Fantastic Four gets a release date and yet another screenwriter (1 Viewer)

[JonZ]

I always thought the Professor from Gilligans Island looked like exactly like Reed Richards.

 

[Jordan_E]

What worries me is the fact that this apparently big budget flick has a release date and nothing ready for shooting. No cast, no script. If it gets to crunch time, will they push back the release date or simply release what they have? F4 would be a cool movie, if given the time and effort.

 

[Paul_Scott]

As much as i hate seeing known stars in these kinds of roles, i think Clooney is actually an interesting choice.

i kind of see the FF as closer to Spider-man- i.e. superheros existing in the bright sunshine.
Light, witty.
i think in that asthetic, Clooneys charming demeanor would work very well. he can also project a certain authority without being overbearing.

i think he could make the film a lot of fun.

i'd also like to see this set in the 60's.
it really needs the fantasy of a removed time to lend the cheesier aspects of it some charm.

also- no origins please.
this isn't spider-man or superman.
we don't need an emotional connection forged as they gain their powers and strugle to be more than human...thats not what the characters are about.

i'm still waiting for someone to start a superhero franchise movie by using a recap-montage at the beginging to get over all the exposition needed, and just launch into meat of the film.
Marvel books used to have that great text box up at the top of every splash page that gave a concise run-down of the characters origins, powers and general situation.
thats all you need, 5 minutes devoted to a funky, narrated montage.

 

[Todd Hostettler]

I always thought the Professor from Gilligans Island looked like exactly like Reed Richards.

Ever read Alex Ross' Marvels? There's a frame or two where it's painfully obvious who Stretcho was modeled after.

Good eye!

 

[Tommy Ceez]

Sue Richards HAS TO BE Marg Helgenberger!

 

[Matthew_Millheiser]

Sue Richards HAS TO BE Marg Helgenberger!

Or Helg Margenberger.

Truthfully, you would need to do an origin story -- the FF isn't as well known as Spider-Man, Superman, or Batman. You'd leave too many people in the dust if you drop an elastic guy, a flaming goofball, an invisible woman, and an organge rocky turd on them without explanation.

 

[Paul_Scott]

again, unless the film is going to be ABOUT them all coming to grips with their post space-flight alterations, there is no need to devote 30-40 minutes of screen time watching the group prepare for the space flight, in space, being bomarded by radiation, falling to earth, emerging to discover their particular powers, etc, etc, etc.

if it were up to me, i would start the film with the group already media darlings. the Baxter building rising up gleaming white, the group adored like the winning hometown team.
and to show this - i would open with Sue giving an interview to a reporter from a womans magazine.
in this opening scene we can
-get a sense of how the public sees/relates to them( by the tone and the questions this reporter asks...similar to the way these infotainment tools gush over over whoever is the hot, desireable celebrity of the age)
&
-cover all the origin exposition in one quick swoop.

or maybe just have a montage made up of newspaper articles, magazine covers, etc etc that trace their incredible history, and narrated by a Murrowesque or Winchellesque, correspondant.

at this point, i think it would be o much fresher to just get past the need to sentimentalize every origin.
in the case of FF, it wasn't a big moral turing point, like with Spider-man, it was just a plot contrivince to give them some funky powers.
to elaborate on it and treat it in a measured serious fashion, would just call attention to how arbitrary and silly it really is.

 

[Scott Weinberg]

According to CHUD.com director Peyton Reed has just left the project.

Odd.

I suspect they're gonna have some real trouble meeting their 2004 year-end release date.

 

[Matthew_Millheiser]

From what I've seen of Reed's work, I don't think he would have been the right director for the project. If this were a light, goofy scifi-comedy, maybe... but this is the FF we're talking about here. Grand cosmic action balanced by barbed but good-natured family strife.

Oh who am I kidding? They'll probably hand it over to Paul Anderson after he's done mutilating Aliens vs Predators... :frowning:

 

[Andy Sheets]

From what I've seen of Reed's work, I don't think he would have been the right director for the project. If this were a light, goofy scifi-comedy, maybe... but this is the FF we're talking about here. Grand cosmic action balanced by barbed but good-natured family strife.

I take it you haven't heard that goofy sci-fi comedy is supposedly what Marvel wants to do with the movie? Avi Arad was courting Raja Gosnell to direct FF a few years ago because Arad felt the FF was "the world's funniest sitcom, Friends with superpowers". Gosnell only dropped out because he decided he wanted to direct Scooby Doo instead. There are also a lot of rumors that the reason Mark Waid just resigned from writing the FF comic is that Marvel ordered him to change his classic FF plotting style to something wackier and more sitcom-based, presumably to build up for the movie, kind of like how Marvel ran Peter David off of Hulk because he didn't want to write the "Hulk smash" style that the then-upcoming movie was going to use.

 

[John Doran]

i'm still waiting for someone to start a superhero franchise movie by using a recap-montage at the beginging to get over all the exposition needed, and just launch into meat of the film.

me too. in fact, i'd like nothing more than for a superhero movie to begin like the matrix: reloaded, and then never let-up...

 

[SteveGon]

i'm still waiting for someone to start a superhero franchise movie by using a recap-montage at the beginging to get over all the exposition needed, and just launch into meat of the film.

But that would mean one less sequel.

 

[Jason Seaver]

i'm still waiting for someone to start a superhero franchise movie by using a recap-montage at the beginging to get over all the exposition needed, and just launch into meat of the film.

Like The Phantom? I think The Shadow could be said to have done that, too.

Of course, they didn't become franchises, a source of irritation to this fan.

 

[JustinCleveland]

Isn't that really what X2 did?

 

[Ruz-El]

I always thought Bruce Campbell would make a great Reed Richards.

The Corman film was horrible, they didn't start doing stuff till the last 20 minutes, and once the action started, you wished it would stop.

 

[Scott Weinberg]

Ressurecting this comatose thread with new news:

Latino Review (a great site, btw) reports that Tim Story (Barbershop) is the new director, plus two interesting pieces of "casting gossip": Michael Chiklis as Ben Grimm and Tim Robbins as Dr. Doom.

 

[Ray H]

Don't want to judge the guy, but whatever happened to all those Steven Soderbergh-Sean Astin rumors? This is kinda disappointing.

 

[Chris]

I actually have a movie of the Fantastic Four that is older, I think 1996 or so on VHS

 

[Andy Sheets]

Don't want to judge the guy, but whatever happened to all those Steven Soderbergh-Sean Astin rumors? This is kinda disappointing.

I don't know about Soderbergh, but as I understand, all Sean Astin did was say he really wanted the job and that he thought Orlando Bloom would be a good Johnny Storm. Avi Arad has been pretty consistent with wanting a sitcom approach to the concept (his first choice was Raja Gosnell until Gosnell decided to go with Scooby Doo), so Story being hired would seem to fit with that.

 

[SteveGon]

Avi Arad has been pretty consistent with wanting a sitcom approach to the concept...

:rolleyes