Claim: Ian Mckellen is a cast of X-Men (film).

X-Men is a 2000 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics superhero team of the same name , distributed by 20th Century Fox . It is the first installment in the X-Men film series , followed by X2 in 2003 and X-Men : The Last Stand in 2006 . The film , directed by Bryan Singer and written by David Hayter , features an ensemble cast that includes Hugh Jackman , Patrick Stewart , Ian McKellen , Halle Berry , Famke Janssen , James Marsden , Bruce Davison , Rebecca Romijn-Stamos , Ray Park , Tyler Mane , and Anna Paquin . It depicts a world in which a small proportion of people are mutants , whose possession of superhuman powers makes them distrusted by normal humans . The film focuses on the mutants Wolverine and Rogue as they are brought into a conflict between two groups that have radically different approaches to bringing about the acceptance of mutant-kind : Professor Xavier 's X-Men , and the Brotherhood of Mutants , led by Magneto .   Development for X-Men began as far back as 1984 with Orion Pictures . At one point James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow were in discussions . The film rights went to 20th Century Fox in 1994 and various scripts and film treatments were commissioned from Andrew Kevin Walker , John Logan , Joss Whedon , and Michael Chabon . Singer signed to direct in 1996 , with further rewrites by Ed Solomon , Singer , Tom DeSanto , Christopher McQuarrie and Hayter in which Beast and Nightcrawler were deleted over budget concerns from Fox . X-Men marks the Hollywood debut of actor Hugh Jackman , who was a last-second choice for Wolverine , cast three weeks into filming . Filming took place from September 22 , 1999 to March 3 , 2000 , primarily in Toronto . X-Men was released to positive reviews and was a financial success , starting the X-Men film franchise and spawning a reemergence of superhero films .