Check out the full video interview below:

Tom Rothman - Windows Media Player

Tom Rothman - Quicktime

You can also read a transcript of the interview here:

Q: What's this X-Men 3 movie review that has come out?

TR: It's nonsense, okay, it's a complete and utter fabrication. It's absurd, first of all, knowing what was shot it's completely made up. You could stop somebody here and they could make something up that has more truth to it than that. But, the movie just finished shooting 3 or 4 weeks ago so there is no cut of the movie yet. So, somebody made it up and I guess that's the good and the bad about the internet people can say whatever they want to say, it doesn't have to be the truth.

Q: Obviously you have seen dailies, we can't talk about specifics. You're excited?

TR: I'm thrilled. I mean I am over the moon about it because I think it's what we always hoped for which is, it is, the most emotional...it's intense, I'll tell you, it's intense, I mean it's a real...it's the intense climax of the journey of those characters through the first two movies to this. It's very emotional, and it's serious, there's a lot of fun to it but it's very, way, way more emotional and in that regard it's bigger obviously in terms of scope and effects, it's bigger than the first two combined. But, it's bigger in terms of the importance of the idea. The cure story which everybody knows is accurate, that's one thing that's been reported that is accurate. It's a very relevant allegory for today. If you could change who you were would you? If you could change to fit in would you? If I could change a few things about myself, if I could suddenly become handsome and good looking would I? I don't know. So, it's um...we are really over the moon about it obviously.

Q: How did Brett [Ratner] hold up? I am assuming the pressure on a director like that must be intense.

TR: It is but he did a great job, that's one of the things...very experienced and he's a very experienced big movie director. The other thing about Brett is he's been in this circumstance before. When he did Hannibal, he was coming into a series, into a franchise so he's very experienced in inhabitting a world and moving that world forward. The other thing is the size, the enormity of it, just from a technical point of view, he's an experienced director he's done a lot of big films so he held up extrememly well. The interesting thing about Brett was, it was always, for him, about the emotion and about the performance and about the reality of the characters. So, look it's...whether I like it or not I am going to stand in judgement on it but I am proud to do it, the movie's got something to say.

Q: Vinnie Jones on some British TV show said X-Men 4, X-Men 5, could we say yes or no is that true? We are going to see more of the X-Men world?

TR: You'll see more of the X-Men world. You know, we're developing a Wolverine movie right now, we're developing a Magneto picture. What I will say is, I'm gonna give an Alan Greenspan type answer but it's the truth which is, which I am sure will parse endlessly, this movie which I can tell you now the official title, if you like you can break that story, is X-Men: The Last Stand, it's is the conclusion of this trilogy. These three movies work as a trilogy. These characters in this relationship, it's the culminaton of that saga. It's the culmination and the resolution of those relationships laid out in the first two movies. That doesn't mean never, I would ever say never again but I will say that this brings that saga to an end. It's quite the way the last Lord of the Rings, Return of the King, brought that trilogy to a conclusion in terms of those characters, that's what this movie does. It goes all the way back to the first one and rounds off and completes that three part story.

Q: Looking beyond, besides X-Men can we talk about Fantastic 4, they say they are scouting, I talked to Michael Chiklis recently at The Shield event that was going on, he said he's quite excited, when do we hear about some forward momentum?

TR: We're writing. That's the thing, we are aiming for July of '07 which seems like a long time but in our world isn't, it's a short time, it's not either a short or long but it's not so far away as it sounds let put it that way. We are working on the script now. So look, I make the same promise to the fans that we have on all of these which is there's only on answer, you have to have a great script. X-Men is as strong as it is because the script was great right and you know we're gonna push hard to make the script for FF as strong as it can possibly be. So, you know, my hope is that we will start shooting some time in the summer.

Q: No revelations of who we can expect, are we gonna see Julian's character back, are we seeing Dr. Doom come back?

TR: You know, (laughing) I've done pretty well, I've given you a lot of stuff, I'll be in trouble on that...

Q: We'll wait on that...Silver Surfer...any development on that end?

TR: Not yet, not yet, soon, stay closely posted.

Q: AvP 2 any development there?

TR: Yeah, uh, Hutch would know actually better but I think they just got the script, they just got the script in...we are making that movie, it's gonna be kick ass (smiles).

Q: How soon?

TR: We're hoping for August of 2007 release. That's what we hope.

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