Magneto movie 'a front runner' - and here's an ideal choice for the lead role

THE DARK KNIGHT co-writer David Goyer now says his next project could be directing the Magneto movie, a proposed prequel to the X-Men trilogy.

The prequel would tell the backstory of the mutant archvillain, whose real name is Erik Lehnsherr and who was played in the X-Men films by Ian McKellen. McKellen has expressed an interest in playing the adult character at the beginning and end of the film, or in voicover narration, but they will need a younger actor for the majority of the movie set in the character's younger years.

And here we have an excellent casting suggestion for the role of the young Erik/Magneto - Scottish actor James McAvoy who recently starred alongside Angelina Jolie in comicbook movie Wanted. See the image above with McAvoy on the left and a young Ian McKellen on the right.

McAvoy, 29, has just the right look for a young Magneto. Another possibility, though older at 37, is fellow Scottish actor Ewan McGregor - see the image comparison below with him and McKellen's Magneto.

I previewed David Goyer's screenplay for Magneto here on The Geek Files and made some suggestions about the storyline. Other excellent suggestions about the direction and content of the film were made by fans in the comments section of that article.

David Goyer has now told movie site IESB he will next be doing Magneto or his proposed remake/sequel of The Invisible Man.

He said: "I think, in terms of what's next, I am also attached to Magneto, that's a possibility over at Fox. I am also writing a new version of The Invisible Man for Universal and if, well, that could be next but it's hard to know.

"I know initially there was some talk [at Fox] about Magneto going forward and then ultimately they decided to do Wolverine first and because of the strike and what not they decided to wait until Wolverine finished filming which just finished, and right now I am still in post-production on the movie I just did for Universal, The Unborn..

"So I am not really sure until November, so I imagine some time in the next month or two I'll be talking to Fox about it, but The Invisible Man or Magneto are probably the front runners."

Goyer's also writing the superhero movie Green Arrow: Escape from Supermax and he says the success of the lesser-known Iron Man has shown that other obscure heroes like Green Arrow stand a chance at big-screen success.

He said: "I think that, the fact that Iron Man did so well definitely bodes well for Supermax, because Iron Man was more of a second tier character and I think the people at Warner Bros took note of that fact that, 'oh, we could use Green Arrow, we could use Green Lantern and maybe have new franchises,' so I'm hoping that that will give us the push we need to move forward, they liked the script over there so I am hopeful."