20th Century Fox’s Fantastic Four reboot was not the resurgence that many hoped for, including the Fantastic Four’s lovable Thing, Ben Grimm.
Videos by ComicBook.com
The Thing was played by the talented Jamie Bell, but it wasn’t the comic depiction fans were familiar with. Most of Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four was a big departure, though it had high aspirations. In a recent interview with the LA Times, Bell expressed some regret about how things turned out.
“There were several things on that movie I was clearly not privy to because I’m just an actor and I just do my stuff on set,” said Bell. “But with something like that, everything starts with the best of intentions. A production begins with the idea to make something that’s unique and original and with integrity. I think the film really strived towards those goals. I don’t know what happened between the launch of the voyage and the arrival. I think we were all bitterly disappointed with that film. But that’s just the way it goes sometimes.”
The film went through numerous scripts before production even began, including more than a few by Jeremy Slater. Slater spoke to ScreenCrush about the original script, which would have looked much more in line with how Marvel’s first family is depicted in the comics.
In addition to Annihilus and the Negative Zone, we had Doctor Doom declaring war against the civilized world, the Mole Man unleashing a 60-foot genetically engineered monster in downtown Manhattan, a commando raid on the Baxter Foundation, a Saving Private Ryan-style finale pitting our heroes against an army of Doombots in war-torn Latveria, and a post-credit teaser featuring Galactus and the Silver Surfer destroying an entire planet. We had monsters and aliens and Fantasticars and a cute spherical H.E.R.B.I.E. robot that was basically BB-8 two years before BB-8 ever existed. And if you think all of that sounds great…well, yeah, we did, too. The problem was, it would have also been massively, MASSIVELY expensive.
Fantastic Four was produced on a budget of $120 million, but domestically it tanked, bringing in just over $56 million. The good news is that worldwide it managed over $167 million. It’s unknown how much marketing cost, but Fox likely didn’t make much (if any) profit from the film. Despite that, there are still plans for another Fantastic Four movie, so fans will just have to wait and see what happens.
Fantastic Four has a 33.41 on ComicBook.com’s composite rankings, which you can submit your vote for here.
Most Viewed
-
Image courtesy of Max -
Image courtesy of Lucasfilm -
Dead by Daylight from Behaviour Interactive.
