After some early speculation earlier in the year, when a story suggesting it seemed to magically disappear from the Internet, it’s now been confirmed that 20th Century Fox has another X-men movie in the works.

Entitled X-men: First Class, it’s going to be based on the Marvel comics that kicked off in 2006, and it’s going to be a film surrounding the younger years of many familiar characters. There’s no confirmation as of yet as to what characters will be turning up, but we do know now for definite that Josh Schwartz is attached to pen the new film. Schwartz is best known for scribing the television shows Chuck, The O.C. and Gossip Girl, and he was also offered the director’s chair on First Class, although he’s turned that down.

We’d prefer, truth be told, a full on X-men 4, although we do get some compensation in the shape of X-men Origins: Wolverine next summer. Realistically, the earliest we’d expect to see X-men: First Class would be in 2010, with 2011 far more likely.

Expect further announcements on the project in due course…