Fantastic Four in film

The fictional superhero team Fantastic Four featured in Marvel Comics publication has appeared in four live-action films since its inception. The plots deal with four main characters, known formally as Reed Richards, Susan Storm, Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm, and how they adapt to the superpowers they attain.

Constantin Film bought the film rights for the characters in 1986. A low-budget film was produced in 1992 by New Horizon Studios owned by Roger Corman. In 2004, with a distribution deal from 20th Century Fox, a second Fantastic Four film entered production. Fantastic Four was released in 2005 and the sequel Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer was released in 2007. Both films received negative reviews from critics, yet earned a combined US$619 million worldwide at the box office. Due to 20th Century Fox's disappointment with the box-office return of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, a potential third Fantastic Four film and a Silver Surfer spin-off film were canceled.

In 2009, the development for a reboot was announced. Directed by Josh Trank, Fantastic Four was released on August 7, 2015 and received negative reviews from both critics and public, and Trank himself. A sequel to the reboot was scheduled to be released on June 9, 2017, but it was removed from Fox's upcoming slate.

Films

The Fantastic Four (1994)

The story of the film focused on four astronauts that were bombarded with cosmic rays from a comet while on an experimental space craft. In the process, they acquired extraordinary abilities.

In 1986, Bernd Eichinger of Constantin Film acquired the film rights of the Fantastic Four from Marvel Comics.^[1] In 1992, Eichinger hired Roger Corman to produce a low-budget film in order to keep the rights. In 1994, the adaptation, titled The Fantastic Four, had its trailer released to theaters, and its cast and director went on a promotional tour, however the film was not officially released. The film was accused of being an ashcan copy, meaning it was only made to keep the license.^[2] Stan Lee and Eichinger stated that the actors had no idea of the situation, instead believing they were creating a proper release.^[3] Marvel Comics paid in exchange for the film's negative, so 20th Century Fox could go ahead with the big-budget adaptation. While the film was never released to theaters and home-video, it was released by bootleg video distributors.^[4]

Original film series

Fantastic Four
Cover of Fantastic Four - 2-Movie Collection, the 2007 DVD box set of the first two films
Directed by	Tim Story
Produced by	Avi Arad Bernd Eichinger Ralph Winter
Based on	Fantastic Four by Stan Lee Jack Kirby
Starring	See below
Music by	John Ottman
Production company	20th Century Fox Marvel Entertainment Constantin Film 1492 Pictures
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$230 million
Box office	$619,627,482

Fantastic Four (2005)

The story features Reed Richards, Ben Grimm, Susan Storm, Johnny Storm and Victor von Doom getting hit by a space storm after boarding a space station. As a result of the radiation from the storm, they gain new abilities and powers that they have deal with in their own ways.

Chris Columbus was hired by 20th Century Fox to write and direct the film in 1995. In 1997, Peter Segal was attached to a script which had been written by Columbus and Michael France. Segal later left the project in the same year. Phillip Morton worked on the script, and Sam Hamm did rewrites in 1998. The following year, Raja Gosnell signed on as director.^[5] The film was announced in August 2000 as being aimed for a July 4, 2001 release date. Gosnell decided to leave the project to film Scooby-Doo. Peyton Reed served as replacement in April 2001.^[5] Reed contemplated making the film as a period piece set in the early 1960s during the space race.^[1] He later dropped out from the film. In April 2004, Tim Story was hired to direct and principal photography began in August in Vancouver, Canada with re-shoots carried on until May 2005.^[6][7] Starring Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis and Julian McMahon, the film was released on July 8, 2005.

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)

The story, both inspired by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's Fantastic Four comic-book storyline "The Galactus Trilogy" and Warren Ellis's comic-book Ultimate Extinction, features the Silver Surfer, whose cosmic energy has been affecting the planet Earth and leaving craters around the planet. Set against an impending wedding between Reed and Susan, the U.S. Army recruits the Fantastic Four to help stop the Silver Surfer, and separately gain help from Doom.^[8]

With Fantastic Four grossing $330.5 million worldwide, 20th Century Fox hired director Tim Story and screenwriter Mark Frost in December 2005 to return to work for the sequel.^[9] Don Payne was also hired to write the screenplay.^[10] Principal photography began on August 28, 2006 in Vancouver, Canada.^[11] The film was released on June 15, 2007.

Due to 20th Century Fox's disappointment in the box-office performance of the film, a potential third Fantastic Four film and a Silver Surfer spin-off film were canceled.^[12]

Reboot

Fantastic Four (2015)

The story, loosely based on the Ultimate Fantastic Four comic-books, features four people teleporting to an alternate universe, which alters their physical form and grants them new abilities. They must learn to harness their abilities and work together as a team to save the Earth from a familiar enemy.^[13]

In August 2009, the development for the reboot of the Fantastic Four film franchise was announced by 20th Century Fox.^[14] In July 2012, Josh Trank was hired to direct.^[15] Michael Green, Jeremy Slater, Seth Grahame-Smith and Simon Kinberg were hired to write the screenplay with Slater and Kinberg receiving credit.^[16][17][18] Casting began in January 2014 with the announcement of the cast occurred in the following months.^{[19][20][21][22]} Principal photography began in May 2014 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and ended in August the same year.^[23][24] Starring Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Bell and Toby Kebbell, the film was released on August 7, 2015.^[25] A sequel was originally planned for 2017, but was removed from the studio's schedule in November 2015.^[26]

Recurring cast and characters

List indicator(s)

• This table only includes characters which have appeared in more than one film.
• A dark grey cell indicates the character was not in the film, or that the character's presence in the film has not yet been announced.

Crew

Home media release

20th Century Fox Home Entertainment released Fantastic Four and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer on DVD, Blu-ray and digital download.^[27] The films were also released on DVD and Blu-ray box sets:

Reception

Box office performance

The Fantastic Four film series is the fourth highest-grossing film series based on Marvel Comics characters after the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Spider-Man films and the X-Men film series respectively grossing over $342 million in North America and over $787 million worldwide.^[41]

Critical and public response

None of the Fantastic Four films to date have been positively received by critics. Scott Weinberg of eFilmCritic called the 1994 film "[a] painfully silly film, one with more heroic intentions than actual assets."^[50]

Rene Rodriguez of The Miami Herald gave negative reviews to the Fantastic Four films directed by Tim Story. Regarding Rise of the Silver Surfer, he stated, "Story does the same sort of efficient, impersonal job he did on the first film, keeping things at such a basic, almost childish level that it seems the movie is aimed squarely, if not exclusively, at the 12-and-under set."^[51] However, Roger Moore of Orlando Sentinel gave Story's Fantastic Four films good reviews. He called the first film as a "popcorn popper" and a "cinematic sugar buzz" and the second film an "entertaining film that doesn't overstay its welcome."^[52][53]

The 2015 Fantastic Four film was the weakest reviewed of the series; it was criticised for its dark, humorless tone, its character arcs, designs (especially that of Dr. Doom), bland acting, and poorly written story. Josh Trank, who directed the film, was himself not satisfied, posting a message on Twitter stating he had a better version of the film, but was ruined by Fox; he later deleted the message.^[54]

References