This stop the slump stuff is nonsense- all it means is that a weekend finally outperformed the corresponding weekend the previous year. Not an extraordinary feat when the same weekend in 2004 saw King Arthur and Anchorman as the only high profile openings. $56 million was a great opening weekend for FF but "stopped the slump" ? C'mon.
On FF1: "You know it's beyond our wildest dreams on how it performed in the box office. Obviously personally I'm delighted that we're going back. Hopefully this one will be successful and we'll go back for a third one as well after that."
On Silver Surfer: "I'm sure Reed Richards, Mr. Fantastic is very capable of holding onto his woman."
On Dr. Doom appearing in FF2: "I'm sure he'll be just as ambiguous. Is he on our side or isn't he?"
I haven't read all of the FF comics, but this sounds terrible to me. This kind a "shades of grey" dynamic works with Magneto and Xavier in X-Men, but not here. If this is their plans, than this is shaping up to be a crap sequel to a crap movie.
I despised the first film beyond words and thought The Fantastic Four was the worst film of the year.
However I love the FF and am hopeful that the second film will be good. I have my doubts since Tim Story is returning as director. It will probably perform well, but unless it is universally praised, I doubt it will reach the first films boxoffice gross.
You can do that with Doom, though, if you play him as evil but with an unshakeable sense of honor. He's helped the FF in the comics on rare occasions in that way. The problem I have is that they screwed up Doom so incredibly badly in the first movie that I never want to see him onscreen again.
I've heard that a new script is in the works and the Silver Surfer/Galactus one that Jessica Alba was talking about may have been scrapped. I think they're realizing that there's no way they can possible complete a project of that magnitude in time for a (new) June 15th, 2007 release.
Personally, I'm glad. I never liked the Silver Surfer/Galactus storyline that much. I'd rather for #2 that they had a rematch with Doom and his army in Latveria. Toss in Puppet Master as a minor villain and give us a solid, down-to-earth adventure first -- then worry about tackling a space-epic.
When they do Galactus, I hope that they consider casting Billy Zane as the Surfer. The rumor of Keanu Reeves is more of a nightmare than dream casting! ("I'm the Surfer... dude!")
Looks like the title is going to be "Fantastic Four and the Silver Surfer". Joblo.com also has a synopsis...
"Marvel’s first family of superheroes, The Fantastic Four, meets their greatest challenge yet in FANTASTIC FOUR AND THE SILVER SURFER as the enigmatic, intergalactic herald, The Silver Surfer, comes to Earth to prepare it for destruction. As the Silver Surfer races around the globe wreaking havoc, Reed, Sue, Johnny and Ben must unravel the mystery of the Silver Surfer and confront the surprising return of their mortal enemy, Dr. Doom, before all hope is lost. "
I wish they would Ray, his is one of my favourite origin stories. Having him involved with the FF4-2 movie is sad given the poor quality of the first movie.