Movies - Fantastic Four

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	Movies - Fantastic Four

Fantastic Four is an unreleased low-budget feature film which had been intended for a 1994 release. It was produced by Roger Corman (famous for his low-budget productions) and Bernd Eichinger (who also produced another Fantastic Four movie in 2005). The film was based on the popular comic book by Marvel Comics and featured the origin of the Fantastic Four and their first battle with the evil Doctor Doom and a mysterious Mole Man creature.

Plot summary

The film begins with Reed Richards (Alex Hyde-White) and Victor Von Doom (Joseph Culp) as close University buddies who decide to use the opportunity of an eletrical storm to try an experiment. However, the experiment goes wrong, leaving Victor horribly scarred. Sue and Johnny Storm are two children living with their mother, who has a boarding house where Reed lives. Ben Grimm (Michael Bailey Smith) is a family friend. The film then fast forwards to the present (early 1990s), where Reed, Sue(Rebecca Staab), Johnny (Jay Underwood), and Ben go up into an experimental space craft, only to be hit by cosmic rays, and are taken into protective custody by the marines upon crash landing.

The four of them soon discover that the cosmic rays gave them special powers; Reed can stretch his arms, Sue can turn invisible, Johnny can make fire come out of his hand, and Ben has transformed into the Thing. After escaping from the marines, they regroup at the Baxter Building, trying to decide what to do now that they gained superpowers. An angry Ben leaves the group to go out on his own, feeling that he has become a horrible freak of nature.

Meanwhile two henchmen of Doctor Doom steal a large diamond that the blind artist Alicia (Kat Green) has somehow gotten on loan. Before they can steal the diamond, Alicia and the diamond are both kidnapped by homeless henchmen working for the Jeweler (a character similar to the comics' Mole Man). The Jeweler wants Alicia to be his bride, with the diamond as his wedding present to her. While roaming the streets, Ben comes into contact with the Jeweler and breaks Alicia free.

However, Doctor Doom and his henchmen locate the Jeweler's lair, and grab the diamond, just as Ben wanders into the underground lair and frees Alicia. Doom needs the diamond to power a laser cannon that will destroy New York City. Realizing that they are the only ones that can stop Doom, the heroes done 1960s Fantastic Four cosutmes, and travel to Doom's castle to save the city.

At the castle, the Fantastic Four battles a series of robots, while Reed has a final battle with Doom. Doom is defeated, possibly killed, but Johnny Storm has to tansform into a CGI Human Torch to block the laser beam from destryong the city.

Having saved the city, and deciding to dedicate themselves to fighting crime, the film ends with Reed and Sue marrying.

Cast

Alex Hyde-White
as Mister Fantastic/Reed Richards
Rebecca Staab as Invisible Woman/Sue Storm
Michael Bailey Smith as The Thing/Ben Grimm
Jay Underwood
as Human Torch/Johnny Storm
Joseph Culp as Doctor Doom
Kat Green as Alicia Masters
Ian Trigger as The Jeweler

Controversy

The low-budget film was never released, despite the fact that the production had been completed, the marketing campaign and posters created and the Motion Picture Association of America had even given the film a PG label. To this day, there is some dispute as to why the finished film was shelved, available to the public only through bootleg copies.

Following the annoucement of the cancellation of the film's release, a rumor spread that the studio intended this version of the Fantastic Four to be the film equivalent of an ashcan copy: they had the legal rights to create a film based on the Fantastic Four, but they were not ready to produce a big budget film. However, they needed to produce something or else they would lose the legal right to the characters. So, the rumor goes, the studio misled everyone involved in the making of this film by letting them believe it was going to be a genuine release rather than a way to maintain their license on the property.

There may have been more to this production than simply keeping the right to the characters; Chris Columbus was set to make a big budget version of the comic. However, in order to do that, he had to wait for the existing option on the rights to expire. The producers would have rushed this film into production, hoping that the makers of a big budget version would not want a cheaper version of the same story to be available immediately before their expensive blockbuster. If that was the case, the strategy worked, as the film was bought for many times the cost of the option and production, and theater audiences never saw the finished production.

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Movies - Fantastic Four

Plot summary

Cast

Controversy

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