Ant-Man Director Peyton Reed On His Unmade Fantastic Four Movie

Before Tim Story came along and made his Fantastic Four (2005) movie, Fox had hired Peyton Reed to bring Marvel’s first superhero team to the big screen.

It seemed like the perfect match. Reed, a lifelong Marvel fan who “knew Fantastic Four inside out” and considered the property Marvel’s “crown jewel.” But after spending “the better part of a year with three different sets of writers” and butting heads with Fox over the direction of the film, he walked away. Reed’s never fully-opened up about that experience … until now!

“The environment at Fox in 2003 was very different to the environment at Marvel in 2015,” Reed told Yahoo. “Fox at that time had a very specific idea; they wanted to pitch it much younger than I wanted to and I always felt like they were treating those characters like b-level characters. I never felt like they understood the real strength of that property.”

There is a comic book movie that was recently made that Reed looks at as comparison of what he wanted to do with Fantastic Four on visual level. “I actually feel like Joss Whedon’s first Avengers did a lot of the same things that I would have liked to have done in Fantastic Four,” Reed explained. “These massive battles in the streets of Manhattan for example.”

Seems fitting Reed’s first comic book movie, Ant-Man, would go head-to-head later this summer against another iteration of Fantastic Four. Though, Reed feels no ill will toward the property. “I’m psyched for Josh Trank’s version of Fantastic Four,” he said. “I know nothing about it but I know I really liked ‘Chronicle’ so I’m hopeful. I think there is a great Fantastic Four movie yet to be made.”

Armed with the astonishing ability to shrink in scale but increase in strength, con-man Scott Lang must embrace his inner-hero and help his mentor, Dr. Hank Pym, protect the secret behind his spectacular Ant-Man suit from a new generation of towering threats. Against seemingly insurmountable obstacles, Pym and Lang must plan and pull off a heist that will save the world.

Ant-Man hits theaters on July 17. And for a complete list of Marvel Studios’ other release dates, head to ComicBook.com’s Comic Book Movie Database here.