EXCLUSIVE: Want to Know About Magneto?

Yesterday we had word on possible titles for Fox€™s X-Men spinoffs; today we€™ve got exclusive details on the plot for David Goyer€™s Magneto movie. The director spoke about plans to shoot in Argentina and Europe, and that his story will deal with the origins of Magneto and Professor X €“ but we€™re able to give you a little more info, read on at your own peril:

The movie is book-ended with two scenes in Poland at the 60th Anniversary of the Auschwitz Liberation. These events take place within the timeframe of the first three X-films and will reunite Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen. The opening takes a cue from Bryan Singer€™s X-Men, where a young Erik Lehnsherr crumples the Auschwitz gates. Erik is subjected to horrendous experiments by a team of scientists led by vicious Nazi Dr. Kleinmein. We next meet Lehnsherr in Ukraine. It€™s ten years later and he€™s married to Magda, they have a young girl called Anya. Erik works in construction, his abilities are well developed, he€™s able to plunge a nail straight through wood by just staring at it. In the village pub Erik spots Kirken, an abusive prison guard from the concentration camp. Kirken ends up dead by Erik€™s hand and the villagers burn down his house €“ Magda and Anya are killed in the blaze. In Paris, Erik seeks help from famed Nazi hunter Professor Wesenthein €“ he wants revenge, more specifically he€™s looking for Kleinmein. Wesenthein tells Erik many Nazi€™s are hiding out on South America, and that Kleinmein was trying to genetically manufacture a master race for Hitler. Erik moves on to Argentina to try and track down Nazi war criminals €“ he€™s met by CIA agent Owen Graves and the pair fore an alliance. Graves tips off Erik on the whereabouts of known Nazis but also harbours his own agenda. The action switches to Israel where Erik searches for a man well known for helping Holocaust survivors. He finds him playing soccer: Dr Charles Xavier€

Goyer€™s take combines elements of his own Batman Begins, The Boys From Brazil and the existing X-Men film franchise. The scale is somewhat similar to the first X-Men movie, but multiple locations and a period setting could knock the budget up significantly. Fans of the previous X-Men films will be pleased to know there are some other familiar faces in Magneto. Expect to see Senator Kelly return (a young and old version), along with mutants Victor Creed and Mystique. There€™s plenty more details which OWF may reveal later (even though this is a spoiler post, we don't want to ruin the whole movie by going over every plot point). One of the biggest hurdles this movie faces is casting the lead. An unknown won€™t be able to sell this film to the casual moviegoer, so who could Fox and Goyer get to play the young Magneto?