Heroic Measures

In X-Men: First Class, the forthcoming summer blockbuster directed by Matthew Vaughn and starring James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, and Kevin Bacon, the Marvel mutants’ saga begins against the narrative backdrop of Cold War politics and nuclear armament. Visually, however, the action takes place on 1960s-style sets shrewdly conceived by production designer Chris Seagers. "They're not screaming," he says of the historic filming locations and artfully constructed interiors. “Rather than becoming their own characters in the film, they create a mood and serve as wallpaper for the actors and the story.

Englefield House, an Elizabethan manor in Berkshire, England, doubles as the X-Mansion — the home of Charles Xavier and his nascent training center for mutant youths.

*Also a filming location from "Hex" 2004 series - Medenham, British boarding school

Several scenes were shot in the estate's wood-paneled library to which Seagers added extra books and furnishings. Preexisting artwork, meanwhile, was removed in order to circumvent copyright issues. James McAvoy, left, stars as the young Charles Xavier opposite Michael Fassbender, right, as Erik Lehnsherr (a.k.a. the future Magneto).

Seagers oversaw the creation of a Soviet general's boudoir at England's Pinewood Studios — a legendary soundstage built in 1976 for the James Bond thriller The Spy Who Loved Me and reconstructed in 2007 after a devastating fire. The ersatz bedroom features emerald walls painted with a red base coat to create tonal depth on screen, gilded furnishings, and a custom-made canopy bed.

The Australia House, a 1918 London landmark, was transformed into the Kremlin's war room using simple, architecturally noninvasive touches, such as a rounded conference desk and a freestanding Cold War–era map.

A wind tunnel at Farnborough Airport—once a British aviation research center—became a laboratory and workshop for the mutant Beast (played by Nicholas Hoult, pictured here with Jennifer Lawrence as the shape-shifting Mystique). The interior facade and suspended airplane were constructed out of foam to protect the existing structure.

What appears in the film as the bunkerlike basement of the X-Mansion is in fact a fireproof plywood structure erected on the Pinewood Studios lot.

A composite set of several rooms was built to serve as the mod submarine of playboy villain Sebastian Shaw, played by Kevin Bacon (with January Jones as arm candy Emma Frost). Abstract artwork, streamlined furniture, and graphic wallpaper inject the necessary dose of '60s style.

The reflective surfaces of the submarine's nuclear-reactor chamber were achieved using a combination of real mirrors and computer-generated imagery.


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