Fantastic Four reboot-- Casting, Rumors, Pix, ect;

[Admiral_Young]

^ Yes! I'm thrilled that Vaughn will be producing this. I'm still very optimistic for the reboot, and have high hopes with Josh Trank. CorporalCaptain hit it on the nail with what was wrong with the original Fox FF films...it really does start with the scripts. I also still don't think that Tim Story was the right type of director for the films. I've been curious about what Sean Astin's pitch was (he and Story brought two separate pitches to Fox at the time, Story's won out). There was also way too much Ultimate Fantastic Four influence in the films.

[theenglish]

Christopher wrote:

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The origin-montage opening worked very well in The Incredible Hulk. That could work. Except, of course, the FF aren't just superheroes; they're primarily explorers and adventurers, and Reed is constantly producing new inventions and discoveries with world-changing potential. That's something I'd like to see a movie get right -- a portrayal of the FF as a scientist/adventurer family that includes superheroics and world-saving as part of its routine, rather than just as superheroes. That's what makes them distinctive, and it would be worth seeing onscreen.

Good point. Originally, the concept was that they were not even going to have costumes. The costumes were only added after the poor sales of the first couple of issues.

The origin can easily be told in a short flashback in a briefing room scenario or something.

[Christopher]

theenglish wrote:

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Originally, the concept was that they were not even going to have costumes. The costumes were only added after the poor sales of the first couple of issues.

Well, at the time FF came along, Marvel didn't really do superhero comics, but focused more on horror/SF, romance, Westerns, and the like. So the first couple of issues of FF were written in more of a monster-story vein. The male characters' powers are all a little freakish, Ben is explicitly turned into a monster, and the first issue is largely about battling the Mole Man's monsters, with the second being a battle with the monstrous-looking "Skrulls from Outer Space!" So the original premise was very much in the vein of sci-fi B-movies of the '50s and '60s -- radiation transforming astronauts into bizarre entities, giant monsters coming from beneath the Earth or living on Monster Island, Red-Scare allegories of disguised alien invaders in our midst. So reorienting it toward costumed heroes battling supervillains was more than just a change of clothes, but a shift of genre as well.

[Nick Ryder]

I have to agree with the above posters - it'd be nice to see the FF return to their 'roots' as a more adventurer focused team - but then again I would also like to see them actually encounter some more of their rogues gallery. Be nice to see like the Wizard, Hydro Man, Mole Man, Kang, some villans OTHER than Dr. Doom.

[Captaindemotion]

Nick Ryder wrote:

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My dream FF movie would have it actually pick up with them an already established Super Hero team. Sort of like how Rise of the Silver Surfer started out - people knew them, they have their tower and basically we don't need to rehash the origin. Maybe tell it in cartoon/comic style in the beginning during the credits and leave it at that.

And I would actually not entirely dismiss the original two movies - hell what I'd find funny as anything would be Johnny and Ben watching Silver Surfer and going "Oh geez Ben could they make you look any stupider and c'mon that's NOT what Galactus looks like? What? You think people couldn't take a guy taller than Four Freedoms tower in purple and pink body armor?"

"Well at least they picked that hottie to play our Suzie Q."

"Dude, not cool. I can't even watch her anymore without seeing... shudder... my sister."

So that way you don't entirely have to find a new way to 'reboot' the story, just say that the original two were movies loosely based on the real thing. Which would totally be a very Fantastic Four thing to see.

I really like that idea. Sounds not unlike how the proposed Deadpool script was supposed to handle the character's depiction in Wolverine.

[Alidar Jarok]

Nick Ryder wrote:

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I have to agree with the above posters - it'd be nice to see the FF return to their 'roots' as a more adventurer focused team - but then again I would also like to see them actually encounter some more of their rogues gallery. Be nice to see like the Wizard, Hydro Man, Mole Man, Kang, some villans OTHER than Dr. Doom.

Well, the unfortunate thing is the first two movies picked the villains that I thought were unequivocally logical as the first two. But they weren't well-executed, which makes me want them to do it better. However, that would prevent other villains from being seen, so I agree that isn't ideal either.

[Nick Ryder]

Oh of course, although I'd much rather Dr. Doom be much closer to his comic counterpart -spending most of his time in Latveria or in the Latverian Embassy in NYC and sort of looked at this really strange political ruler - sort of like Kim Jong Un - he's a dictator but no one really wants to really deal with him.

Secondly with Galactus - he'd be a good capstone to a new FF trilogy. But I'd just as soon stick with the rest of the FF rogues gallery - there's plenty of material to mine that could be great if given a chance.

But I would like to see some kind of cross over with the mutants of X-Men - maybe people thinking the FF are muties even though they aren't. Or even set up a sort of quasi-Illuminati thing - sans Iron Man of course - but they could still have Reed, Black Bolt, Prof. X, Namor and Dr. Strange would be a bit tricky - dunno who has the rights to them - but I'd hope it's Marvel Films/Disney

[Alidar Jarok]

Eh, I'd rather not have any X-Men crossovers with other characters. IMO, that always muddies the universe rather than benefits it. With the others, it's fine because there's no civil rights subtext with a debate about whether mutants are humans or not. Having someone with special powers who got them through some other means undercuts the message. I think having the Fantastic Four confused for mutants is a perfect example. It's not really consistent with the Fantastic Four's tone and would be a sideshow from an X-Men perspective. Also, given that there are hundreds of mutant characters to draw from, crossovers are also unnecessary.

[Christopher]

Nick Ryder wrote:

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Or even set up a sort of quasi-Illuminati thing - sans Iron Man of course - but they could still have Reed, Black Bolt, Prof. X, Namor and Dr. Strange would be a bit tricky - dunno who has the rights to them - but I'd hope it's Marvel Films/Disney

Marvel Studios is developing a Dr. Strange movie as part of their MCU "Phase Three" (i.e. the wave of movies after Avengers 2). And from what I can tell, they also have the movie rights to Sub-Mariner and the Inhumans. So that would preclude an Illuminati-type group in the Fox movies, since they only have rights to Reed and Xavier.

[Admiral_Young]

There have been reports that they want to a Planet Hulk film for phase three with Planet Hulk taking place after "Avengers 2" and then "Avengers 3" being "World War Hulk". They do indeed have the rights for the Inhumans, Namor, and Black Panther so an MCU Illuminanti film is very possible. They'd just have to figure out a spot to replace the mutant representative since they wouldn't have the rights to fill that spot.

[Christopher]

^Why not Thor? As an Asgardian, he's one of the most powerful beings on the planet in the MCU. He's also royalty, putting him in the same league as Namor, T'Challa, and maybe Black Bolt.

[Admiral_Young]

I don't think Thor would not go along with some of the Illuminanti's decision making processes. That's why Tony is there anyway, i think Bendis mentality was that out of the three "Trinity" members of the Avengers Tony is the most forward thinking of them and able to make the "tough decisions". Even though he is fairly new in the MCU I think that mentality still works. It'd be an interesting choice but I don't see him meshing very well with the others at the table.

[RJDiogenes]

They should just base the movie on FF #1. The Mole Man's monsters would look pretty cool done up in CGI, and the origin would be summed up briefly in flashback.

[Admiral_Young]

Yeah that was what I was thinking, or at least have the Mole Man appear and they deal with it and that is what establishes themselves as heroes in the public's eye...I'm sure Trank plans on using Doom in this. I'd probably use the Negative Zone right off the bat and perhaps Annilhilus. Really explore that imaginaut concept of the FF.

[Shazam!]

Nick Ryder wrote:

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So that way you don't entirely have to find a new way to 'reboot' the story, just say that the original two were movies loosely based on the real thing. Which would totally be a very Fantastic Four thing to see.

I once had a similar idea in which you saw the origin pretty much verbatim as it is in the comics (so, quite cheesy...) and then it pulls back and it's a clip from Fantastic Four: The Movie and Reed Richards is on a chat show.