Taylor Lautner unleashing his inner Beast, again!?

Moviehole:

Saw "The Twilight Saga : Eclipse" on the weekend - and yeah, it's better than the other two. In fact, it's the first one that might even appeal to an audience outside of the Twihards, Twicycles and Bestiality Lovers.At the same time, I've also got to admit that I don't quite get the attraction - I mean, not even the romance at the center of the film rings true for me. It seems too.... forced, or something. I'm also appalled that, with all the money the film's ave made for them, Summit didn't throw a few more dollars at director David Slade's effects budget - the wolves, let alone anything else effectsy in the film, are only a small stepladder above the unrealistic ibook offerings of the SyFy channel. But look, doesn't matter what I say - it's making more mint than a candy factory - such a film is critic proof. Much like "The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas".

The standout actor of the "Twilight" movies is (well, besides Billy Burke - always fab in whatever he does; he's playing the villain in Patrick Lussier's upcoming "Drive Angry 3D") definitely Taylor Lautner. He's the one that really seems to be giving it his all. And in "Eclipse", he's very impressive at times - he delivers his lines with panache, and quite frankly, seems to be most enthused and into the job at hand. And the 18-year-old definitely isn't going unnoticed - of all the cast members, he's the one who's snagged the most roles post-"Twilight" (Robert Pattinson seems to be keener on doing indy, more artitistic efforts, whereas Lautner's chasing the Blockbuster route) and likely the one who's bank balance is going to need to be printed on two sides of paper, when he requests a balance from the ATM, pretty soon.

Lautner told Moviehole recently that his next film is "Abduction", a "Bourne Identity"-style thriller about a youngster who discovers his parents aren't who he thought they were (Yep, sounds a lot like the River Phoenix flick "Little Nikita"), and that he expected to be filming that within weeks.

So what's with these "X-Men : First Class" rumours? is suggesting that 20th Century Fox is trying to court the in-demand young actor for their superhero prequel. According to Roger Friedman (ironic that the guy with all the "X-Men" scoops is the same fellow that, a year ago, admitted in his blog that he downloaded a copy of "Wolverine"), theater actor Ben Walker has dropped out of the film, and it's his role, that of 'Beast', that Fox wants Lautner to fill.

Thing is, "First Class" would be filming at the same time as "Abduction". It's quite possible that nothing will come of of the studio "checking Lautner's availability", but should he be interested I shudder to think how he's going to wrangle himself free of Sigourney Weaver co-starring "Abduction"!? (Having said that, if I had the choice I'd be doing a Matthew Vaughn movie over a John Singelton flick!).

Fox have had a pretty mediocre year - "The A-Team" didn't make any coin; "Knight and Day" did only moderate business; "Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief" vanished like one of Olivia Newton-John's lovers; and "Marmaduke", quite frankly, is, er, a Dog - so they're hellbent on making sure "X-Men" is a smash, and obviously believe bringing in a "Twilight" heartthrob would help the cause. Which, yeah, it probably would. But as the article states, Lautner's merely been looked into - he's yet to respond to Tom Rothman's love letter.

"X-Men : The First Class", directed by Matthew Vaughn ("Kick Ass"), stars James McAvoy as Professor Charles Xavier, Michael Fassbender as Magneto; Alice Eve as Emma Frost; and, if the rumours are correct, Amber Heard as Mystique. Yet to read the script, but I hear it's tight - Singer good.