X2 CHAT: RALPH WINTER (PRODUCER)

QUESTION: Will there be an X-Men 3?

WINTER: We certainly want to have an X-Men 3. We're saving sets, we're saving pieces that we didn't get a chance to use like the Danger Room. Yeah, we're talking about it. Hopefully, this movie performs and we'll see ourselves doing this again. We're hoping.

QUESTION: It's been three years between the first film and this film. Do you hope to turn it around faster?

WINTER: It might be a little less. I think we've gotten now some momentum. We did a good job on the first one making it for a price, which allows us to be here today. I think if we can figure out the story quickly, we can be out there, maybe, in a two-year period. It could happen.

QUESTION: Is there anything firm yet for another movie?

WINTER: I don't think there's anything firm. It's going to be difficult to get all of this cast together again for a third adventure. They're all so busy. They're all expanding out so rapidly in their careers. So we don't have anything specific or concrete, no, not yet.

QUESTION: How is it to produce a mega-budgeted production like X2?

WINTER: There's a lot of massive infrastructure, logistics … like an army to get all of this stuff done. And we've got a great team. Bryan (Singer, director) picked a great team. We put together a team that knows what they're doing; they have a lot of experience. And a lot of the team was from the first movie so we could do things more efficiently. We had a lot of the vocabulary established. So that helped.

But it's difficult. It's a big deal.

QUESTION: You're no stranger to big franchises. What's the challenge of X-Men?

WINTER: How are we going to distinguish ourselves and work all these mutant powers together in a way that will be spectacular and make you maybe want to see the movie more than once?

QUESTION: Why do you think comic-book movies are successful?

WINTER: I think X-Men is successful because the characters are accessible. Bryan has a good sense of radar about making the characters realistic and making sure that they feel like they live in the same world we live in and have the same kinds of issues. So I think it's accessible.

I think the comic-book movies that are not over the top or campy are the ones that do well. And I think as long as we stay in touch with the audience that way, I think those movies will be successful.

QUESTION: Was it difficult to make a movie out of a comic?

WINTER: Well, these are always difficult to translate. We can't have everyone running around in yellow spandex suits. There are choices that have to be made to make it cinematic. It's great to draw an image that's visual in a still panel, but to translate that into a sequence that's dramatic and visual and cinematic is tricky.

And the visual effects play into that, the characters play into that. And managing all those characters - a comic book is only sort of small hunks or small slices of a story. The problem of weeding that into a two-hour piece without a break is trick, and Bryan has done a great job of that.

QUESTION: Was this X-Men more expensive to produce than the first one?

WINTER: This movie is more expensive than the first. The studio gave us more resources to create more action and more scope. We spent more money to try to achieve that. And I think that's on the screen. I think, as fans, you'll appreciate that. You'll see that on the screen.

QUESTION: Are you satisfied with how X2 turned out?

WINTER: Yeah, I think we're feeling very good about X2, feeling very good about how the story's coming together, all the elements, all the hard work. The countless hours we've gone through is playing very well for us, and we're excited.

QUESTION: Talk the stages in Vancouver.

WINTER: We had Stryker's headquarters in Mammoth Studios, and it was (mammoth). It was 50 or 60 miles of electrical cable just to light it. It was an enormous undertaking. Bryan wanted to build some of those full size so we could feel of it and we could tie things together and run down hallways and move from one room to the next. It was a gigantic undertaking to put all that together.

X-Men 2
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