I’ve spent the morning at the Fox villa, vertiginously perched high on the hills above Cannes. The view is fantastic (I’ve just spent 15 minutes with Halle Berry), and Cannes looks pretty goddamn gorgeous from up here too.

I’ve been with Halle and the rest of the cast of X-Men: The Last Stand, as a participant in the first-ever digital junket. On a normal junket, a group of journalists spend some time interviewing stars promoting a particular movie. Today Fox have brought together 10 hacks from Japan, Korea, Australia, the USA and various points in Europe, all reporting back to their websites in real time as we quiz the cast. It’s been a slightly surreal process, both for the hacks and for the actors having to answer questions while ten pairs of hands frantically bash away at keyboards. To read about Halle projectile vomiting and hear how Hugh Jackman got Punk'd by director Brett Ratner, read on.

One of the most successful film franchises of the twenty-first century, the wildly popular X-Men movies have grossed over $800m to date; those that like popcorn blockbusters will find the final instalment in the trilogy suitably jaw dropping. Without giving anything away, you’ve never seen the Golden Gate Bridge treated like this.

More than most movie fans, comic book lovers have very clear ideas of how their characters should be portrayed, and thus review adaptations hypercritically. The assembled journalists have collected more than 50 pages of questions from fans on their blogs.

In addition to the hacks, our group includes two seriously dedicated movie geeks who run fan site www.thexverse.com and have been blogging about the film for over a year.

Like me, Patrick Stewart is a Cannes virgin. In the midst of a 15 month run performing with the Royal Shakespeare Company, he hotfooted it to Cannes yesterday after two performances of Anthony and Cleopatra in Stratford.

Dressed casually in jeans and loafers with a stylish pair of stripy socks (pictured above), 67-year-old Stewart, who plays Professor Charles Xavier, leader of the X-Men, says he was attracted to the series by its tremendous ensemble cast.

“It was always necessary for me to take them in my arms and welcome them with a morning kiss,” he says. Clearly another man who appreciates Halle Berry’s talents.

Stewart draws attention to the casts’ talents, saying that on set he totted up a list of
Oscar, Tony, Golden Globe, Bafta and Olivier winners and reckons that “there cannot have been a movie with so many award winners across film, theatre and television.”

According to Stewart, the heightened world of live theatre transfers very well to the X-Men series. “There are close parallels. These films are not entirely naturalistic, they have a larger than life quality.” For that reason, he believes that actors with a theatrical background absorb the style and language much more comfortably than those who have never appeared on stage.

Stewart is an actor clearly still hugely committed to acting on stage, and using his theatrical experience when acting in film. “Yesterday I did a three hour play twice, both completely different experiences. However much you rehearse, when you add an audience of 450 people you introduce the unknown. The audience make a unique contribution to the performance. No two are the same, and I try to bring that spontaneity to film when the camera is rolling.”

X-Men: The Last Stand Director Brett Ratner was brought in to complete Bryan Singer’s franchise after Singer moved on to direct Superman Returns. Inspired by his love of Star Wars he shot much of the movie using sets and models rather than relying on CGI, a process he feels helps the performance of the actors and the authenticity of the shots. Was he excited? “Well I don’t really get excited, but I was at the set an hour early on the first day. I’ve been dreaming of making a comic book movie ever since I was a kid, and here I was directing these great actors.”

Hugh Jackman – who plays Wolverine – says his director was a practical joker who goofed around on set and eventually got him Punk'd (the MTV show where celebrities are duped). “Brett made me believe I’d burnt down his house," recalls Jackman. "He asked me to test out his barbeque; then we went out to get some supplies. When we got back there were four fire trucks and 100 firemen out front and from where I was standing it looked like Brett’s house was on fire. Bruce Springsteen lives next door and I thought for a moment I’d burnt down $100m worth of real estate. For half an hour it felt like my life was over.”

X-Men stunt director Simon Craine wanted to keep things as real as possible and told Jackman early on that he was going to be doing all his own stunts. “This was a relief to my sister, as my brother-in-law usually does my stunts and I sent him home from Van Helsing with a leg broken in two places.” His favourite stunt? “Where I fly 800 ft in four seconds. This was the best roller coaster ride I’ve ever been on. My first few takes were just me screaming and were unusable.”

Halle Berry – a diabetic – admits she has thrown her diet out of the window since arriving in Cannes. “I’ve been here before, but Cannes is a whole new beast when the festival is on: it’s one of the most beautiful spots in the world. I’m eating my way through Cannes, the food here is so good, so rich, with lots of butter.”

Berry is enthusiastic about interacting directly with her online fans, and admits she took their comments very seriously when fine-tuning her character, “I took lots of things from the fans and incorporated them.” She was particularly attracted by the theme of the film: “this theme – acceptance – has resonated with me as a women of colour."

The vomiting came in a stunt where she made 24 spins in a second and then projectile vomited. “I had this bucket called Halle’s bucket,” the Oscar winner reveals. She also gives a shout out to Times Online readers

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