X3 Directorless Again?

Apparently. According to Variety.

"With just nine weeks to go until principal photography starts on X-Men 3, director Matthew Vaughn has exited the 20th Century Fox project for personal reasons.

In a statement, the studio said the London-based Vaughn had planned to travel between his home and the film's Vancouver locations, but "as the shooting schedule evolved, he realized he would have to move to Los Angeles and Vancouver for at least a year. Not wishing to uproot his family for an extended period, Vaughn opted to depart the production."

All the cast members of the first two films are coming back for the third installment. It was recently announced that Kelsey Grammer would play Beast and Vinnie Jones is taking on Juggernaut, with Lost star Maggie Grace in talks for the role of Kitty Pryde.

Having produced Guy Ritchie's Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, Vaughn made his directorial debut with Layer Cake. "X3" would have been Vaughn's first big-budget studio project.

X-Men 3 is still scheduled for a May 26, 2006 release date."

AICN is a less reputable source, but has the same story, along with the titbit:

"Marvel and Fox are expected to make an announcement in the next few days regarding both the casting of Angel (who plays “a major role” in the film, according to Avi) and the new director, who may actually be someone who had circled the film earlier but who wasn’t available at that point.

Hey... didn’t Joss Whedon just finish SERENITY?"

Looks like the Joss fans may stand a chance of seeing him on X3 after all.

Oh, and in other movie news...

...Michael Bay, director of The Rock, Bad Boys I & II, Pearl Harbor, Armageddon and the upcoming Ewan McGregor/Scarlett Johansson action flick The Island has finally been confirmed as the director of the upcoming live action Transformers movie. He's been on the cards for a couple of months, but hadn't put pen to paper. Don Murphy confirmed he was finally on board this weekend, but he'll need to devote his attention to The Island before he starts on Transformers, that should start production in September.

The release date of Thanksgiving 2006 is still on the cards.