Fantastic Four


Missy

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Despite that fact that I've read very little in the way of the Fantastic Four, I'm a huge mark. Don't ask me why, I just am. Having said that and knowing a movie is slated for release in 2005 (supposedly), I went ahead and casted the parts as I'd like to see them.

Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic: Viggo Mortensen

Sue Storm/Invisible Woman: Patrica Stratigias (Trish Stratus)

Johnny Storm/Human Torch: Jason Reso (Christian)

Ben Grimm/The Thing: Vin Diesel*

Victor von Doom/Dr. Doom: Christian Bale

* In the past I've chided filmmakers for changing a character's race (RE: Beyoncé Knowles as Lois Lane), but I'm thinking more about the voice here. Vin has the perfect voice for The Thing, never mind that he's half-black and Ben Grimm is white.

Agree? Disagree? Pipe in!

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Howdy ya’ll! El Mayimbe here. Happy Easter! Wow. It’s been a whirlwind week. As I alluded to in my last script review for the upcoming indie film HAVEN, the big ensemble superhero movie that I have which is the subject of this EASTER EGG REVIEW is THE FANTASTIC FOUR! A couple of weeks ago, out of respect to all the parties involved with this project, I didn’t want to blow the whistle on this script and the director until the time was proper. By now everyone knows that TIM STORY has been chosen as of 04-05-04 to direct this picture. WE BROUGHT YOU THIS EXCLUSIVE FIRST! Avi Arad has made a very solid choice. The fact that we are reviewing this draft SHOULD BE PROOF enough that we had the inside track on this project all along and we delivered the news with no excess B.S. (You know the site I'm talking about...) The major film sites know the real deal. First Batman Begins and now The Fantastic Four.

A lot of people have been asking themselves why Tim? We at LatinoReview have the real scoop on why he was chosen that you wouldn’t find out anywhere else. Hollywood follows the heat. It’s a town that survives by tracking the heat like heat seeking missiles. Pure and Simple. In a nutshell, Tim’s next upcoming movie, TAXI, with Queen Latifah and Jimmy Fallon tested through the roof in all four quadrants. The upcoming action comedy is raising serious temperatures in the town. The word on Fallon is real good. Way to go Tim! Looking forward to seeing it soon.

Let’s squash some rumors while we are it.

Tim Story is NOT attached to direct Sick Day as it is being reported on other sites. And Hell No! The Thing will not be black. Mr. Story will be COMPLETELY faithful to the source material. Another thing is let’s give Tim a fair shot. Avi Arad and Tim will NOT go the comedy route with Fantastic Four as it is also being falsely reported. Just because Tim directed BARBERSHOP, people are already making assumptions. Don’t get me wrong, Fantastic Four will have some funny moments as the script has plenty of them.

NOTE: The screenplays we review here at Latinoreview are often in development and may experience many rewrites, some could end up being completely different than what is reviewed here. It is our hope that our reviews generate positive interest for the film and filmmaker. Thank you.

I’ll try to keep spoilers to a MINIMUM with this review and try a different approach this time around. The draft in my possession is the draft that got Story on board: THE FOURTH DRAFT. 112 pages. The draft date is 02-20-04. The sole credited writer (for the moment) on the cover page is Mark Frost. Since there is a director on board now, expect another draft or two. In a nutshell The Fantastic Four is a character piece. I can see why Arad liked Story because of his reputation with character development and relationships. Don’t get me wrong, there is a lot of action and some major set pieces but this one is all about character.

The main characters in this piece are:

REED RICHARDS / MR. FANTASTIC (32)

SUE STORM / THE INVISIBLE WOMAN (29)

BEN GRIMM / THE THING (35)

JOHNNY STORM / THE HUMAN TORCH (24)

And of course

VICTOR VAN DAMN / DOCTOR DOOM (35)

There are at least 5 character arcs in the script, one for each of the main characters. I won’t spoil them here but it was pretty well executed. In October of last year, my man Jean-Francois did a review of an earlier draft of the script on Filmjerk. This draft is almost COMPLETELY different than that which came before. For example, earlier drafts mentioned that The Human Torch only lights his hands, like they did with Pyro in X-Men. Not true in this draft. Hell no! He completely FLAMES ON! The whole body! The Human Torch has the ability to get so hot (4000 degrees Kelvin) that he could go SUPERNOVA. Johnny Storm is my favorite character in the script. He has the best lines and is the cocky, flashy one of the bunch. Consider this role the same kind of career making role a la Hugh Jackman in X-Men.

Structurally speaking, Fantastic Four is a superhero origin movie. By the end of Act 1, the Fantastic Four characters go from human beings to their changed alter egos. Act 2 is how the teams adjusts to their new powers and how everyone adjusts to them and Act 3 is the big showdown with the villain, in this case Dr. Doom!

Victor Van Damn is the Vain Megalomaniac European Businessman who runs VANDAMN INDUSTRIES and is the type of guy who doesn’t throw millions at an idea unless he sees billions coming back at him. Van Damn Industries is headquartered in the Baxter Building in Manhattan. In the beginning, Reed and Ben Grimm go to Van Damn to get backing. Sue Storm works for Van Damn and is the Director of Genetic Research. Sue and Reed had a thing back in college. Sue is now hooked up with Van Damn. There is a serious rivalry with Van Damn and Reed. Van Damn takes every opportunity to knock down Reed, who is a great scientist but a piss poor businessman. Reed wants to go into space to investigate a cloud full of cosmic ray particles that is approaching Earth and conduct a study of the cloud’s effects on DNA. Reed strikes a deal with Van Damn and they’re off in six weeks. Van Damn, Sue, Reed, and Grimm. Reed wants Grimm to pilot the shuttle but Van Damn already has a pilot on the payroll: Sue’s brother JOHNNY STORM. They all go up into space and by page 15 all hell breaks loose. They get exposed to the cloud and their DNA at the sub-molecular level is forever altered. They go to the Lake Placid Compound to recover, and slowly each of them discovers their powers. The one who has the most issues with his transformation is The Thing. He turns into six hundred pounds of orange rock. His transformation makes him feel alone, isolated, and like a freak show. The Thing has a relationship with DEBBIE MCILVANE and his transformation further complicates things. The first major set piece with the characters as the Fantastic Four takes place on the Brooklyn Bridge. Afterwards, they go to One Police Plaza and have a press conference where they earn their monikers. At first, when Sue and Johnny realize and use their powers THEY’RE NAKED! Hence the need for the blue costumes. Reed discovers that the test fabrics on board the shuttle exposed to the radiation should react adaptively to the Four’s transformations, becoming invisible, changing size on demand, or remaining impervious to flame. Sue takes charge with a fashion designer to alter the uniforms. The midpoint of the script is when the four step out of the designer showroom with their new uniforms.

For the most part, the rest of Act Two is with Reed working with a transformation chamber in the Baxter Building and trying to help The Thing turn back into human. Van Damn also tries to separate the team and get them all against each other, especially Reed and Grimm. At page 65, The Thing meets blind tough Goth chick ALICIA MASTERS (28) in O’Donnel’s Pub. I won’t spoil it here but go to the comics for what Alicia is to The Thing. I find it funny. Superhero picks up girl at a bar. Only in New York. Her dad THE PUPPET MASTER also makes his appearance. A cookie for the hardcore fan-boys and perhaps a sequel set up? On the subject of Victor Van Damn, his transformation into Doctor Doom happens gradually throughout the script and doesn’t climax until the end of act two. It is very clever how Frost pulled it off. Doom’s origins are very faithful to the comics. The only thing different with the film is that Victor Van Damn’s castle isn’t in Europe but in the Adirondack mountains in upstate New York.

Since this a Marvel Movie, the obligatory STAN LEE appearance is written in to this one but they finally decide to give Stan DIALOGUE!

In closing, I’m a comic buff but was never into mutants and such like The X-Men but I LOVED THIS SCRIPT! A very enjoyable read with the right amount of action and character development. I never read the Fantastic Four Comics, but followed the cartoon from the late sixties on the BAM channel. The Fantastic Four are finally getting their just due as everyone knows the painful development and long journey of this movie over the years including that never released film that is a staple at comic conventions. I wasn’t that crazy about HELLBOY but this script blows that one away. Mark Frost treated his characters and the mythology of The Fantastic Four with great respect. Fox finally got a winner on their hands and it is going to be exciting to see how this movie develops as it gets close to production. The summer of 2005 is shaping up to be a blockbuster season with Star Wars Episode 3, Batman Begins, and now The Fantastic Four.

NOTE: In light of all the emails we know that Victor Von Doom is the way they say it in the comics, but in this screenplay he is called Victor Van Damn.

(source)

The Ages: So Ben's the oldest of the Four. Odd, but no big deal. And Johnny is entrusted to fly a spacecraft at 24? "Odd," he said again.

Doom: In Ultimate Fantastic Four his name is Victor Van Damme, so this change shouldn't come as a surprise.

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Word has it that Paul Walker (The Fast and the Furious) and Christian Millian (Torque) are up for the Storm siblings. Walker I buy and would love to see as Johnny, but I have several problems with Millian. One of them being that she's clearly way too young for the role, and the other being that her race doesn't fit. Earlier it was reported that Ben Grimm would not be cast as a black actor (as was rumored) because they "respect the source material," so I don't see them casting a Hispanic actress to play Sue.

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  • 2 months later...
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Okay, three of the four have officially signed, and they are...

Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic: Ioan Gruffudd

Ben Grimm/Thing: Michael Chiklis

Johnny Storm/Human Torch: Chris Evans

To date, Sue Storm has not been cast; however, a twist has been added to the story. Until now, word was that either Rachel McAdams and Keri Russell were locks for the part. But the newest bit of news suggests that Jessica Alba, of all people, might swoop in and take the part.

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I don't know if fellow Brits thought the same but I had to click the name Chris evans just to be sure it wasn't that one :)

I read somewhere that Julia Stiles was interested in doing a comic movie but didn't say which one she was looking at. Just a thought...

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I read somewhere that Julia Stiles was interested in doing a comic movie but didn't say which one she was looking at. Just a thought...

I would love to see Julia play Emma Frost, but that's slightly off topic.

On topic. I like this cast (at least, they look right, and Chiklis is an ok actor from what I've seen), though I feel Chiklis is too old. Only a minor complaint though, since he most likely won't be spending a large portion of the movie in his human form.

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On topic.  I like this cast (at least, they look right, and Chiklis is an ok actor from what I've seen), though I feel Chiklis is too old.  Only a minor complaint though, since he most likely won't be spending a large portion of the movie in his human form.

What you have to remember is that Reed and Ben are considerably older than the Storms. With Ioan being ten years younger than Michael and eight years older than Chris, they seem to placing Reed right in the middle. Ben, on the other hand, they can play up as the grizzled older test pilot/astronaut. (That's if they're going to use the space story and not the Ultimate Fantastic Four origin.)

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What you have to remember is that Reed and Ben are considerably older than the Storms. With Ioan being ten years younger than Michael and eight years older than Chris, they seem to placing Reed right in the middle. Ben, on the other hand, they can play up as the grizzled older test pilot/astronaut. (That's if they're going to use the space story and not the Ultimate Fantastic Four origin.)

I know, but Reed and Ben went to school together, so they shouldn't be more than a couple of years apart. But like I said earlier, it's not so much an issue with Grimm as he won't likely be human for very long.

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They could easily change that. Ben could be the high school/college kid who protected the younger Reed from bullying, and that's how their friendship formed. Much of the original FF origin doesn't make sense now, so they're going to have to toy with it -- a lot.

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