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

[Christopher]

^There's never been a single invariant way in which the Thing's anatomy has been depicted in the comics. Kirby made him fairly thick and squat, but no more than the other musclemen Kirby drew. Other artists have done a variety of things with his proportions. He blew up to ridiculous size in the '90s, ended up with hands bigger than his head, stuff like that. But that was an era when many superheroes had similarly exaggerated physiques -- and that still happens a lot today. I think we shouldn't take the way superheroes are proportioned in the comics too literally. Even with CGI, the anatomy should be designed to be believable in three dimensions and in motion. As I recall, The Avengers's Hulk was designed more naturalistically than the comics' Hulk; for one thing, the movie version has more body fat and less muscle definition in repose, so that he has "somewhere to go," i.e. shows more musculature when he flexes or tenses. So the goal in CGI isn't to exactly duplicate the proportions of comics characters, which are often caricatured and stylized, sometimes to the point of ridiculousness. And with so many different styles of caricature, how can you really define which is the correct shape for a given character?

 

[Kai "the spy"]

I also wasn't keen on the Thing having the option to turn back into Ben Grimm by the end of the first movie and choosing not to. Way to take the tragedy out of that character.

But hasn't that actually been done in the comics? What's more heroic than choosing to sacrifice his cure in order to save others? Heck, that's the only really selfless or heroic thing any of the Four did in that whole movie. Otherwise they were either cleaning up messes they'd created or trying to save their own lives.

Now, I have no problem with Ben turning back into the Thing to beat Doom. Problem is, he refused to "cure" himself again afterwards. That ending basically said "I'm a big, hideous monster who can't even cross the street without breaking the pavement, and I like it that way". That's why it sucked.

I guess they did cure Ben in the comics, but that was always just temporary. He always reverted back into the Thing, and not voluntarily. Least, that's how I remember it.

 

[lurok]

Hasn't there been talk of trying to shoehorn Namor and Black Panther into MarvelMovieverse? I thought this might be prime opportunity: the misunderstood antagonist. (Or do Marvel have rights on those?).

No way they'll abandon the iconic blue outfits either but I've never seen this version. Kinda cool and a bit more cine-genic....

 

[Skywalker]

Marvel has the rights to both Namor and Black Panther. Now that Daredevil has gone back to Marvel, all Fox has are the X-Men and the Fantastic Four.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Hasn't there been talk of trying to shoehorn Namor and Black Panther into MarvelMovieverse? I thought this might be prime opportunity: the misunderstood antagonist. (Or do Marvel have rights on those?).

No way they'll abandon the iconic blue outfits either but I've never seen this version. Kinda cool and a bit more cine-genic....

I thought I hit the Oblivion thread by mistake for a sec.

 

[Trekker4747]

Really, in the movie they never should have introduced the idea that "curing" Ben was within reach simply because of the reasons already stated, it means the character pretty much HAS TO choose to remain in his current state, even if it defies logic. You might as well have had Ben say, "No thanks, Rick. I know you can cure me but doing so would render my character useless and we're trying to start a franchise here."

It's a subject they shouldn't have even broached and just left their conditions as being incurable. It's been a while since I've even seen the first movie, what was the reason Ben was shortly turned back human? Dr. Doom needed to use the machine to make himself more powerful... or something?

Anyway, it's a topic that really shouldn't have been breached or suggested because it simply opens that door for people to say, "Why isn't he cured yet? Why not switch back and forth?" It's sort of like in every other episode of Voyager they came across a way to get home but by the end of the episode couldn't because then the show would be over. It's Gilligan's Island Syndrome.

Hell, if they really "wanted it both ways" go the way that 1990s, never released, movie went and give Ben the "ability" to switch back and forth.

If you've not seen it: In the never released movie from the 1990s (IIRC only made so the studio could keep the rights to the movie franchise. They simply had to "make a movie" even if they didn't release one. So they threw one together for like a million dollars.) A couple of times in the movie Thing reverts back to his human form, usually when he "let his guard down" and let people in. In particular around Alicia Masters. (Going along with the idea the F4's powers manifested from personality faults with the group.)

Granted even that sort of mutes the "tragedy" of the character and makes him that much more like the Hulk but it's better than, "Meh. I'm fine being a hideous, giant, monster who can't go anywhere or do anything without breaking things, causing great damage, or being a big hindrance to everyone and everything. Hell, I can't even sleep with my girlfriend without destroying her vagina. So, leave me as giant rock even though we can totally fix that right now."

But, again, I think Chiklis did a great job as Grimm/The Thing as is probably the best thing about that movie short of Jessica Alba's scantly clad body. I didn't much care for Ion Guerillaglue as Reed and Evans actually was pretty good as The Human Torch, he played "cocky asshole" pretty well. The effects used for THT weren't very good, though. Looked nothing like fire in a time when CGI Fire was a 101 class in "learn to be a CGI animator school."

 

[SiddFinch1]

Glad to see Irs not dead. Hope its.good. the FF deserves a great movie. Shouldn't be behind Xmens and avengers and spidey

 

[Set Harth]

Hasn't there been talk of trying to shoehorn Namor and Black Panther into MarvelMovieverse?

Check out the map markers in the next-to-last scene of Iron Man 2.

 

[Captaindemotion]

Here's hoping that not only the writing is better but so is the casting. I still can't believe they cast Jessica Alba as Sue.

It surely goes down as the worst piece of casting of all time.

Nope. That would be:

http://www.jackreachermovie.com/

 

[RJDiogenes]

Boy, those white uniforms look awful.

 

[Christopher]

Boy, those white uniforms look awful.

Oh, I quite like the Future Foundation uniforms.

 

[RJDiogenes]

I've never liked white clothes. Except for athletic socks and lab coats.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Mark Millar, consultant on the movie, recently said that the reboot will stick close to what Jack Kirby and Stan Lee did with the Fantastic Four and won't be "grim and gritty."

I like this sentence. I hope they follow through.

If they make this a period piece, like Captain America and X-Men: First Class, I will be a happy camper indeed.

Same here...and this time, no terrible casting for the role of Sue Storm.

 

[beamMe]

For instance, when they did Lord of the Rings, Andy Serkis did his capture work months after the fact and it was integrated with the rest, but on The Hobbit, he was actually there performing the scenes with the other actors on the set or location, because the tech allows for that now.

Serkis was on set in many of his shots and scenes during the filming of the Lord of the Rings films.
They used a mixture of his on-set performances and mocap.

 

[lurok]

You'd need a pretty good physique to pull off that white outfit in live-action.

 

[Gaith]

^ Ain't we seen 'em on screen before?

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... But really, it all depends on the time period, I think. The Story movies got the right shade of blue for the 21st-century. A period piece could go with a lighter hue. As for the white... I guess it could work. Would probably be a royal pain to film, though.

 

[lurok]

I'd erased The Island from memory but thanks for the visual jog That could be an alt Sue and Johnny. And yeah, imagine be a pain of original Superman proportions to get right on film.

 

[Agenda]

For a Michael Bay movie, the Island is actually not that bad.

I repeat: for a Michael Bay movie.

 

[Trekker4747]

For a Michael Bay movie, the Island is actually not that bad.

I repeat: for a Michael Bay movie.

Well, he DID rip the movie's plot off basically note-for-note so we can't give him too much credit.

 

[theenglish]

As for the source of their powers, I'm surprised that so many commenters here would expect them to use the old cosmic-ray origin. Previous Marvel movies have updated the characters' origins -- Hulk was created by a supersoldier formula (or nanotech in the Ang Lee version), Spidey was created by genetically engineered spiders rather than irradiated ones, etc. The previous FF movies replaced the "cosmic rays" with some sort of exotic space storm. I'm sure the new version will find its own way of updating the technobabble.

IIRC, the Ultimate version of the Fantastic Four (and Dr. Doom) got their powers from a teleportation accident that had them briefly exposed to another dimension. It's very complicated.

Right, a useful way to get around the cosmic ray problem, and it makes me wonder if FOX will make an Ultimate version of the FF similar to the recent Spider-Man movie.

And, regarding Ben's cure, it seems that the real simple explanation would be that the cure could work but something disastrous has to happen. Like a life has to be traded for a life or something; or it was only Doom's physiology that made the machine work in the first place.