Matthew Vaughn Quit ‘X-Men: The Last Stand’ After Discovering Plan to Trick Halle Berry With a Fake Storm Script That Would Be Trashed After She Signed On to Return

variety.com:

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Before Matthew Vaughn earned critical acclaim for rebooting the “X-Men” movie franchise with 2011’s “X-Men: First Class,” he was courted to replace Bryan Singer as the director of 2006’s “X-Men: The Last Stand.” That tentpole served as the third film in the storyline led by Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, but Vaughn recently revealed at New York City Comic-Con (via ScreenRant) that he rejected the offer to direct the sequel after discovering a studio executive’s plan to deceive Halle Berry into reprising her role as Storm. “One of the main reasons I quit ‘X-Men 3,’ and this is a true story,” Vaughn said. “I went to an executive’s office and I saw an ‘X3’ script.

It was a lot fatter. I asked, ‘What is this draft?’ They were like, ‘Don’t worry about it.’ So I grabbed it, and opened the first page, and it said, ‘Africa.

Kids dying from no water, and Storm creates a thunderstorm to save all these children.’” “I thought it was a pretty cool idea,” Vaughn continued. “I said, ‘What is this?’ They said, ‘This is the Halle Berry script, because she hasn’t signed on yet.

This is what she wants it to be. And once she signs on, we’ll throw it in the bin.’ I thought, if you’re going to do that to an Oscar-winning actress who plays Storm, I quit.” Quit is exactly what Vaughn did, with the studio ultimately replacing Singer with “Rush Hour” filmmaker Brett Ratner.