Movie News & Miscellany

Directors with failed movies can still go on with their careers ... less likely when you badmouth the studio, because who's going to want to work with you knowing you might talk shit if the project doesn't go your way? The professional thing to do would be to go the Alan Smithee route, but instead Josh Trank acted like this and that might be it for him.

As for this movie ... I'm listening to the near-hour long midnight screening from Cinema Snob and it's just astounding to hear them go through this movie. It sounds like it wastes so much time on the Fantastic Four's origin, as if it's important. I only read their first appearance in the comics, and the origin of where they got their powers is really just not important. What matters is what they do with those powers, how they interact together.

And then for Trank to be inspired by Cronenberg for this project--what the fuck? I love The Fly remake, but that should not be your go-to for a Fantastic Four movie. I never interpreted their transformations as body horror.

It sounds like most of this movie should've taken place in an opening credits/prologue sequence that would last about five minutes. What happened here is just insanity. Trank can bitch about the studio's meddling all he wants, but this sounds like a project of crazed hubris and just complete wrong-headed approach.

It is so sad to hear people comparing the Tim Story FF movies favorably, because I saw that first one on release and it was awful. But to hear this do so much worse just fries my brain.

I need to go see Antman.
 
Someone on Twittter had a great idea if Marvel ever gets the rights back: have the origin (explained quickly, like in the credits) take place in the 60s. Do the space shuttle in space and all. Only they it a wormhole...and wind up in today's time. So you keep that 1960s space race optimism, and maybe even a Do Draper-ish Reed.

I like it, though it would make them the third "time displaced" heroes with Cap and Star Lord. Which kinda kills the uniqueness a little. But I think it'd be cool change.

Kurt Busiek also had the thought of establishing Doom already as the Latverian dictator, only like North Korea (closed off to the world). We only find out later that he and Reed knew each other in college.
 
Someone on Twittter had a great idea if Marvel ever gets the rights back: have the origin (explained quickly, like in the credits) take place in the 60s. Do the space shuttle in space and all. Only they it a wormhole...and wind up in today's time. So you keep that 1960s space race optimism, and maybe even a Do Draper-ish Reed.

I like it, though it would make them the third "time displaced" heroes with Cap and Star Lord. Which kinda kills the uniqueness a little. But I think it'd be cool change.

Kurt Busiek also had the thought of establishing Doom already as the Latverian dictator, only like North Korea (closed off to the world). We only find out later that he and Reed knew each other in college.
Maybe a little too venture bros
 
On the one hand, I wonder if studios realize the Fantastic Four have other villains besides Doom. On the other hand, they've yet to get him right, so maybe they should work on that first.
 

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Staff member
It's not just the origin with FF. They don't need to focus on the powers at all. From what I recall, the comic doesn't either. The powers are a side story, almost. It's more character driven.
 
What? I'm good with movies, and I've never even heard of this one:
You ain't kidding. I think I might''ve seen part of this on late-nite television, I think I remember that chauffeur character, but none of it looks familiar at all, and I thought I knew most of the stuff that Burgess Meredith has been in.

--Patrick
 
Someone on Twittter had a great idea if Marvel ever gets the rights back: have the origin (explained quickly, like in the credits) take place in the 60s. Do the space shuttle in space and all. Only they it a wormhole...and wind up in today's time. So you keep that 1960s space race optimism, and maybe even a Don Draper-ish Reed.

I like it, though it would make them the third "time displaced" heroes with Cap and Star Lord. Which kinda kills the uniqueness a little. But I think it'd be cool change.

Kurt Busiek also had the thought of establishing Doom already as the Latverian dictator, only like North Korea (closed off to the world). We only find out later that he and Reed knew each other in college.
Jon Hamm as Reed Richards. BRILLIANT!

Alternatively, you could have the Storm Industries be a corporation for experimental science, with one of the major (secret) owners be Victor Von Doom, dictator of Latveria. Latveria could have isolated itself since the Ultron incident essentially next door. Richards believes that the Ultron incident showed that the world can't rely on SHIELD or the Avengers alone for protection - who'll protect the world from them or what they create? - with a bit of a (friendly, not bitter) rivalry with Tony Stark playing into it. Stark is an engineer, Richards is a theorist, after all. Sue Storm is the effective manager of the Storm Foundation, being a lot like Pepper Potts. She has to wrangle the scientists, keep the sponsors happy, and put a pretty face on it all for the public. Johnny Storm puts the brand out there, competing in X-Games, doing stunts, etc, living like a rich young hotshot can. Ben Grimm is a test pilot that Storm Industries hired away from Lockheed Martin's skunkworks, where he test flew the F/A-22 and F-35 prototypes. Pessimistic and dour but fearless, Grimm isn't afraid to butt heads with Richards over potential designs, and while Johnny Storm may think he's indestructible, Grimm has lost too many friends to take reckless chances.

At some point the audience finds out that Doom bought one of Obidiah Stane's prototype designs based off the early Iron Man, but has made it his own, both cosmetically as well as technologicaly. The inside of the armor is engraved with Latverian runes, infusing it with mystical energy. Perhaps Doom's ritual magic interferes with Richards running a Zero-Point Energy experiment, causing a runaway energy cascade that transforms the Fantastic Four.
 
Perhaps Doom's ritual magic interferes with Richards running a Zero-Point Energy experiment, causing a runaway energy cascade that transforms the Fantastic Four.
...and sears whomever was wearing the armor, scarring them.
Oops.

--Patrick
 
That's worse than when Zenimax sued notch over his card game "scrolls," saying it infringed on their copyright of ElderScrolls.
A lot of these types of copyright notices are never expected to win, but are done to protect the IP. For instance, the whole issue with KING trying to shutdown the use of "Saga" (by suing the Banner Saga peeps) was to give their upcoming copyright claim more weight. Now KING lost that claim but their hands were tied if they wanted to have the best case possible. You have to protect your claims in every instance you are made aware of or someone can go to a judge and say "See how this company isn't defending their copyright, despite our clear use of it? They've abandoned it and it belongs in the public domain." That'll lead to a long, expensive lawsuit.
 
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