Screen Rant » fantastic four

Jack Kirby’s Estate Sues Disney/Marvel

Paul Young — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:49:41 +0000

In a move the reeks of opportunism and greed, Jack Kirby’s Estate (a.k.a. his family) have hired Intellectual Property Lawyer Marc Toberoff to sue Disney/Marvel, Sony, Universal, 20^th Century Fox and Paramount Pictures in an attempt to reclaim copyright ownership of the characters their late father Jacob Kurtzberg created. You may know his name better as Jack Kirby and you are most familiar with his iconic and highly popular comic book creations, The Fantastic Four, Captain America, the X-Men, Iron Man, Thor, The Hulk and The Silver Surfer.

Thanks to the guys over /Film for sharing this with us and to Rich Johnston at Bleeding Cool and Nikki Finke at Deadline Hollywod who seem to have gotten the drop on this breaking news. This is not the first lawsuit we’ve seen involving a comic book creator’s estate vs. the current owner and publisher; Just recently we reported and discussed WB/DC’s fight with the heirs of Jerry Siegel and Jerry Schuster over the rights to Superman.

The Siegel/Shuster heirs have been successful in their legal pursuit to some degree; they now have full access to Superman’s origins with many thanks going to their superstar lawyer (you guessed it) Marc Toberoff. What they are going to do with the just the origins of Superman remains a mystery to me, because after the countless retellings of Superman’s beginnings, I’m pretty sure we weren’t going to see that story again anytime soon.

Back to Jack Kirby: His Estate is currently suing and sending termination of copyrights notifications to each of the big studios that have involvement with any of characters Kirby created. The rest of this article is background information on Jack Kirby and my own observations and opinions. I am not a copyright lawyer, nor do I claim to have extensive background knowledge on U.S. Copyright Laws; so if you see something I misinterpreted, please enlighten me.

This isn’t the first time Kirby and Marvel haven’t seen eye to eye on things. In a very detailed account over at The Comic Journal, Marvel was in a major dispute with Kirby during much of the 80s, regarding his work from the 60s and 70s. At the end of the day (and after Will Eisner got involved), Marvel reluctantly agreed to give Kirby back 1900 pages of his work. That seems like a lot, but it’s actually less than 25% of what Kirby had done.

Kirby was the first illustrator hired when Jerry Iger and Will Eisner formed Eisner & Iger Studios in the 1930s. Until 1978, when the copyright laws were changed, most if not all of the comic creators hired artists under a “work-for-hire arrangement”. In other words: artists didn’t own the rights to whatever they were paid to draw. The same thing is still done today in other business models – electronics and programming are two of the biggest examples.

When a programmer working for Microsoft writes a new program and it turns into the major code behind a new piece of Microsoft software, that programmer doesn’t own the rights to his code. He was paid by Microsoft to write it and has already been fairly compensated for his time and effort. He doesn’t have the right to sue once that program starts making millions of dollars, just because he is jealous.

I don’t claim to know the copyright laws inside and out, but to me it would seem pretty simple: If Jack Kirby was hired under those aforementioned circumstances, then any characters he created should not be his to own. Sure, he will always get “creative credit” for coming up with them in the first place, but it’s not like he thought them up in his garage and then Marvel came along and stole them in the night. From what I understand, Kirby was paid fairly to create those Marvel characters and without the company publishing his work, he would not have gotten them off the ground. Of course the reverse could be (and likely will be) argued – that Kirby created the most iconic characters in Marvel’s repertoire and without him they would have died a slow comic death.

(Head to pg. 2 to help answer the question, “Why Now?”)

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Who Should Play The New Fantastic Four?

Kofi Outlaw — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 22:46:12 +0000

Ok so I had to redo this intro because as I was writing this MTV Splash Page happened to post (a day earlier than usual) their weekly fantasy casting column about…the Fantastic Four. My goal was to get this up today and scoop the usual Friday, blogosphere speculation fest… but C’est la vie.

Thankfully for me, Splash Page cast their Fantastic Four flick using a mostly older set of actors; I myself have been envisioning a more youthful (not too young, though) version of Fantastic Four. Check out what my vision for this upcoming reboot is, and who I picked to take on the roles of Marvel’s favorite superhero family.

Ok, so before we start I thought I’d talk a little bit about the Fantastic Four, as I have come to understand the characters over the years. The thing that has always stuck with me about the FF is the way that – beyond all the superpowered adventures and exploration that made for pretty thrilling sci-fi – the characters and their powers worked on a whole other level as a clever metaphor for the family dynamic and some all-too familiar roles within that dynamic.

Think about it: Reed Richards’ “rubber man” power is also a great metaphor for his brilliant mind, which is limitless in its creative possibilities (just like his body), but limited by its tendency to forget the basic shape of everyday life (such as family and friends); Sue Richards often feels like an invisible woman to the one person she should matter most to (Reed); Johnny Storm thinks he’s hot you-know-what; and Ben Grimm is that hard-ass “uncle” who has a big heart he hides behind a rocky shell.

What I believe the last two Fantastic Four films failed to nail down was that underlying (and very relatable) family drama – lost somewhere in all the flashy f/x, bad dialogue and gratuitous exploits such as having Jessica Alba run around without clothes for no reason (which they SOMEHOW turned into a bad thing). This reboot cannot make that same mistake: family must come first if you want the story of the Fantastic Four to resonate beyond the halls of geekdom. The dynamic between the actors selected to play these roles is going to be CRUCIAL; they need to spark such good chemistry that they can improv their dialogue and still have it sound as real and natural as the arguments around YOUR family’s Sunday dinner table – while still managing to save the world.

That said, I’m making my choices based not only on the usual “he/she looks like a good fit” criteria, but also based on proven history of good chemistry with their fellow actors. I’ve also shied away from any really A-list stars – because let’s face it, with an ensemble of leading roles like this, no egos (or massive paychecks) can be allowed to rock the boat. Also, as I stated, I’ve gone with a more youthful incarnation of the Four: I would prefer to see a newly married Reed and Sue Richards, trying to figure out what shape the next phase of their adult lives should take, while having to deal with the baggage of in-laws (Johnny Storm) and close friends (Ben Grimm).

Without further ado, here is my new Fantastic Four:

(Continue to pg. 2 for the Fantastic Four casting picks)

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Chris Evans NOT In Fantastic Four Reboot

Ross Miller — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 15:06:03 +0000

Back in March of this year, we reported on the possible reboot of the Fantastic Four franchise. Then, at the end of last month that rumor became a fact, as 20th Century Fox is, indeed, moving forward with a reboot of Fantastic Four.

As Screen Rant’s Kofi Outlaw predicted back in March, a reboot should and will mean that the four actors who portrayed the titular superheroes in Fantastic Four and its sequel, Rise of the Silver Surfer, will be recast. Although it’s not been talked about/confirmed for Jessica Alba, Ioan Gruffudd or Michael Chiklis, today we get word that Chris Evans won’t be playing The Human Torch again in Fox’s Fantasic Four reboot.

Cinematical got a chance to ask Evans himself about the upcoming FF4 reboot, to which he replied (not in so many words) that we most likely won’t be seeing him donning the blue suit and shouting “Flame on!” again, with no hard feelings about the matter:

“I don’t think I’m going to be involved in it. I would imagine a reboot would be — a reboot! I think they’re going to start from scratch and that’s the way those movies go. I mean, they’re doing it with Red Dawn too. Sometimes they happen quicker than others. Batman there was a big chunk of time, and the new Batman movies are fantastic. Superman, Incredible Hulk. Sometimes its a big gap, sometimes there’s a small gap. If there’s room to reinvent a franchise in a different tone and they can make a good film out of it, so be it. I’m not going to have anything negative to say about it.”

When asked whether or not it’d be weird for him to see someone else take his flaming place, Evans had this to say:

“Well, of course. But I’ve done plays and then I’ll go see someone else do the same play, and be like ‘Hmm. I did it differently!’ You know? [laughs] Of course. But let’s not confuse weird with bad, or weird with negative. Weird is in no way [negative]. No way would I have any — I welcome the new franchise. I hope it’s fantastic. I like good movies! I’m sure Michael Keaton felt the same way, I’m sure Christopher Reeve felt the same way. If it’s a great movie, let’s make it. Let’s get it out there. There aren’t enough of them.”

So it may not be word from Fox itself confirming it, but I think we can count Evans out for returning as The Human Torch. And the same goes for the rest of the cast: as Evans says, if it’s going to be a reboot then they need to stick to their guns and do exactly that – reboot it. It’s the same reason they’ve recast Freddy Krueger for the remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street (a decision I was annoyed by until I found out who they cast in his place) – if they had original Krueger Robert Englund returning, it wouldn’t truly be a remake, but rather like a continuation of a tired string of films.

I think it’s wise for Fox to reboot the FF4 franchise, at least from a critical/fan point-of-view. Money-wise, the studio could just continue on after the crappy Rise of the Silver Surfer with a third movie, adding to the franchise’s already successful $500 million-plus at the box office. But it appears they’re going the more desired route of effectively pretending that the first two films don’t exist (ala The Incredible Hulk).

So who could be cast in place of Evans, Alba, Chiklis and Gruffudd? For starters, I would cast someone older than Alba as Sue Storm – perhaps Uma Thurman?; For The Human Torch, I’d like to throw Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s name in the ring. He’s got charm, and I think he’d do a great job with the Johnny Storm “attitude”; For Mr. Fantastic, how about Patrick Wilson? Even if he was Nite Owl II in this year’s excellent Watchmen, I think he’d be great in the fantastically stretchy role; And as for The Thing – that’s a real tough one. Out of all the cast members, Chiklis is the one I’d keep in his role if it was possible (I never really cared for Evans as The Human Torch). For some reason Butterbean (the boxer) keeps coming to mind. If only he could act…

What do you think of Chris Evans (most likely) not returning as The Human Torch in the Fantastic Four reboot? Who should play the four superheroes this time around?

At this early stage, the Fantastic Four reboot doesn’t have a planned release date yet.

Source: Cinematical

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Fox Moving Forward With ‘Fantastic Four’ Reboot

Rob Frappier — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 04:26:36 +0000

You know what’s great about superhero movies? If you don’t like one, wait a year or two and you’ll probably get a reboot. Back in March, Screen Rant reported that Fox was considering rebooting their financially successful (but critically panned) Fantastic Four franchise. Now we have confirmation. According to Variety, the Fantastic Four reboot will be produced by Akiva Goldsman (Jonah Hex and Hancock) and written by Michael Green (co-executive producer of Heroes and co-writer of Green Lantern).

When we first heard whispers of this reboot from IESB, the word on the block was that a reboot would be “darker.” Big surprise, right? Every superhero movie wants to get “darker” right now. Of course, darker is a relative term. As it stands, there’s “dark, but fun” (Iron Man) or “just plain dark” (The Dark Knight). I’m betting that Fantastic Four will be more like the former.

What are the advantages of rebooting Fantastic Four? Well, for Fox, it means getting another crack at a franchise that has already grossed over $500 million. And since they’re starting over, they can lock in a cast for a multi-picture deal without breaking the bank. For fans, it means getting to see a movie that doesn’t suck goes beyond cliched action sequences and one-dimensional characters in order to actually tell a worthwhile story.

(click image for full-size version)

After Spider-Man and the X-Men, the Fantastic Four is one of Marvel’s most storied franchises, and the one that is most deserving of a good reboot, IMHO. Now that Disney has purchased Marvel, it’s a fair bet that all upcoming projects will see an increased level of quality control. Does that mean we’ll finally get to see Reed Richards crossing blows with Doctor Doom in a meaningful way? One can only hope so.

Because this is a breaking story, there is no director or cast in place yet. As more news comes out on this reboot, Screen Rant will be here. In the meantime, what do you think? Who would you cast if you were calling the shots?

Source: Variety

Image Source: Karl @ my.spill.com

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So Disney Bought Marvel… What Does It All Mean?

Paul Young — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 02:24:08 +0000

To quote the late Queen of Blues, Dinah Washington, “What a Difference a Day Makes.” Just recently all anyone was talking about in the movie industry was whether The Final Destination was in indeed final and if Rob Zombie was done butchering horror films (to answer that last question, NO, he’s trying to tackle The Blob next – and I’m not referring to my first girlfriend from high school). But here we are, just a scant twenty-four hours later and the biggest fish in the marketing sea has just eaten the biggest fish in the comic book sea.

Of course, I’m talking about the news that Walt Disney Co. acquired Marvel Comics, Inc. for the meager sum of $4 billion dollars. It’s a great deal of money, and I don’t care what the nay-sayers out there gripe about, if I owned a prospering business and a mega-company offered to buy me out for an exuberant amount of money, I’d sell too. Heck, I’d go buy a special pen just to sign the papers! Anyone who says otherwise just isn’t being honest with themselves.

Disney C.E.O Roger Iger

Let me start by saying that like most of you, I too thought this was pretty much the end of hardcore Marvel comics, films and cartoons. Disney isn’t exactly synonymous with violence, so at first I can see how this would be a cause for concern. Read this quote from Disney chairman Robert Iger:

“We believe that adding Marvel to Disney’s unique portfolio of brands provides significant opportunities for long-term growth and value creation.”

Wait – that didn’t make you put down the Rolaids yet? Try this one:

“The acquisition of Marvel offers us a similar opportunity to advance our strategy to build a business that is stronger than the sum of its parts.”

Still nothing? Well on the conference call with investors shortly after the announcement, Iger said, “I think there’s a phrase, if it ain’t broke.” This is nothing new to anyone familiar with Disney’s business practices. They did not spend this much money just to ruin what they bought. Saying that just because Disney now owns our favorite comic book superheroes it will water them down and ruin them, is like saying you would go out and buy a Rolls Royce and then paint it to look like an ice cream truck just to sell ice cream to kids. Much like the aforementioned high school girlfriend – that’s just plain crazy; and if anything can be said about Disney, it’s that they are not EVER crazy when it comes to a business decision. Want to know the real reason they bought Marvel? Read this statement:

“We believe that adding Marvel to Disney’s unique portfolio of brands provides significant opportunities for long-term growth and value creation. The acquisition of Marvel offers us a similar opportunity to advance our strategy and to build a business that is stronger than the sum of its parts. [These shows are] right in the wheelhouse for boys.”

Disney has always struggled to find its place in the world when it came to reaching the teen/young teen male audience. It’s no wonder, because shows like Hannah Montana, The Jonas Brothers and every freakin’ princess movie ever made is geared and marketed towards girls of every age. Disney finally started trying to hit the boy demographic when it started up the TV channel Disney XD, which already shows 20 shows from Marvel’s arsenal, but it was having trouble finding an audience with its current lineup of characters. I don’t think they have that problem anymore. Now, with more than 5,000 characters to choose from, Disney can now move forward with some interesting shows.

Let’s go through a list of possible new ideas Disney could be kicking around:

TV Shows

Besides the obvious fact that we could see many new cartoons on the Disney channel, let’s not forget that Disney purchased ABC a few years back and has had much success with its lineup of shows – or have you forgotten about Lost? This same argument about watered down, kid-friendly, ponies, rainbows and flowers nonsense was floating around back then too. I don’t hear too many people saying that now.

Imagine if you will no more Marvel origin movies in theaters. All of them are now shown on TV running on a regular series and the movies can now focus on just being pure bad ass-ness fun. Does an origin story really need two hours to be told properly or could it just be done in forty-five minute segments over the course of a TV season? Keep the major characters in theaters, Avengers, Thor, Iron Man and such, but now audiences would get the chance to see more of the Marvel Universe and appreciate and enjoy lesser known characters like some many hardcore fans already do. It would also give those lesser characters a chance to build an audience that would potentially follow them to theaters.

Continue Reading ‘So Disney Bought Marvel: What Does It All Mean?’

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Katee “Starbuck” Sackhoff As Typhoid Mary In Daredevil Reboot?

Heath McKnight — Sat, 23 May 2009 17:29:19 +0000

As you may already know, Fox and Marvel want to reboot both the Fantastic Four and Daredevil and it looks like a certain “Starbuck” may be angling to play none other than Typhoid Mary!

Recently, Katee Sackhoff (”Starbuck” on Battlestar Galactica) was seen at Golden Apple Comics in Los Angeles purchasing as many comics featuring Typhoid Mary as possible. Now of course there’s no guarantee that she’ll be playing the pyrokinetic villain, or is even being considered, but it’s a darn good bet she wants to play her!

Other actors, actresses and filmmakers have been seen buying a lot of comics which always leads to speculation of their involvement. For instance, last September we reported that Eva Longoria was seen walking out of Marvel Studios offices with some Avengers comics in her hand, and it was speculated that she would be playing Wasp in The Avengers movie. Of course she denied it and not much has been seen or heard about it since. Could it happen? Maybe, but The Avengers is still a few years out so other than Iron Man and Thor, no other casting announcements have been made.

When David S. Goyer was seen at a comic shop a few years back buying a lot of Batman comics, the speculation that he was working on Batman Begins was of course dead on.

So what do you think? Should Katee get the part of Typhoid Mary? I wouldn’t mind it: she’s smart, a great actress, and very beautiful. (Learn more about Typhoid Mary here.) Though I liked the first Daredevil (I’m ducking out of the line of fire), I wouldn’t mind seeing a reboot, especially with Katee Sackhoff as a sexy villain!

Source: Golden Apple’s blog, Typhoid Mary art by Alex Maleev

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Fantastic Four Reboot On The Way?

Kofi Outlaw — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 19:28:44 +0000

(Unverified) rumors are starting to fly about 20th Century Fox (possibly) retooling and rebooting their Fantastic Four franchise.

The previous two Fantastic Four films earned a combined total of over half a billion dollars at the box office, but never really succeeded in connecting with critics or fanboys alike.

So, is critical praise and fanboy adoration really worth so much to Fox that they would re-launch the entire Fantastic Four franchise? As the Zen master said, “We shall see…”

Now, just so we’re clear on our Hollywood terminology: “retooling” and “rebooting” Fantastic Four would essentially mean getting rid of the previous cast and crew, and pretending 2005’s Fantastic Four and 2007’s Rise of the Silver Surfer never, ever, happened (how many of us would like to forget that they did?).

So to Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis, Julian McMahon and director Tim Story: if this (unverified) rumor DOES turn out to be true, (no) thanks for your services, but it’s looking like the world would like to go in another direction with Fantastic Four.

And word is that new direction would be more in step with Iron Man: funny, action-packed, with just enough dramatic weight to make the film both a critical darling AND a box office cash-cow. In short: no more kids’ stuff. We’re talking about a Fantastic Four film that would actually do justice to one of the longest-running comic books around.

IMHO, there is a great deal of potential for a re-imagined take on Fantastic Four. The strength of the comic book was always its premise: outlandish sci-fi-inspired tales of four super-powered explorers, tempered by an easily accessible (dysfunctional) family drama. The comics combined a sense of adventure, wonder, great action, and sentimentality that keep the FF relevant, even today.

Now I know I may be sticking my neck out by saying this, but I’ll be sorry to see Chris Evans and Michael Chiklis go. I thought both actors nailed their characters of The Human Torch and The Thing pretty well, as well as having fantastic on-screen chemistry (no pun), playing out the Human Torch/Thing rivalry. However, in the cases of these “reboots” it’s pretty much a start from scratch policy, so sorry fellas.

Do you think Fantastic Four deserves another shot at the big screen? Or, with the film still in the hands of Fox, do you just see the potential for even greater disaster?

Source: IESB

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Cool Fantastic Four 1/4 Scale ‘Thing’ Statue

Vic Holtreman — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 17:18:29 +0000

With the popularity of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, I thought I’d highlight a related collectible. Sideshow Collectibles is running out of these 1/4 scale maquettes of the Ben Grimm/Thing character so you might want to check ‘em out and maybe grab one for yourself. It’s a big piece, standing 16″ tall, and this detailed, lifelike solid polystone maquette was used as the control design model for the fabrication and sculpture for the full sized suit seen in the first film.

I own a couple of Sideshow Collectibles items and they’re very cool and high quality. In particular I love my Iron Man Extremis Armor comiquette, which I purchased for $250 and is now going for about $700 on eBay (not that I’ll sell it, of course). My recent Spider-Man 3 contest featured a Sideshow Spider-Man bust and this was the reaction of the winner upon receiving it:

“I just got this bust, and it is way cooler than I expected!”

So anyway, if you’re a FF fan, go check it out.

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Movie Reviewers Need To Lighten Up

Vic Holtreman — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 17:54:20 +0000

When reviewing movies, I form my own opinion – but one of my favorite websites for helping me decide whether or not to go see a movie is RottenTomatoes.com. I really like the “consensus” approach they use in determining whether or not a movie is good or bad in a general sense.

If you’re not familiar with the site, it gathers reviews from across the web and based on the ratings of individual reviews determines whether the movie gets a ripe or rotten tomato. 60% and above overall positive reviews garners a film a ripe tomato, indicating that it’s a good flick according to the majority. Anything under that gets a rotten tomato. My experience is that anything down to about 50% can be a pretty good bet depending on the genre and your personal tastes, although the lower you go the more likely you won’t like a movie no matter what.

Up until this past week I’ve almost always been in agreement with the overall consensus, but I think the majority of reviewers out there really need to lighten up based on the ratings for Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.

In my review of the film I gave it stars. Now FF2 was no Citizen Kane, but then it didn’t set out to be. It was a fun movie and a vast improvement over the first film. Sure, it had it’s problems (Jessica Alba’s acting, for one) but in the end it was an entertaining escape for an hour and a half.

I just don’t understand some of the really nasty comments made by reviewers about this movie. Here are some examples:

“(Director Tim) Story can’t sustain anything resembling a mood, let alone a sense of gravity.”

Um, the idea here was to not make a “heavy” movie. If you want a sense of gravity in a superhero flick, go watch Spider-Man 3 (wasn’t THAT one fun) or Batman Begins.

“Rise of the Silver Surfer is an existentially and aesthetically unnecessary sequel to the equally irrelevant if depressingly successful Fantastic Four.”

I just love that one. Is the reviewer talking about a superhero movie or something shown on the Independent Film Channel?

“Surfer is just as lousy on every level as its predecessor.”

Um, sorry, but that’s no true.

“For non comic book fans over the age of 13, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer is a tedious, incoherent bore. For comic book fans of any age, it is an atrocity.”

Ok, the target audience is, are you ready…? Kids and comic book fans. And “an atrocity”? Are you kidding me? Save that witty quote for Catwoman. Heck, I wouldn’t even use a term like that to describe Ghost Rider, and I did not like that movie at all.

My personal philosophy regarding movie reviews here at Screen Rant is that one should often review a movie within the context of it’s genre. That’s why on my 5 Star Movies page you’ll see a Sci-Fi flick like Serenity and a comedy like Kung Fu Hustle on the same page as the outstanding documentary Enemies of Happiness.

Each of the above movies succeeds at its goal, whether that be to give you a great Sci-Fi experience where you care about the story and characters, to make you laugh hysterically, or to enlighten you about some topic you weren’t aware of. Having said that, of course you can have movies that fail even within their genre and I’ll call it like I see it. I’ll also admit that my personal subjectivity regarding the content of a film sometimes comes into play when I’m writing a review, but that’s part of my reviewing style.

I don’t write movie reviews for other critics, I write them for regular folks who are trying to decide whether or not to plunk down their hard earned money to go see a movie. That’s why I don’t often mention things like cinematography or esoteric aspects of a movie – of course all that factors into the final product, but I approach a review from the very basic “was it a good movie or not” point of view. Was I entertained? Moved emotionally? Blown away? Those are my benchmarks and I think they’re yours as well.

End of rant.

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No More Freaking FF2 Or Tranformers Clips!

Vic Holtreman — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 17:45:21 +0000

Holee crap… it seems like every other day another three movie clips and 24 new images come out for either Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer or Transformers.

I refuse to post another video clip or new image from either of these upcoming films here at Screen Rant. Seriously, just how much of these movies do you want to see before you ever set foot in the stinking movie theater?!? I understand the concept of the Hollywood Hype Machine and it’s ever increasing need to beat the last box office record (most money made on a 3.5 day weekend in an odd numbered month during the summer solstice, for example).

But for crying out loud, FF2 is due out in what, 7 days? And Transformers… well jeez, that one is down to 3 1/2 weeks How in the heck will we survive without being fed constant new scenes from the movie?

Well I’m here to tell ya I’m done. Finito. No mas. Period.

Sure, I run a movie site, but hey, once in a while I’d like to see a movie without knowing every single shred of what is going to happen before I put down my hard-earned dollars.

So… what will I write about? Well, geez… I don’t know but I’m sure I’ll think of something.

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Fantastic Four 2 Is Rated PG

Vic Holtreman — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 19:19:39 +0000

Is the pendulum finally swinging the other way? For the longest time action movies pushed the PG-13 envelope, doing razor thin trims until they just barely escaped the R-rating and slid in to theaters as PG-13 for those lucrative teen and preteen dollars.

Now I hear from /Film that Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer has gotten a PG rating! I did not expect that at all… I had assumed it was a given that it would get a PG-13. Very surprising as far as I’m concerned.

I guess if you remove all foul language and any sexual innuendo, a superhero movie can actually get a PG-13 rating. My guess is that the violence in the film is of such a non-specific and fantasy nature that it was able to qualify for a PG. What was even more striking to me is that in a related story, the Wachowski brothers are planning on the upcoming Speed Racer movie being G-rated!

Do I smell the start of a trend here?

Now personally I don’t think a G-rating will stick for the Wachowski movie, and actually I think they may be shooting a bit low on the rating. I think Speed Racer would actually be better and do better at the box office as a PG than as a G film. But is a PG for FF necessarily a bad thing? I don’t think so. I’ve always considered the Fantastic Four to be one of the “lighter” superhero comics and I think the movie could easily work as a PG. Now that doesn’t mean that it will be a good movie… remember: The same team created this one that created the first very weak film.

However, unlike my pals over at /Film, I’m not horrified at the idea of a PG Fantastic Four movie.

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Could Rise Of The Silver Surfer Be Better Than The First FF Movie?

Vic Holtreman — Tue, 22 May 2007 17:00:52 +0000

So it’s almost here. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (don’t you love super-long movie titles?) opens on June 15th and the marketing blitz is in high gear. It almost seemed like 20th Century Fox bought up all the advertising time on the season finale of Heroes to pitch this sequel. Is it possible that the sequel could be better than the original?

Now I’ll grant you that wouldn’t be terribly difficult since the first Fantastic Four movie was pretty weak (I only gave it stars), but it’s entirely possible for a sequel to go downhill even from there. My hope is that (if you’ll pardon the pun) this one will actually rise to the occasion and improve upon the first. The latest set of TV spots (click on the above image to watch them) actually don’t look too bad, and although it’s a fluffy press release document, here are some items that at least sound good in regards to the new film:

“It was a delicate balance meeting the comics fans’ expectations for the look of Galactus, and making him truly spectacular and cinematic to those not familiar with the character.”

So could Galactus actually appear to be more than a giant storm cloud?

“I wanted this movie to be the rare sequel that’s better than the original…”

One can only hope.

“Reed Richards has evolved and has much more confidence and is much more in control. He’s much more of a leader this time.”

That’s extremely good news, as I thought the character was pretty lame and not at all like the comic book version in the first film.

“Thing’s headpiece now features a larger brow – something requested by diehard Fantastic Four fans.”

I commented on that and showed the difference in a previous post, and it shows that at the very least they’re listening to the fans.

Of course all of the above quotes may just be happy talk from those involved with the film and it may turn out to be lame after all. Personally one of the things that bugs me from what I’ve seen so far is that I do not like Laurence Fishburne’s voice coming out of the Silver Surfer. It just doesn’t sound right… doesn’t match the character for some reason.

My expectations are pretty low on this one, so if it turns out to be even semi-decent that may be enough to get a pretty good review from me.

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Rise Of The Silver Surfer Trailer: Hope For FF2?

Vic Holtreman — Tue, 01 May 2007 16:49:00 +0000

The final trailer for Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer is out and it’s much more impressive than the original teaser trailer that was released a while back.

This trailer actual makes the movie look like it might have some pretty intense moments, but that’s helped quite a bit by the music, which I don’t know if it’s the same as will be in the final film. There are quite a few cool scenes that seem to carry dramatic weight along with the humor between Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm from the first film.

Of course the problem is that this is just a trailer, and it’s quite common for a trailer to make a mediocre movie look awesome. Still, I would love to be proven wrong about this Fantastic Four sequel and have it turn out to be a good, or dare I say it, great movie.

Click on the image above to see the trailer in a variety of formats.

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Fanboys Appeased: Ben Grimm Has A Brow

Vic Holtreman — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 19:29:03 +0000

One of the complaints about the first Fantastic Four movie was the fact that Ben Grimm as The Thing did not have his trademark big honkin’ brow ridge.

Based on the photo on the left it looks like the folks making the movie heard that and fixed that particular issue in Rise of the Silver Surfer. The first image is from the first film and the second image is from the sequel.

At least it looks like they’re going to do one thing right in the upcoming film.

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AICN Losing It’s Cool?

Vic Holtreman — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 15:50:51 +0000

Ain’t It Cool News has always been a huge movie site, with it’s founder Harry Knowles becoming a bit of a celebrity among the geek fanboy movie crowd (don’t be offended, I’m IN that crowd). Like many movie websites out there (including this one) they report rumors based on information sent to them, but usually their sources are pretty solid.

However right now they’re getting pretty hammered in regards to recent reports about Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.

First they reported that Laurence Fishburne was providing the voice of Galactus in the film, but it turns out that he’s going to be the voice of the Silver Surfer. The same story told of a test screening in Seattle where the feedback was that the movie was absolutely horrible.

Considering how much clout the site has, FOX put out some information today stating that not only was there not a screening in Seattle, but that there has not been a screening of the film anywhere. Also, although they didn’t reveal what Galactus would look like, they reiterated that “fans definitely won’t be disappointed.”

I think that perhaps the fact that AICN has so much competition now may be causing them to loosen their standards when it comes to “sources.” In the past even information they put out there as rumor has been pretty reliable, and even with these items they stated that. But to post information regarding a test screening that never happened? I can see that happening on a little podunk site like mine, but Harry has an infrastructure… on his contact page he has about 20 people listed, he has tons of industry contacts and I’m sure a wide network of “scoopers.” I would think that there would have been some way to verify a test screening of a blockbuster film with the resources at his disposal.

The other question is what’s going on here? Could this be some sort of misinformation campaign targeting the movie by some other studio that has a competing film coming out around the same time? It just seems odd that there would be both a terrible fake review of the film plus a description of Galactus guaranteed to make the fans really angry. Of course it remains to be seen if Galactus does turn out to be a giant cloud… but if not, this thing will reek of disinformation.

Source: Dark Horizons

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Galactus With A 20% Chance Of Rain

Vic Holtreman — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 15:37:37 +0000

Wow, this has got to be the most interesting story I’ve read so far today. On the heels of some very bad preview reactions to Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, comes the news from AICN that Galactus will appear in the form of:

A giant cloud.

According to Moriarity (probably my favorite contributor to AICN) someone sent in a scoop regarding what the big-G will look like in the upcoming film. I think I felt a collective scream in the Fanboy collective upon reading the news.

Here’s a quote from Tom Rothman, stated back before the first Fantastic Four movie was made:

“There won’t be any giant robots in any movie my studio makes.”

This, of course crushed the idea of ever having Sentinels appear in any Rothman-helmed Marvel superhero flick. (Sentinels being the 10 story tall robots that were created to hunt down mutants.) And since Galactus is portrayed as a giant the size of a planet in the comic books, I guess he fits under that category.

In September of last year Rothman had this to say in regards to Galactus appearing in the movie:

“Yes, I think that Galactus, look, I don’t want to give away too much, right, but I will say this, Galactus will appear and fans will not be disappointed.”

Now remember that five months later, in an interview Ioan Gruffudd stated the following regarding Galactus’ appearance in the film:

“…his presence is felt in the movie. He doesn’t physically appear, no.”

Now I’m not saying that a giant dude would necessarily work as Galactus in the movie… sometimes things need to be changed from the comic book version in order to fit better into a live action movie. However, having said that, here’s an image a fan did on his home PC using just Photoshop:

So yeah, I think it could have worked.

Source: AICN via DarkHorizons

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Fantastic Four Sequel Worse Than The First?

Vic Holtreman — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 17:24:57 +0000

The big news this week is supposedly that Laurence Fishburne may be doing the voice of Galactus, but I think that this tidbit from Ainitcoolnews is a lot more newsworthy: There was a screening of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer a couple of days ago and the reaction was, to put it mildly, not good.

The specific quote that was sent to AICN was:

“[it was] sooo bad that they felt dirty and wanted to write letters of complaint.”

This is pretty much unverified, so it could be legit or it could be some uber-disgruntled hard core fanboy’s reaction. However, the fact that we have the same writers and the same director (Tim Story) on this one as we had on the first one does not bode well IMHO.

The first Fantastic Four movie was pretty weak, but I had hoped that maybe now that the origin story was out of the way they might hit their stride in this one.

I’ve got a bad feeling about this…

Source: AICN

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Fantastic Four 2: Galactus In But Not Yet Designed?

Vic Holtreman — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 16:32:46 +0000

It seems that a previous quote by Ioan Gruffudd (who plays Mr. Fantastic) stating that Galactus would not be appearing in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer seems to have been incorrect. Whether this was by design or ignorance, I don’t know. Considering that the Silver Surfer is the herald of Galactus, it seemed odd to me that the big guy wouldn’t be in the film… especially with the sound bite in the latest commercial where they say that eight days after the Silver Surfer shows up on a world, it’s destroyed.

But today, posted on Tim Story’s Myspace blog:

“We haven’t finished the design of him/it so be careful about what you read and believe. Trust me…no one knows. One things for sure, you can expect to see him/it. It will be pretty powerful. I’m having a lot of fun with the concept and believe me – MOST will be satisfied.”

A couple of things come to mind:

1. COOL!

2. It will probably only be a “cameo”, or else he would have figured more prominently in the title of the film and the ad campaign.

3. The film is 3 1/2 months away from opening and they’re still working on the design?

Number three above is a bit scary and leads me to believe that there will not be much screen time for the Devourer of Worlds. I would imagine he’ll be CGI as it takes a lot of time to render photorealistic characters.

Overall I’m a bit excited to see this sequel because I’m hoping that it will be better than the first one, which was pretty weak.

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Fantastic Four 2 Trailer: Cool If You Don’t Think About It Too Much

Vic Holtreman — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 18:12:12 +0000

So the quicktime versions of the Fantastic Four 2 trailer are out (or Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer if you’re feeling more dramatic). I’m pretty sure that at the least it will be better than the first FF movie, but as I read elsewhere, that wouldn’t take much.

At first glance it was pretty cool… I always enjoy watching Johnny Storm in flying sequences, and his admiration at the Silver Surfer’s ability to go through solid matter was fun. However the ridiculousness of Johnny being able to keep up with and even catch the Silver Surfer seemed a bit silly to me. SS travels through space at what one would assume hyperlight velocities, yet this guy who’s made of fire can catch him? Unless the Surfer was just in the mood for a game of cat and mouse, that seemed pretty dumb to me.

At least they made up for it by having him take Johnny into space where the flame would go out, and there did seem to be some classic Kirby poses worked into the Silver Surfer flight scenes, which was cool to see.

What concerns me is that we have the same writers and director on this one that we had on the first film, so how can the quality be any better with the same team? Of course I’m sure it will be a fun popcorn flick and any scene containing Jessica Alba will no doubt make any shortcomings of the film irrelevant to the average young male movie viewer.

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