According to
Variety Fox is thrilled with the early screenings of Josh Trank's
Chronicle, which is his debut feature. Insiders expect Trank to land the gig. But, before they hand over the keys to Marvel's
Fantastic Four they would like to see how well the film opens at the box office over the Super Bowl weekend. Apparently Fox is quite serious and has had several meetings with Trank already to discuss the project.
The script was written by Michael Green, who is no stranger to superhero films as he most recently was a contributor to the widely panned
Green Lantern. If Trank does happen to land the job he'll be taking over for Tim Story, who directed the first two
Fantastic Four movies. Those films were not well liked by critics or fans, but did gross just over $620 million worldwide combined.
The biggest complaint with the fans was the miscasting of several key roles. Fans and critics are most vocal when it comes to Jessica Alba as Sue Storm aka The Invisible Woman. The actress made for some wonderful eye candy, and most fans at first were just glad to see her in spandex and ignored her lack of talent. Sure she seems like a sweet gal, but I wouldn't pay her money to play a corpse.
But don't worry Jessica you weren't the only team member that didn't quite fit the role. Ioan Gruffudd as Reed Richards aka Mr. Fantastic is actually a pretty darn good actor, and the announcement of the unknown thespian was a bit of a shock. At first glance he shared a resemblance with the comic book version, but Gruffudd seemed to overact Mr. Fantastic's key characteristics. It was like he was doing a caricature.
To put it in simple terms, if you've seen Christopher Reeve playing Clark Kent, that is what Ioan did with Reed Richards. Christopher Reeve did it correctly though, his clumsy and bumbling Clark Kent is his disguise. You always knew deep down that he was Superman. While sure Ioann did the same thing he acted as best he could like a highly intelligent bookworm, but it seemed incredibly forced. Just look at his cameo in the hilarious movie,
Horrible Bosses I really believed he liked to pee on dudes for money.
Mr. Fantastic is a tough role, you have to be able to be mature enough to be that daddy of the team, and Ioan just didn't have that patriarch like quality. To bad most people that are only familiar with Story's version will think Reed is just a shy nerdy guy that makes a lot of dumb decisions.
I know it can't all be negative negative negative, and you're right. On a positive note, Chris Evans was an excellent choice for Johnny Storm, aka The Human Torch. He flourished in the role and really made a name for himself. The best part of the movies was clearly Chris Evans. His moxie and lively banter with Michael Chiklis was not only accurate with the comics but was the strongest element in the films.
And let's not write off Michael Chiklis who was coming off the success of
The Shield. He was a natural fit for Ben Grimm aka The Thing. He nailed the voice, but more importantly brought the deep sadness that Ben Grimm has suffered with as a side effect to becoming a monstrous superhero. Debate still divides fans about the approach to The Thing's costume. Some think the practical approach of the foam suit was cheap, a way to avoid using a full CGI approach, while others think it was great having a real costume that had real texture to it.