X-Fever for the Flavor

I haven't seen it for myself yet, but from what I understand people all over the country were infected with X-Fever today. Symptoms include the need to stand in line to see the hottest movie this summer (for this week, anyway) and cheer as their favorite mutants pop up on screen.

I hope to check out the film tomorrow morning. In the meantime, how about some more X-news?

Box office preview
Monsters & Critics speculates on how well the third X-film will do this weekend:

20th Century Fox`s `X-Men: The Last Stand,` touted as the third and last film in the ``X-Men`` trilogy, has the four-day Memorial Day weekend to itself as the sole new wide release.

But the sci-fi actioner based on Marvel comic book characters will be up against two other major players contending for the eyes and ears of moviegoers during the lucrative frame.

Sony`s `The Da Vinci Code` debuted a week ago with a sterling $77.1 million, and Paramount`s `Over the Hedge,` from DreamWorks Animation, parlayed $38.5 million in its opening session.

Conventional boxoffice wisdom says that ``Da Vinci`` and ``Hedge`` should gross in the four-day holiday period close to what they did the previous weekend in three days, dropping slightly.

Rotten Tomatoes also takes a look at this weekend's potential.

I love legitimate theater
Playbill, the official Broadway publication that you can pick up off the ground outside any Broadway theater after a show lets out, lists the movie's theater credentials:

Australian Jackman, who won a Tony Award for his turn in Broadway's musical The Boy From Oz, returns in the role (Wolverine) that won him fame in the States. His other theatre creds include Trevor Nunn's staging of Oklahoma! at Britian's National Theatre and award-winning work in productions of Sunset Boulevard and Beauty and the Beast in his homeland.

It also talks about Ian McKellan, Patrick Stewart and Kelsey Grammer.

Ice, ice baby
The Metro in Toronto takes a look at one of the film's Canadians ... not Wolverine, but Iceman:

So you're a young actor who's been involved in a superhero franchise for a few years, playing what has thus far been a peripheral character, and you finally get the chance to don your villain-fighting leathers.

Specifically, you're now part of the core group of mutants in the thiinstallmentent of the X-Men series. This one's titled The Last Stand. It's your first time to truly shine.

And what's one of your biggest concerns?

If you're Canadian Shawn Ashmore -- who plays Bobby Drake, a.k.a. Iceman in the film, it's simple -- you want to look cool using your onscreen powers.

Number of the Beast
Arizona Central talks with Kelsey Grammer, aka The Beast:

Grammer, best known for his iconic TV persona Frasier Crane, plays Dr. Henry McCoy, a mutant endowed with superhuman agility and physical prowess. McCoy also happens to be a highly intelligent geneticist, the nation's secretary of Mutant Affairs and one of the world's top experts on mutations. As a member of the X-Men, he's known as the Beast.

In X-Men: The Last Stand, when a "cure" for the mutant condition is discovered, the X-Men have to decide whether to become normal or retain their familiar identities.

"The film is about love, about heart, dedicating yourself to standing shoulder to shoulder with people of your kind and taking a stand," says Grammer, 51.