Could a "Mastermind" movie work?

[Alan2099]

A selfish completely immoral scumbag that can make you see whatever he wants you to see?

That could make for a great movie... assuming you don't want him to be the good guy. As a drama or horror movie, it has tons of potential.

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Uncanny X-Men #130 Feb 1980
The Dark Phoenix Saga: Part 2 of 9 - "Dazzler"
Cyclops, Phoenix and Nightcrawler investigate a Manhattan dance club to seek out the mutant detected by Cerebro.
Cyclops orders Nightcrawler to stay outside and remain on the lookout from
the shadows for trouble while he and Jean search the nightclub for the new mutant.
They are all unaware they are being watched by minions of the Hellfire Club,
who have been sent out to capture the new mutant as well.

Entering the club, Scott and Jean find the club and its patrons to be extremely decadent.
As they canvass the room to find the mutant, Jean can’t help finding the sordid thoughts among the crowd somehow attractive.

At the Hellfire Club's headquarters, Jason Wyngarde and the Hellfire Club’s leader Sebastian Shaw
get a report from the soldiers surveying the night club. Jason tells Shaw that he will personally see to Jean Grey.

Shaw then checks in with the White Queen in Chicago.
Emma reports back showing that she has captured Wolverine, Storm,
Colossus whom she holds in cages and Professor X who is being held in a comatose state.
The young mutant named Kitty Pryde has escaped, however - for the time being.

Unbeknownst to her, Kitty has used her phasing ability to sneak into Emma's industrial complex.
Approaching Storm, she discovers that something about the cage has dulled Ororo’s mind.
But Storm does rally and manages to rip a tag off her costume to provide Kitty with a phone number to call.
Kitty is spotted by one of Emma's guards and uses her phasing powers to escape.

Back in New York, Jean continues to search through the crowd when she is confronted by Jason Wyngarde
and instantaneously finds herself experiencing another “timeslip”, seemingly living the past life of an ancestor once more.

She finds herself in a burned-out church in the middle of a wedding ceremony between her and Jason, with Sebastian Shaw presiding.
After they have exchanged vows, Wyngarde removes Jean’s wedding dress to unveil her as the Black Queen.
As the assembled guests members of the Hellfire Club cheer, she lustily kisses Jason.

Just as suddenly as it began, Jean finds herself back in the present
but kissing the modern day Wyngarde right in front of Scott!
Before Jean can even begin to explain or comprehend what happened,
the club’s musical act takes the stage amid an amazing pyrotechnic light show.
She is a singer known as Dazzler.
Cyclops mini Cerebro unit indicates that she is the mutant they are seeking.

Outside, the X-Men’s car phone rings and Nightcrawler answers; Kitty is calling for help.
Before Nightcrawler can learn anymore, he is attacked by Hellfire Club soldiers
in a specially designed suit of armor to combat his powers.
The soldier attacks him with a sonic device that is strikingly similar to a Danger Room device that stopped him once before.

Two more soldiers burst through the club’s skylight above the stage.
Jean uses her powers to change her and Scott’s street clothes
into their X-Men uniforms, shocking Scott at her display of power.
The armored soldiers have also been specially fashioned to combat their mutant abilities as well,
including one who lobs a glop of ruby quartz material onto Scott’s visor, preventing him from firing his optic blasts
and one who attacks Phoenix with a psionic distorter which Cyclops notes would require her attackers knowing her specific brainwave patterns.
The soldiers hadn’t anticipated Dazzler entering the fight, distracting them with her light powers.
Dazzler’s power renders one of the soldiers catatonic -- something that surprises even Dazzler herself.
This allows Phoenix to free Cyclops and the two switch opponents, easily defeating them.

The last soldier and Nightcrawler crash through the skylight while mixing it up. Phoenix easily dispatches the third opponent.
Nightcrawler explains to Cyclops and Phoenix that the X-Men in Chicago were ambushed.
Cyclops very quickly explains to Dazzler that she is a mutant and that they need her help in saving their friends.
Dazzler is surprised by all this, but agrees to help. As soon as they have departed, the club explodes,
destroying all evidence of the battle Obviously the soldier’s armor was detonated in the same manner as the White Queen’s lackeys last issue.

As Cyclops drives away, he sees Wyngarde looming beneath a streetlamp and wonders what he was doing kissing Jean.
As the car passes by, Cyclops vaguely notices that the shadow Wyngarde
casts does not match his body, but he is too distracted to reflect on the fact.
After the X-Men are gone, Wyngarde laughs over the progress he is making with Jean Grey.

Story by Chris Claremont and John Byrne. Art by John Byrne and Terry Austin.

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Uncanny X-Men #131 Mar 1980
The Dark Phoenix Saga: Part 3 of 9 - "Run for Your Life!"
Kitty Pryde is being chased through the streets of Chicago by minions of the Hellfire Club.
Just when it seems they have her cornered, Phoenix intervenes and demolishes
their car while Nightcrawler grabs Kitty and carries her up to the roof of a warehouse.
Scott is upset at the force Phoenix exerted in taking out the Club’s minions,
but she counters that she herself was upset at just how much they terrified Kitty.
Dazzler, meanwhile, cannot believe she is tagging along with a bunch of real superheroes.

Phoenix then spirits all three of them to the rooftop where
Nightcrawler relates how Kitty used her phasing ability to elude her.
Panicking, Kitty tries to hide from the X-Men until Phoenix approaches her and wins her trust.

In the Hellfire Club’s hovercraft which has been commandeered by the X-Men, Cyclops tends to Kitty’s wounds
and listens to her recount how the other X-Men were taken prisoner by the White Queen.
Nightcrawler silently laments that Kitty seems afraid of him.
Cyclops formulates a plan to rescue the captive X-Men and asks for Kitty and Dazzler’s assistance.

Soon enough, the car used to tail Kitty pulls up to the gates of Frost Industries’ Chicago branch and the Club's soldiers
sent out after Kitty appear to have captured the remaining X-Men Cyclops, Phoenix and Nightcrawler as well as Dazzler.
It’s all a trick, however, as Phoenix is telepathically causing the guards to see what she wants them to see.
The car is allowed entrance to the base’s grounds.

Observing this on a monitor, the White Queen is suspicious but not immediately alarmed.
Confidant that if it is a trick, she can easily defeat the other X-Men,
she resumes her painful telepathic interrogation of Storm.

Meanwhile, Kitty uses her phasing ability to once again sneak into the room where the other X-Men are held captive.
With Storm gone, she manages to free Wolverine by phasing her hand through his cage’s lock.
As she helps a still-groggy Wolverine out of his cage, she is waylaid
by a guard who then orders Wolverine to get back in the cage.
Instead, Wolverine pops his claws and advises the guard to say his prayers.

At the same time, the free X-Men drop the facade and go on the offensive.
Cyclops blasts the roof off the car with an optic beam. Dazzler quickly springs up
and uses her light-show powers to overwhelm the guards’ senses, leaving them in a catatonic state.
A battle erupts between the X-Men and the Hellfire Club.

The White Queen is outraged and tells Storm that as payback for the X-Men’s attack,
she intends to wipe her mind clean, leaving her drooling zombie. Before she can carry out this threat,
however, Phoenix confronts her and challenges her to a one-on-one duel.
Colossus carrying a dazed Kitty and Wolverine join the others as they fight their way out of the complex

while Phoenix and White Queen are locked in a telepathic battle. Phoenix quickly
overpowers her opponent but Storm is nevertheless unnerved by Phoenix's show of power.

Outside, the other X-Men have dealt with the rest of the troops and are searching for Phoenix and Storm
when suddenly the complex explodes. Cyclops momentarily fears the worst, but then Phoenix emerges
with Storm in tow, both of them unharmed. The White Queen, according to Phoenix, was not so lucky.

Having witnessed the battle from the sidelines, the Professor commends his X-Men for a job well done.
The next day outside of the Pryde residence, Charles offers Dazzler a place with the X-Men.
She politely declines, telling him that she was born to be a singer not a superhero.
After she departs, Scott wonders aloud if they can trust her with their secrets. Xavier assures him they can.

Kitty's frantic parents emerge from the house. Kitty's mother is in tears, relieved that her daughter has been returned home
safe and sound, while Kitty's father demands answers from Xavier about what they’ve been doing with his daughter all night.

But then they quite abruptly change their tone and invite them all inside to discuss the school. Professor X appears as baffled
by the about-face as everyone else. Jean confesses to Scott that she used her telepathic powers to alter the Pryde’s thinking
and make them agree to let Kitty study at Xavier's school. She assures him there’s no real harm being done.

Alone with Ororo, Scott expresses his fears that Jean is using her powers far too casually. Ororo concurs
and confesses that she was terrified to see the Phoenix at full force in her battle with the White Queen.
As they rejoin the others, Storm opines that something, or someone, is exerting an unnatural influence
on Phoenix and that they must do something before the power of the Phoenix consumes her.

Story by Chris Claremont and John Byrne. Art by John Byrne and Terry Austin.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

You know, Jason Wyngarde. Could it work? How would it work? And which of his arcs would the first film in a possible franchise cover? I realize very little is known about his background, but he's one of my favorite mutants, so I'm curious to sort out consensus here.

So what makes him interesting to you as a character? Is it his design or his powers?

Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin defined the building blocks of a story as someone who wants something and something else gets in their way. So what would Mastermind want?

Beyond his role in the Dark Phoenix saga, all I know about him is he's in Magneto's inner circle for the Brotherhood so maybe you could explore how the Brotherhood works through him?

He has children but you'd probably just put them as the lead instead of him.

[DrNewGod]

So what makes him interesting to you as a character? Is it his design or his powers?

Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin defined the building blocks of a story as someone who wants something and something else gets in their way. So what would Mastermind want?

Beyond his role in the Dark Phoenix saga, all I know about him is he's in Magneto's inner circle for the Brotherhood so maybe you could explore how the Brotherhood works through him?

He has children but you'd probably just put them as the lead instead of him.

Mastermind, to me, has a lot of potential because he is one of a very rare niche of supervillain that I think of as The Dangerous Mook. It's a club that includes the likes of Electro and The Fixer.

He's powerful enough to be a real threat to almost anyone, but not so much so that he's a national or global security menace. He's clever and crafty, but far less so than he'd like to believe. Still, for all his ability and potential, his desires are pretty straight forward: he's a thief and a grifter. His ambitions may be grander than that, but his own faults, flaws and propensity to settle will always hold him back.

Even his turn with the Hellfire Club was nothing more than coming across a good thing, slithering his way into it, and trying to snatch as much of it as he could. He didn't have any grand animus for the X-Men until Phoenix nearly boiled his brain. I kind of wish the story of his power-struggle with Shaw (an actual master schemer) had gone to a conclusion. Personally, I think Shaw would have checkmated Wyngarde in two moves.

Still, I could see him as a Better Call Saul-esque kind of figure.

[Zero Hunter]

A young Vincent Price would have been a perfect Mastermind. I am not too sure he originally was not based on old Vincent to begin with.

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Wouldn't surprise me if he was.

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Uncanny X-Men #132 Apr 1980
The Dark Phoenix Saga: Part 4 of 9 - "And Hellfire is Their Name!"
Following their near defeat by the White Queen and fearing that the mansion is no longer safe for them
Cyclops takes the team to the former X-Man Angel's aerie in New Mexico.
He asks to talk to Angel privately, who then flies him to the top of a butte out in the middle of the desert
much to the chagrin of Professor X who wanted them to return to the school immediately.
Cyclops recounts the X-Men's recent adventure and states that they were targeted by a group called the Hellfire Club.
Warren finds this hard to believe as he and his girlfriend Candy are members of the Hellfire Club.

Scott goes on to explain that he's worried about changes in Jean’s personality.
Before he can explain any further, Jean herself arrives and interrupts them to have a private picnic with Scott.
Warren leaves them alone and Jean gets Scott to take off his visor.
Much to his surprise, she telekinetically holds his optic blast in check.
The two embrace and make love on the butte as the sun sets.

A week later on a stormy night, the X-Men return to New York City to
infiltrate the Hellfire Club and learn why they are targeting the X-Men.
Wolverine and Nightcrawler travel through the sewers to sneak into the club from below.
As they are passing through the rapidly flooding tunnels, Wolverine slices open some electrical wiring
pointing out that they could use a distraction later if things get hairy, a move that Nightcrawler finds very sneaky.

Meanwhile, with invitations organized by Warren, Scott and Jean,
and Peter and Ororo attend a prestigious party within the club.
Before they go in, they radio back to the Professor and Angel in New Mexico
to advise them of their plan so that they can carry on if they fail.
As Scott and the others enter the party and try to blend in, they are
spotted on the club’s security monitors by the Hellfire Club's inner circle:
the cybernetic Donald Pierce and mutants Sebastian Shaw, Harry Leland and Jason Wyngarde.
Shaw tells Wyngarde this is his chance to prove that he has full control over Jean Grey and sends him out into the party.

Sure enough, as Scott and Jean are dancing, Wyngarde cuts in and sweeps Jean off into another one of his illusions.
She instantly believes she’s in the 18th century and that Wyngarde is the love of her life, ignoring the perplexed Scott.

Wyngarde takes Jean upstairs and Scott follows after them. Scott is shocked when Wyngarde drops
the illusion to reveal himself to be none other than the X-Men's old foe Mastermind. Chasing after them,

he is blasted by Jean who has now been transformed into the Black Queen and is under Mastermind's full control.

Hearing Scott's scream of pain over the crowd, Storm and Colossus change into costume
and charge after their friend. Running upstairs, they encounter Sebastian Shaw.
Colossus learns the hard way that Shaw can absorb any physical attack inflicted on him
and transform it into strength and invulnerability. Shaw easily defeats Colossus in
battle but Storm manages to escape by creating a thick fog to obscure his vision.

Down in the basement, Wolverine and Nightcrawler emerge from the sewers only to be attacked by Pierce and Leland.
Pierce locks Nightcrawler in a chokehold. But while Wolverine manages to damage Pierce's cybernetic arm,
Leland uses his mass-increasing powers to increase Wolverine's weight until he breaks through
the floor and lands in the sewers below, where he is swept away and presumed to have drowned.

Upstairs, Storm is tracked down by Sebastian Shaw who easily defeats her in hand-to-hand combat.
The X-Men have all been defeated and the inner circle members celebrate their victory.

Sebastian Shaw silently notes Jason Wyngarde's cockiness and suspects that he will attempt to replace him
as leader of the Hellfire Club. A toast is proposed to the newest member of their club -- the Black Queen!

Down below in the sewers, meanwhile, Wolverine emerges from the waters alive and well.
He is incredibly angry, having taken the Hellfire Club's best shot and he is ready to show them his own.

Story by Chris Claremont and John Byrne. Art by John Byrne and Terry Austin.

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

In the 18th century there has been a 'Lady Grey' comicbook character..

X-Men The Hellfire Club #2 Feb 2000
"Toll the Bell Liberty"
Irene Merryweather is in Philadelphia to meet a Professor Thornton Fieldish.
Instead, she meets Archangel, who offers her a story about the Hellfire Club in the 1780’s, off the record.

His tale begins in 1780.
Lady Grey wants a protégé to acquire military secrets from Major-General Wallace Worthington.
She finds a young girl called Elizabeth Shaw and, in her, she sees the ambitions and desires necessary for the job.
She takes her in and offers her the privileges that the Hellfire Club can offer to its loyal servants.
At a glamorous party, Elizabeth introduces herself to Wallace Worthington, who is there with his good friend, Captain Rogers.
They dance together and their romance begins to blossom.

Before long, they are married, but Elizabeth makes the mistake of forgetting

her duties to Lady Grey and, instead, falls in love with her husband.
Lady Grey isn’t best pleased and takes matters into her own hands.

She has two of her men grab Worthington and beat the information out of him.
They then torch his house, with him inside it.
Captain Rogers arrives to meet him and sees the burning building.
Revealing himself to be Captain America,
he rescues his friend from the house, but Worthington’s injuries are severe.
His wife arrives and apologizes for betraying him, but he dies in her arms.

Archangel ends his story by likening Elizabeth’s blind ambition to Irene’s.
She thanks him for the story and asks him to pass on her thanks to the professor.
Warren replies that he can’t.
The professor is dead, as is anyone who gets too close.
He asks if her story is really worth dying for.
To Irene, it probably is.

Writer Ben Raab. Artist Charlie Adlard.