The production office of next summer's blockbuster X-Men: First Class sounds like a busy place to be. With Matthew Vaughn preparing to shoot in the coming months, and Jane Goldman still tinkering with the script, it's been the casting that's taken centre stage of late.

The biggest rumour of the past week or two has been that Fox is trying to get Taylor Lautner to sign up for the cast. And it appears that there's been some substance to this. Producer Bryan Singer has revealed that the Twilight star was, indeed, on the wish list, but that it's scheduling problems that have kyboshed the idea.

Singer told Blastr, "I wanted Taylor to do it, I really did," but then revealed that the shoots of Lautner's next movies - Abduction, and Twilight: Breaking Dawn - seem to have made it impossible. It's not been confirmed which role Lautner was up for, although Hugh Jackman has reportedly suggested that he'd have liked him to play Wolverine.

Incidentally, in the same piece, Singer confirmed that he won't be the director of Wolverine 2, which starts shooting early in 2011. He also mentions that Meagan Good is in the running for a role, but again, there's no confirmation as to which one.

What there is confirmation of is that Jennifer Lawrence is signing on the dotted line to play Mystique in First Class, and that Kevin Bacon has been confirmed to play the film's villain. They join the likes of James McAvoy, Nicholas Hoult, Michael Fassbender and Caleb Landry Jones.

X-Men: First Class is released on 3rd June 2011. Expect a few more casting bits and bobs ahead of the film's impending shoot...

Blastr