The most recent Fantastic Four films were terrible. No amount of sugarcoating, charismatic Chris Evans quips, or Jessica Alba’s Jessica Alba-ness are enough to hide the fact that Fantastic Four and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer were some of the worst films to come out of the Marvel and Fox partnership. With the success of Marvel Studios’ own films, Fox may be doing their best to ensure the properties still under their ownership (Fantastic Four and X-Men) are treated with the utmost respect… for a better box office return, of course.
When Chronicle came out last year, it was a surprising hit. Finally, a moderately budgeted superhero film that didn’t rely on an existing property or big name stars to sell tickets. Instead, smart writing, amazing editing, and one hell of a directorial debut were enough for the film to make a $126.6m return on a $12m budget. Following Chronicle’s success, Fox hired director Josh Trank to helm a proposed reboot of the Fantastic Four franchise last summer. However, besides murmurs of Michael B. Jordan being cast as one of the four, no other details have come out since.
Yesterday, it was announced that Simon Kinberg has been hired to make substantial rewrites to the film. Kinberg is no stranger to Fox’s stable of Marvel films as he has written the screenplays for X-Men: The Last Stand and the upcoming X-Men: Days of Future Past. While there’s still time for the film to meet its tentative Spring 2015 release date, the likelihood of the film being delayed into the summer is a lot higher. However, having Kinberg on board to tighten the script should be exactly what Fox needs to ensure this second attempt with Marvel’s first family goes smoothly.
[via /Film]