It’s finally here. We now have our first look at the ultra-secretive Fantastic Four reboot, and as promised, there’s a good deal of Cronenberg and a sense of scientific discovery in the scenes presented.
We don’t really get a great look at the team members utilizing their powers beyond a few brief glimpses, but perhaps that’s for the next trailer.
Here’s the official synopsis:
Fantastic Four, a contemporary re-imagining of Marvel’s original and longest-running superhero team, centers on four young outsiders who teleport to an alternate and dangerous universe, which alters their physical form in shocking ways. Their lives irrevocably upended, the team must learn to harness their daunting new abilities and work together to save Earth from a former friend turned enemy.
Does this assuage your fears regarding the movie? Is the tone too dour?
Fantastic Four, which stars Michael B. Jordan, Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Jamie Bell and Toby Kebbell, will be released on August 7th.
Photo: Collider
More so than any other comics-based film, the Josh Trank-helmed reboot of The Fantastic Four, has been a divisive prospect for fans. The veil of mystery and the lack of anything official emerging from production – not even a set photo – coupled with many out-of-context descriptions (ex: Doctor Doom is an angry blogger!) have led to much justified worry.
Tonight, Steve Weintraub over at Collider is finally pulling back the curtain a bit, as the site has released an interview with Trank and screenwriter Simon Kinberg (X-Men: Days of Future Past), where they discussed the secrecy surrounding the production, the recent re-shoots, and some of the visual influences that are imbued into the newest adventure of Marvel’s first family.
On whether the lack of any concrete information is a sign the movie has “issues”:
Trank: I think a lot of that stuff is stemming from the fact that we’ve consciously decided to not release anything official. This isn’t like The Avengers. Even when the first Avengers came out, there were four other movies that people were familiar with. The suits and the tone and the look and the feel. So they could release those things or drop them on Twitter. With Simon on the X-Men movies, there were other movies that came before the last X-Men movie so Bryan [Singer] could feel more confident in tweeting teases of what’s to come. But this movie, we really want the audience to have the proper reaction to this material seeing it for the first time. You’ve really got to put your best foot forward. You can’t just leak an image to strike up a conversation. You want people to see something that has thought behind it. And the teaser should do just that. With conversations online, you can’t really control it. In this day and age people have come to expect that artists are going to give everybody information on Twitter about what they’re doing, but not every artist is like that. I’m not really like that. If I was painting a picture I wouldn’t want to take a picture of a single paint stroke. I’d rather show people what it looks like when it’s done.
On setting The Fantastic Four apart from other superhero franchises:
Trank: I would say that the science fiction of it is a big thing that sets it apart from most of the other superhero genre films. I’m a huge David Cronenberg fan, and I always viewed Fantastic Four and the kind of weirdness that happens to these characters and how they’re transformed to really fall in line more with a Cronenberg-ian science fiction tale of something horrible happening to your body and [it] transforming out of control. And the potential for a hard sci-fi take on that material makes me really excited. I don’t really see that kind of potential and that kind of take being implemented on any of the other superhero movies that seem to be coming out in the next few years. Superhero movies have become a genre unto themselves and I didn’t really grow up on superhero movies. I grew up on genre movies before superhero was a genre. I don’t know if there are Blockbusters [the video chain] anymore, but there would probably be a superhero section. And this would fit more into the science-fiction, or horror, or even drama sections of the Blockbuster. And that’s just kind of the way I look at it. I want it to feel like it’s its own thing.
Kinberg: One thing that’s unique to it is that it’s always been about a family. Most comic book superhero movies are about a superhero protagonist or a superhero group. But they’re ever really exploring what it is to be family. And when I first read the comic that’s what was so compelling about it. I think the reason it’s endured this long, the powers are great, but the defining thing is the surrogate family. That’s something we really spent a long time talking about and putting into the film. I think that will differentiate us as well from all of the different superheroes and superhero groups out there.
Regarding any specific comic runs that this film is pulling from:
Kinberg: Yeah, I think The Ultimate Fantastic Four is probably our biggest influence because it’s the younger Fantastic Four. And a lot of the science specifics are there. And a lot of the means of transformation we took from those books. As you’ll see a little bit in the trailer and a lot in the movie, there are influences really from the beginning of what Kirby and Stan were doing in the 60’s all the way up into the present day. I’ve done it both ways from adapting a specific story-line like Days of Future Past or jumping off like in First Class and using more of the mythology of the characters without necessarily adhering to an existing plot line. This is an origin story in many regards and it is inspired by The Ultimate Fantastic Four as much as anything else.
And while they were tight-lipped about the plot, this is what Trank was willing to release insofar as story-specifics:
I would just say that this is a modern telling of how these four iconic characters came together and came to be.
Be sure to check out the entire interview on Collider, which goes into detail regarding casting for the new team and their discussion of what composer Phillip Glass (!!!) will be bringing to the production.
The Fantastic Four, which stars Michael B. Jordan, Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Jamie Bell and Toby Kebbell, will be released on August 7th.
Image via SuperHero Hype
Christopher Nolan can’t talk about Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s rumored appearance (which has already been completely and totally denied by JGL’s peoples) in Man of Steel as The Bat. And while we are on the subject of Man of Steel, I am just going to assume that you saw the trailer that everyone went frikkin’ batsh*t over this week. I saw it and I have the same thing to say about it that I’ve been saying for months – TARNISHY. One other Man of Steel related thing, the French magazine, Studio Cine Live, has a cover which shows a closeup of the new, very tarnishy and high tech sporty Superman suit for the super reboot. (via Movieline, IGN, and Studio Cine via SuperHero Hype)
Here are a bunch of movie posters for that zombie love story movie we discussed a while ago, Warm Bodies. The film comes out February 1st, 2013. (via ComingSoon.net)
My boyfriend, John Barrowman, is set to play the villainous Malcolm Merlyn on the CW’s Arrow, while TV Guide reports that Teen Wolf’s Colton Haynes is joining the cast as Roy Harper (aka Speedy). (via CBR and TV Guide)
It’s not looking like Alan Cummings’ Nightcrawler is going to be one of the returning mutants for X-Men: Days of Future Past. Nobody called him about it. (via SuperHero Hype)
Iron Man 3 has added Chinese actor, Wang Xuequi to the cast as Dr. Wu. (via Deadline)
Spinoff Online picked up a rumor from Latino Review that the long-awaited Justice League movie will be based on the story arc from 1980′s Justice League of America Issues #183-185 (via Spinoff Online)
Zambell Films has acquired journalist, Laurie Sandall’s Eisner-nominated graphic novel, The Imposter’s Daughter (via Deadline)
Cartoon Network has ordered 14 episodes of a new animation short series called Clarence, created by Skyler Page. Clarence will be the third series to be developed by the network’s “shorts development initiative.” The first two series to come out of the short’s initative, Rebecca Sugar’s Steven Universe and Pete Browngardt’s Uncle Grandpa, were announced in September, with production reportedly beginning early next year (via Deadline)
Lastly, The Fantastic Four reboot release date has been announced. The film’s release is set for March, 2015. (via ComingSoon.net)
Have a nice weekend, people! Try not to do anything too weird.
@shannonsplanet
It’s in utterly so-so’s-ville right now. It has nothing promising, it looks a little bit Nolan-ish. The last movies were embarrassing to watch, so this should be a little more watchable unless they totally blow it.
I’m not expecting the worst, but they haven’t made it appealing yet.
I ammmm optimistic. The tone is interesting, but dang it if I’m not in these actors’ corners. Jordan and Teller in particular are pretty stellar up-and-comers. If they give the character drama a chance to breathe in between the special effects– if this gets to be the story of a nascent family forming in the pressure cooker of scary science– I think we’re in good shape.
Three things reassure me: casting Michael Jordan as Johnny Storm tells me that the production team is willing to shake things up rather than just try to reinvent the previous films, using Ultimate FF as the origin story works so much better these days, and most important …
the final silhouette of Ben Grimm looks great. You have to get the Thing’s look right. Just have to.
Fantastic Four = Big. Loud. Colourful. Exciting. Fun.
Fantastic Four ≠ Grey. Miserable. Humourless.
’nuff said.
Its not the Fantastic Four that mesmerized me in when I was growing up the 1960s but I’m psyched to see the new version. Let’s do something different. The first FF was pretty lame (with the worst Ben Grimm/Thing makeup of all time), this looks like its got potential. Can’t wait to see the flick.
I was not looking forward to this at all… but this trailer changed my mind. There were quite a few bits of smiles, what not that suggest it won’t be humorless, and I get a sense of big monsters being involved too. Am more than curiously excited about this film now. Here’s hoping.
Music cut off in mid-chord ending in an explosion — Check.
This reminds me of the Ant Man trailer. I want to be jazzed about it, but came away feeling “eh…” All the shots in the trailer could have come from any generic sci-fi drama. Where’s that money shot to get us excited?
I’m sure the film was made by talented people with the best intentions (except for the studio, who just wanted to get something made quick before their movie rights ran out), but it’s not the Fantastic Four I hoped to see on the screen. Jack Kirby — Stan Lee — they know not what they do! The REAL Fantastic Four was about the thrill and grandeur of discovering new worlds, dimensions and gods. This looks like it has all the gravitas of a Pussycat Dolls concert.
a “contemporary re-imagining” might be interesting if there were already a definitive version of the original concept of the fantastic four on film. the two films already out there do not seem to fit the bill of “definitive version” (tho’ there are some pretty good moments in both movies).it looks like a case of putting the cart before the horse, lets play with the concept before establishing the concept. this latest project just smacks of “we have no idea how to work with the original concept, so we won’t try. we’ll just come up with something that we hope will appeal to the youth market and see if it works out”. now I know that a lot of these movies based on super hero comics at least try to cater to the comic book fan base in some way or another when it comes to being true to the comic, when it comes to this movie, they don’t seem to be considering the fan base in the least. real shame that we might never see a marvel produced FF movie.
Yeah, it doesn’t have a sense of fun, adventure, and exploration to me. This seems very dark, mysterious, and kind of cliched at this point. Marvel studious movies tend to be more fun, colorful, and exciting. This is the opposite of that.