Simon Kinberg Compares FANTASTIC FOUR Reboot to IRON MAN and BATMAN BEGINS
Simon Kinberg has been very busy for the past month or two, heavily promoting the latest X-film. Here, he speaks about Josh Trank's upcoming Fantastic Four film, talking about the tone, inspirations and Michael B. Jordan's casting: "I think he'll become the iconic Johnny Storm."
With shooting underway on Josh Trank's Fantastic Four reboot, writer/producer Simon Kinberg explained that Trank pitched the film on set of X-Men: Days of Future Past. Kinberg praised the "fresh" visio, saying that. "the tone of this movie will feel as unique as when you saw Iron Man, X-Men, or Batman Begins for the first time. It’s not as goofy as the first movies; it has humor in it, but the humor is much more real and comes from character, not pratfall jokes. It’s a much more dramatic film than it is a comedy." As expected, he compares the film to Chronicle, as well as "Raimi’s first couple of Spider-Man movies".
Of all the backlash towards the movie's casting, Michael B. Jordan as Johnny Storm/Human Torch arguably generated the most. As Kinberg explained, the filmmakers "didn’t go into it saying we wanted to cast a particular race for any part. Josh had worked with Michael on Chronicle and I’m a big fan of Michael’s, so we knew he was the best actor for that part. We knew casting an African-American Human Torch would be news, but I can tell you it’s something that Stan Lee loves, and I can also tell you that having been on set and seeing Michael bring him to life, he’s really spectacular. He’s doing something really cool with the character that I think will become the iconic Johnny Storm." Fantastic Four is scheduled to be released on June 19, 2015.