Superhero roundup: James McAvoy joins X-Men: First Class; writer for Runaways hired; The Flash races toward green light

Lots of news on the superhero movie front today: First, as Deadline reports, cool Scottish dude James McAvoy (last seen in The Last Station) has been tapped to play the young Charles Xavier/Professor X in the reboot of the X-Men franchise, X-Men: First Class. Matthew Vaughan of Kick-Ass was recently drafted to direct the film after the man who launched the series, Bryan Singer, relinquished the director's chair to produce.

Deadline also says that Drew Pearce, creator of the British superhero comedy program No Heroics, has been hired to write the screenplay for Runaways, Marvel's popular ongoing title about a group of wayward, adolescent heroes. Pete Sollett of Nick And Nora's Infinite Playlist will direct; the original comic was created by Lost writer Brian K. Vaughan.

Over on the DC side of things, Heat Vision has news that The Flash—based on the iconic, super-fast character—has moved closer to the green light. Warner Bros. chairman and CEO Barry Meyer announced the progress yesterday without giving any details, although he did also say that big-screen versions of DC's Wonder Woman and Aquaman were also still being developed. (Other superhero tidbits dropped by Meyer: Christopher Nolan's next Batman film is scheduled for July 20, 2012, and the Superman reboot is due during the 2012 holiday season.)