You’d think that comic books are a godsend for superhero movie directors. No need to explain characters, their motives or even talk to your lycra-clad cast – just hand over a towering stack of cartoons and leave them to it.

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Not for Bryan Singer. According to Cinema Blend's interview with Hugh Jackman, the director strictly banned comic books from the set of 2000’s X-Men – forcing the actors to create a smuggling network.

“Bryan Singer had this thing that people would think he really wanted to take comic book characters seriously, as real three-dimensional characters, that people who don't understand these comics might think they're two-dimensional, so no one was allowed [comics].

“It was contraband. I'd never read X-Men, so people were slipping them under my door.”

It didn’t work out too badly for Singer, in fairness. X-Men earned good reviews from critics, and had a big impact on the superhero revival that came a few years later. It also set Hugh Jackman up for his long career as Wolverine – a part he could even revisit for a Logan sequel.

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