be dead for a while because the audience has just been pummelled too much." Next summer, "X-Men: First Class" will join "Captain America: The First Avenger," "Thor" and "Green Lantern" in a parade of costumed heroes in big-budget films at the cineplex. Vaughn said audience fatigue is already starting to set in. The subject material can't sustain the Hollywood trample, he said, and the inevitable box-office duds and derivative projects will mark the end of the gold rush by studios. "It is a crowded room," Vaughn said "It's too crowded." The 39-year-old filmmaker (who is married to German model Claudia Schiffer) is known for a candor that is rare in Hollywood circles. He had been in talks to direct the third "X-Men" film but that didn't work out (he instead went off to make the underrated "Stardust") and the superhero project went to Brett Ratner ("Rush Hour"), who delivered "X-Men: The Last Stand," the 2006 film that became the biggest money-maker in the franchise despite far more sour reviews than the two previous films. Vaughn didn't shy away from slagging on Ratner's film: "As it happens, I could have made something a hundred times better than the film that was eventually made," Vaughn told the Daily Telegraph. "It sounds arrogant, but I could have done something with far more emotion and heart." Vaughn made his mark in movies as the producer of three Guy Ritchie films -- "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels," "Snatch" and "Swept Away." He made his