Bryan Singer’s re-working of Jack and the Beanstalk (Jack the Giant Killer) is finally beginning to take shape and now two young British up-and-coming stars are amongst the number of actors vying for the lead role.

The Hollywood Reporter have mentioned both Aaron Johnson (Kickass) and Nicholas Hoult (About A Boy, TV’s Skins) as a two potential leads in the role of the young farmer who is tasked with leading a rescue mission to the giants’ kingdom to free a princess.

Singer is a producer on the upcoming X-Men: First Class and apparently used the casting process for that film to pre-select candidates for his feature, hence the inclusion of Hoult, who is currently playing the part of Beast in Matthew Vaughn’s prequel.

According to the site, Singer had originally planned to begin production this past summer, but due to all the time it’s taken to plan all the effects work and the studio carefully watching the budget, the director has had the luxury of a little more time to concentrate on the casting, as the film start date has now been pushed back to March next year.

Sounds like this production is shaping up to be the exact opposite to that of  Singer’s original X-Men, which was reportedly rushed into production, causing much anxiety for the director, who had to contend with hurried, underdeveloped effects work and the Wolverine casting headache drama (although that didn’t turn out too bad!).