Bonus! The "Lost" Marvel X-Men film that never was

Just...wow. This script is completely bonkers. Sounds like it was fueled by a whole lot of cocaine and just throwing a bunch of ideas into the proverbial blender.

The script is clearly inspired by Giant-Size X-Men #1 (1975) in which Xavier recruits new mutants from around the world such as Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, and Nightcrawler to rescue the original X-Men from the mysterious island Krakoa. It would still make a good basis for a movie, with some polish, since it introduces two ensembles and Krakoa later gives us the comics' best era. But the tickling? Years after this script Magik dreamed of Kitty Pryde tickling her, subtext that was not left unexplored. My best guess is for a family film it was a non-violent way audience POV teenager Kitty could defeat the big bad after using her powers to sneak up undetected. "Subtext that was not left unexplored" means another queer X-Men arc is Kitty Pryde's long simmering bisexual tension with Magik and Rachel Summers, finally confirmed when she kissed a girl in 2020. She is currently dating a non-mutant woman in Chicago.

Now here's a fun little thing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmS76Bsnpn8 There's no indication that the main character is queer - he seems to be just in it for the money - but it's still nice to see a man in drag who isn't evil or ridiculous in a film this early; according to the description there was a tradition of it in the music halls, which might have made it easier to get away with. It's not even really ugly drag, either, as he's supposed to be able to pass not only as a woman but as an unusually attractive one!

Looking forward to the kiss of the Spider-woman video! I also saw that documentary on Raul Julia, and it sent me on a quest to watch more of his filmography, and so so much of it is out of print! I was shocked how many of his films never even made it to dvd release, never mind streaming.

After your first mention of Kitty Pryde, from then on you call her Kitty Powers. Trailer voice over: "However powerful is she? Why, Powers in her last name!"

This is hilarious!🤣 I don’t want to watch that secret/forgotten movie as much as I want to watch a “Justice League/Superfriends” type show behind your narration.

That X-men movie sounds like it would have been wild. It's the story of the unreleased Fantastic 4 movie from 1994 that I find more fascinating though. Anytime all the effort is taken to make a movie, which is one of the greatest creative collaborative undertaking that people do and then just to put it on the shelf with the intention that it never to be seen, there's just something undeniably tragic about that. In the case of FF 1994 though, it's even more so. There's every indication that it was made as an ashcan project, meaning that it was only filmed so that the producers could retain the rights. Unlike other projects with which this had been so, this was only know to the producers at the time, in every other way, this was pitched as a major film, with a well-known director, a hard-working crew, a young actors who saw this as their big break. There was real effort to do the absolute best they all could, with the minuscule budget they were allowed, and a real premiere date was set when they wrapped. Then, it was put off, and off, and the rights did change hands, and the new heads decreed that not only would this film never been seen by an audience, but that all prints be destroyed so that it could never been seen period. Can you imagine how devastating that would be for the foursome of young actors, not to mention all the crew who worked long and hard to make that project happen? It nice to know though that there was a somewhat happy ending. The original fantastic four actors from 1994 invited to make cameos in Fantastic Four: First Steps, and all four were finally allowed to walk a red carpet, and be formally embraced by the fandom. Bootleg copies of the 1994 film have also been released on Youtube, and although the effects are atrocious (even by 1994 standards), the cast really isn't that bad, and the story is fun. Most importantly though, the effort that went into that film can finally be seen & appreciated. It may be 30+ years too late, but, this is a true encapsulation of better late than never.

Victor Victoria is one of my favorite movies of all time.