Top L-R: Michael B Jordan, Kate Mara---- Bottom L-R: Miles Teller, Jamie Bell
The Fantastic 4, like many other franchises is facing a re-versioning of events. Yes another remix of an established origin story is coming our way very soon, but with this particular effort, could we be seeing the most honest-to-God reboot in superhero history?
In 2005 and 2007, we were given 2 adventures from one of the most sanitised heroic groups in the comic book world. Tim Story's The Fantastic Four (origin story) and its sequel Rise of the The Silver Surfer have always received mixed reviews. They seem to be good enough to not be slated, but no one would suggest that these are films that would blow your socks off. And now 7 years later, with the spate of heroes that could have been given a chance to shine with their own personal legend, we are instead getting a reboot of the 4s story, with a brand new cast and altered outlook.
In 2005 and 2007, we were given 2 adventures from one of the most sanitised heroic groups in the comic book world. Tim Story's The Fantastic Four (origin story) and its sequel Rise of the The Silver Surfer have always received mixed reviews. They seem to be good enough to not be slated, but no one would suggest that these are films that would blow your socks off. And now 7 years later, with the spate of heroes that could have been given a chance to shine with their own personal legend, we are instead getting a reboot of the 4s story, with a brand new cast and altered outlook.
Old Cast, L-R: Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis, Jessica Alba & Ioan Gruffudd
With the sheer amount of novellas aimed at the lucrative teen market, we can see that the new casting choices are reflecting an awareness of this demographic. Whereas in the up-coming film we now have a bunch of twenty somethings (or actors that look like they are in their 20s) before we only had Jessica Alba and Chris Evans slightly compensating for the younger audience. With the rest of the cast we pretty much saw a representation of very middle-aged, middle-class, male America.
THE CHANGES
Fantastic Four finished principal photography in August 2014 and is now in post-production.
THE CHANGES
- This time around the cast are a lot younger and will appeal to the Potterheads, Twihards and all the other teen aimed films and shows that are swarming the cinematic airwaves.
- The origin story of how they develop their powers looks to be different to all original source material.
- They are no longer family. Even if Reed Richards hooks up with Sue Storm, Johnny (Storm?) can't be Sue's sister unless there is some story of adoption thrown into the mix.
- Because the cast are so young, there will be elements of a coming of age story. The characters are older than they would be if in high school, but they are not fully realised, mature adults.
- There has been some talk of the 'found footage' angle being used. To what degree I don't know, but hey, director Josh Trank made Chronicle so can we really complain?
Fantastic Four finished principal photography in August 2014 and is now in post-production.
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