X3: Kitty Pryde Is (An Un)Known

Hey guys, it's Donnie...I have to say that this sounds like the smartest move Brett Ratner has made since he took over the X3 production. Kitty Pryde has officially been cast and she is...unknown 15 year old Canadian actress Ellen Page. Her only big projects to date have been a Canadian TV show called Trailer Park Boys and an independant film called Hard Candy. Pretty little lass, ain't she?

As I said, I really like this move, for a couple of reasons. First off, Kitty Pryde has been seen walking through walls and whatnot in the previous X-Men movies, although she was never actually referred to by name. Also, I haven't seen Lost, so I'm unfamiliar with Maggie Grace, but I know that a number of people were pretty excited about her theoretical involvement. However, Kitty, to the best of my knowledge, was always significantly younger than the rest of the X-Men, and casting Grace would have obviously forced them to alter that part of the character, so I'm glad that they're keeping her young. Besides, she was always a romantic foil of Colossus, so casting a known actress could have dramatically overshadowed Daniel Cudmore, whose work in X2 I really liked, brief though it was.

Between Ellen Page as Kitty Pryde and Ben Foster as Angel, (check him out in Hostage) that's two really solid decisions by Ratner in the last two weeks. That being said, he's certainly not out of the woods yet. Principle photography starts in one week in Vancouver and they've still yet to cast Warren Worthington (Angel's father) and I hear that certain aspects of the production, including the script, are significantly behind schedule. I really just wish they would push the opening back a bit and give the production team a little room to breath. My biggest fear has never been Ratner; it's the fact that this movie comes out in 10 months and they still haven't finished the script or cast one of the major characters, let alone started rolling film.

Ah well. At least we have Superman Returns to look forward to...