Matthew Vaughn went above and beyond the call of duty to get Kick-Ass made when studios wanted nothing to do with such controversial content. After proving how appealing it was to younger audiences, the director’s passion and drive is paying off with a big new gig.

20th Century Fox has tapped Vaughn to direct X-Men: First Class, the project that originally had Bryan Singer attached to return to the world of mutants. The movie will be based on the Marvel comic book series of the same name, which takes place in the earlier years of Professor Xavier’s school for the gifted and when some of your favorite mutants were first coming to be.

When Singer was initially attached, he stated that this adaptation would mostly focus on the iconic rivalry of Professor X and Magneto, where it began, and how it perished. The idea was then described (and still seems to be the case, judging by the synopsis you can read below) as being about “…the formative years of Xavier and Magneto, and the formation of the school and where there relationship took a wrong turn. There is a romantic element, and some of the mutants from ‘X-Men’ will figure into the plot, though I don’t want to say which ones. There will be a lot of new mutants and a great villain.”

Synopsis

The studio isn’t messing around now that they have their director, either. The plan as it is now is to begin filming this summer, and release the movie on June 3, 2011. This means that everything is ready to go, they were just trying to find the right guy for the job. It’s also really quick for a movie to be produced with a director who hasn’t had time to get everything in order, so let’s hope Vaughn isn’t rushed.

Here’s what Singer, who will still act as a producer on the film, had to say about the signing of Vaughn:

Fans who were itching for another Bryan Singer X-Men and were elated at the thought of him doing X-Men: First Class, you need not fret. If you’ll recall, Singer has had an itch himself (insert ointment joke *here*): to return to the world he made so popular in X-Men and X2. This is why he was originally hired to captain First Class, but had to step back due to previous commitments to direct his next film, Jack the Giant Killer.

In an interview he did recently along with producer Lauren Shuler Donner, rumors that Singer might hold off to direct X-Men Origins: Wolverine 2 or even more likely, X-Men 4 arose. The key dialogue there was when Singer (speaking about X-4) said to Donner:

This is the scenario I have my fingers crossed for. Why mess around with spinoffs when Singer was so good with the first two films. I say let him do Giant Killer, maybe a proposed Battlestar Galactica movie, and then lock him up firmly for X-Men 4.

[Source: via /Film]