Halle Berry was given a fake script by Fox executives while trying to sign her for the 2006 film X-Men: The Last Stand

• Director Matthew Vaughn, 52, has spoken about leaving cinema over the issue
• The director said he overheard studio executives planning to mislead Perry into making films
• Perry, 55, would continue his return to the film franchise with 2014’s X-Men: Days of Future Past; He went on to work with Vaughn on Kingsman: The Golden Circle

Fox executives gave Halle Berry a fake script in an attempt to mislead her into signing on for the 2006 film X-Men: The Last Stand.

Director Matthew Vaughn, 52, provided new details about his exit from the film in 2005 while speaking to a panel at New York Comic Con at the Javits Center in New York City on Saturday.

Vaughn explained how executives at Fox — which sold its entertainment properties to Disney years later — produced a fake script they felt would appeal to the Oscar-winning actress, 57, who played Storm/Ororo Munroe in the series.

“I thought, if you were to do that to an Oscar-winning actress playing Storm, I would quit; I thought I was mincemeat,” Vaughn said during a panel discussion at the event. Hollywood Reports.

In an effort to cement Perry with the project, Fox produced an expanded script centered around the character Perry Storm, Vaughn said. It featured a huge sequence at the beginning of the film, and story elements they had no intention of actually including in the final product.

“One of the main reasons I left X-Men 3, and this is a true story: Hollywood is really political and weird,” the director said. “I went into an executive’s office and saw the script for X3. It was fatter. I said, ‘What’s this draft?’ They were like, ‘Don’t worry about it.’

Vaughn – who has directed films like 2021’s The King’s Man, 2017’s Kingsman: The Golden Circle, and 2014’s Kingsman: The Secret Service – said he read a sequence that was set to convince The Monster’s Ball star to agree to reprise her role in the film franchise. .

“I grabbed it, opened the first page, and it said: ‘Africa,’” Vaughn said. “Kids are dying without water, and the storm is creating a thunderstorm to save all these kids” – I thought that was a very cool idea.

He continued: I said: What is this? They said, “This is Halle Berry’s script, because she hasn’t signed on yet. This is what she wants it to be. As soon as she signs it, we’ll throw it in the trash.”

Perry eventually signed on to star in the film, joining a cast that included Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Famke Janssen, Ian McKellen, Kelsey Grammer, and Elliot Page.

Vaughn initially replaced X2 director Bryan Singer in the franchise, and would eventually be replaced by Brett Ratner in the 2006 film.

The film was a financial success, earning $234 million at the domestic box office and $460 million worldwide, according to Box office mojo.

Perry would continue his return to the film franchise with 2014’s X-Men: Days of Future Past; He went on to work with Vaughn on Kingsman: The Golden Circle.

Vaughn said his future career prospects were threatened when he stepped away from film Screen screaming.

He returned to the franchise for 2011’s X-Men: First Class, saying that his work on the 2010 film Kick-Ass put him back in the good graces of studio brass.

“The guy who said, ‘You’ll never work in this town again’ watched Kick-Ass, and to his credit, he called me up and said, ‘I didn’t mean it when I said that,’” the director said.