Over at the Los Angeles Times, director Bryan Singer and producer Laura Shuler Donner have both been interviewed about the X-Men franchise. Singer, of course, directed the first two films in the series, before leaving X-Men: The Last Stand in the hands of Brett Ratner so he could go to make Superman Returns instead. Cheers for that, Bryan.

However, it'd already been announced that Singer was returning to the X-Men saga, and he's set to direct X-Men: First Class, the story of the first year of Professor X's school. He's been spilling a few details on how he plans to attack the story, too.

He said, "Just doing younger mutants is not enough. The story needs to be more than that. I love the relationship between Magneto and Xavier, these two men who have diametrically opposite points of view but still manage to be friends -- to a point. They are the ultimate frenemies."

But it seems that Singer may have a second X-Men movie on his to-do list as well (which also reportedly still includes a Battlestar Galactica feature, and Jack The Giant Killer for Warner Bros, too). Shuler Donner revealed that she'd been trying to interest Singer in helming the eventual X-Men 4 once he's done with First Class.

Furthermore, Hugh Jackman's had a lunch with the director to persuade him to helm Wolverine 2. It's probably fair to assume from that director Gavin Hood's days on the Wolverine franchise are very much numbered.

The full interview, which traces the making of the X-Men franchise to date, can be found here. And we suspect that X-Men: First Class will be targeting a release in the summer of 2012. Don't hold us to it, though...