One question buzzing round the heads of attendees to WonderCon this year is probably: How is the new Fantastic Four movie going to turn out?‘
Whether this question takes the form of a quick ponder or a rambling inner-monologue, it’s a matter worth considering as the cinematic history of the biologically-enhanced quartet is patchy at best. The 1994 movie, made for contractual reasons and showcasing a Thing that at best looked like an angry ape’s lower appendage, has passed into legend for all the wrong reasons.
The characters were given a polish for two high profile outings in the Noughties, but these films were critically-derided and best remembered for having a Welshman as Mr Fantastic, an overly-distracting Sue Storm and a future Captain America as The Human Torch. Even Michael Chiklis, struggling to get his lines out through layers of rubber, couldn’t lend any gravitas to the project.
Now writer and producer Simon Kinberg has spilled as many beans as he’s allowed about the form this latest incarnation will take. With a body of work spanning the X-MEN franchise, as well as rumoured involvement in future STAR WARS episodes, he immediately appears a safer pair of hands to steer the course of what is intended to be another monster franchise for Marvel.
Specifying the era of the film as “modern day”, he then skirted round the issue of how the costumes will look as he clearly didn’t want to tread on the publicity department’s toes. His most revealing comments were about the tone of the story and how it would compare to other current movies in the comic book sphere:
The thing I would say overall about the film is that it’s a much more grounded, realistic, dramatic version of the film than those are films were. Which isn’t to say it’s Dark Knight. It’s not… But I would say there’s a spectrum, and we’re on the spectrum between Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man and Chronicle… I’m just going to focus on those two things because I feel it’s a movie about young people coming of age.”
The young cast have certainly become a talking point, both for needlessly controversial reasons (Michael B.Jordan as Johnny Storm) and for those genuinely surprised by the choices made (Jamie Bell as Ben Grimm). Miles Teller and Kate Mara complete the line up, forming super couple Mr Fantastic and The Invisible Woman.
It will be interesting to see how this more grounded approach will fit with characters who spend much of their time in bright blue spandex. But the previous two films always felt like they were from another era anyway, and with Marvel upping its game over the past few years it’s safe to assume that the new FANTASTIC FOUR will be a much meatier roll of the dice.
A sequel is inevitably in development, though whether Kinberg or director Josh Trank (CHRONICLE) will be at the controls remains to be seen. THE FANTASTIC FOUR is scheduled for release in 2015.
Source: Collider
Vos_L
May 4, 2014 at 11:34 pm
“But the previous two films always felt like they were from another era
anyway, and with Marvel upping its game over the past few years it’s
safe to assume that the new FANTASTIC FOUR will be a much meatier roll
of the dice.” The quality of the Marvel movies will have no impact on this reboot. This is being made by Fox, not Marvel. The FF is probably the group of superheroes that should be least grounded. That works for Batman as doesn’t have any superpowers anyway so they were really grounding the villains more than Batman. The FF has some pretty extreme powers and Marvel has been very successful blending in humor and not being overly serious in the tone of its movies. Fox would be better off going with the Marvel approach for the FF than the Warner Bros/DC approach. I kind of hope this movie flops so that Fox will finally sell the movie rights for the FF back to Marvel or let them lapse.
Steve Palace
May 5, 2014 at 3:07 pm
An interesting point, though I was referring to Marvel as a part of the process rather than Marvel Studios per se. Generally comic book adaptations appear to be moving away from the “dark & dirty” approach, so the new version could be a bit more varied in tone. I can’t see the likes of Mr Fantastic working that well with a Nolan-type approach.