratner had dreamed of being a filmmaker since the age of eight. He enrolled in New York University's Tisch School of the Arts at age 16, becoming the department's youngest film major. While attending NYU Film School, he made "Whatever Happened to Mason Reese," a short film starring and about the former child actor. The award-winning project received funding from Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment.
Ratner's big break came after he screened his film for hip-hop impresario Russell Simmons, launching a successful career in music videos. He has directed more than 100 videos since then, for artists including Madonna, Mariah Carey, Jessica Simpson, Jay-Z, Wu Tang Clan, D'Angelo, Heavy D, Mary J. Blige, Foxy Brown, Public Enemy, P Diddy and many others.
Ratner won the MTV Award for "Best Video for a Film" for Madonna's "Beautiful Stranger" from the "Austin Powers" soundtrack. In addition, Ratner received an MTV Movie Award for Best Fight Sequence for "Rush Hour 2" as well as a TONY Award for producing Russell Simmons' Def Poetry Jam on Broadway. Ratner was the recipient of the Spirit of Chrysalis Award for his dedication and leadership in helping economically disadvantaged and homeless individuals change their lives through jobs. He is currently on the boards of Chrysalis and Best Buddies and serves on the Dean's Council of the NYU Tisch School of the Arts.
In addition to success in film and music, Ratner has also segued into the world of book publishing. He published the controversial book, Naked Pictures of my Ex-Girlfriends and authored Hilhaven Lodge: The Photo Booth Pictures, which was released in October 2003.
Ratner has recently ventured into still photography and his photographs have appeared in Vanity Fair, and have graced the covers of Vogue Homme and V-Life. In addition, he has shot the fashion campaigns for Baby Phat and Jimmy Choo.

SIMON KINBERG (Screenwriter) was born in London, England. He was raised in Los Angeles, and went to college at Brown University, where he studied film and literature.
He entered Columbia University's Film School in 1998. In his first year, he sold a screenplay to producers Ira Deutchman and Peter Newman ("Smoke"). Deutchman was Kinberg's professor. That same year, in another class, Kinberg set up a script with producer Edward Pressman ("Wall Street"). The attention from these projects garnered Hollywood's attention. While at Columbia, Kinberg received the school's highest screenwriting award, the Zaki Gordon Fellowship. While still in film school, Kinberg sold his original pitch "Ghost Town" to Village Roadshow/Warner Brothers, and worked on scripts for Disney, Sony, and Dreamworks.
His final thesis project for his MFA was the original screenplay "Mr. and Mrs. Smith." He pitched the concept to Academy-Award winning screenwriter Akiva Goldsman, who became the producer (and Kinberg's mentor). They pitched "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" to every studio - all of whom passed (some twice). Foreign-sales company Summit bought the pitch. After reading the first draft, New Regency became involved. Nicole Kidman and Brad Pitt were attached to play John and Jane Smith, with director Doug Liman at the helm.
In May 2003, "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" went into pre-production, as Kinberg was graduating from film school. Kidman's schedule did not allow her to do the film, so her part was re-cast with Angelina Jolie. Kinberg spent almost every day on set, working closely with the director, producers, and actors (and even acting in one scene). The film was released in June 2005, and went on to become one of the highest -grossing films of the year, and one of the fifty highest grossing films of all time.
Last summer, Kinberg had "XXX: State of the Union" in wide release; the picture was directed by Lee Tamahori, and starred Samuel Jackson, Ice Cube and Willem Dafoe.
Currently, Kinberg is writing and producing "Jumper" for Doug Liman to direct at Regency Enterprises. He is writing and executive producing a "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" TV show for ABC. He also developed the script "Jason and the Argonauts" for director Stephen Sommers at Dreamworks, "Merlin" at Paramount Pictures, and "Killer's Game" at Intermedia.
Kinberg has set up a number of projects as a producer, including: "Salem" at Sony Pictures, and "Invasion" at Universal. He also has a blind TV-deal with Jerry Bruckheimer and Warner Brothers Television.

ZAK PENN (Screenwiter) has been a professional screenwriter since he sold his first script, "Last Action Hero," at the age of twenty-three. Since then, he has been a credited writer on "PCU," "Inspector Gadget," "Behind Enemy Lines," "X2," "Suspect Zero," and "Elektra."
In addition, Penn did uncredited rewrites on numerous films including "Men In Black," "The Mask of Zorro," "Charlie's Angels" and "Reign of Fire." He wrote the original story for "Antz."
Penn produced the animated film "Osmosis Jones" for Warner Brothers and directed, produced and co-starred with Werner Herzog in the award winning mockumentary "Incident at Loch Ness."

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