Updates on 'X-Men: First Class'

Producer Bryan Singer talked to Harry Knowles over at Ain't It Cool News and gave a few updates on James McAvoy's role in X-Men: First Class. He also confirmed a few things about production, namely that the first look at costumes and production design will be unveiled in "about a month" and he also re-confirmed the August 31 shooting start date in the UK.

...the film takes place in the 1960's. John F Kennedy is the President of the
United States. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X are on TV doing marches. There
is a spirit of a hopeful future that was prevalent in that time. We will see how
Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr met - and how they dreamt of a future with Mutant
& Human kind. They're going to be in their late twenties. Xavier -
as played by James McAvoy will not be in his wheelchair to begin the film - but
we will see how he wound up in a wheelchair. I asked if McAvoy would have a nice
shiny chrome dome - and folks. We're going to see Professor X when he still had
hair. We'll see McAvoy and Fassbender's Magneto formulate what it is they are
attempting by creating the X-MEN.

Now Bryan wanted us to know
this is not the conventional FIRST CLASS comic - but rather a new beginning for
X-MEN. Set in the 60s - Vaughn is technologically inspired by JAMES BOND's tech
of the time. The costumes will be far more comic bookish than we've seen
before...

...Looks like filming will begin with Xavier at Oxford
University in the 60s. And Bryan is excited that the film is going to have a
much more international feel than the prior X-MEN movies. [Harry Knowles]