DOOMED: The Untold Story of Roger Corman’s THE FANTASTIC FOUR Begins Pre-Production

DOOMED: The Untold Story of Roger Corman’s THE FANTASTIC FOUR Begins Pre-Production

Work has begun on DOOMED: The Untold Story of Roger Corman’s THE FANTASTIC FOUR, a documentary which sets out to reveal the true story behind the "lost" Roger Corman film that was eventually leaked on VHS. Hit the jump for details about this very intriguing sounding project!

By JoshWilding - May 21, 2013 11:05 AM EST
Filed Under: Fantastic Four


DOOMED: The Untold Story of Roger Corman’s THE FANTASTIC FOUR, has entered into pre-production with a start of principal photography scheduled for July, 2013. The film will shed new light on the mysterious circumstances surrounding this legendary cult classic and "lost" Roger Corman film, THE FANTASTIC FOUR.

In 1994, Roger Corman was tapped to produce this Marvel superhero story on a very small film budget. The film was ultimately shelved prior to distribution, but a VHS copy was mysteriously leaked and the movie became a darling of film bootleggers and, more recently, web pirates. Rumors and speculation surrounding the production have become as much a part of the lore as the film itself.

Next year marks the 20th anniversary of Roger Corman's edition of THE FANTASTIC FOUR and finally, all of the secrets, stories and legal shenanigans that have kept this a ‘lost’ film will be revealed through in-depth, investigative interviews with the cast and crew.

The feature length documentary will be directed by east coast Film Studies professor and independent filmmaker, Marty Langford and executive produced by LA-based casting director, Mark Sikes. Sikes was the casting assistant on the 1994 Concorde-New Horizons / Neue Constantin co-production, and was on site at Corman’s studio, offices and locations during the 28 day production.

Sikes has maintained professional relationships with many of the cast/crew of the Oley Sassone directed/Craig Nevius written film, and has commitments from many of the cast and crew, including actors Alex Hyde-White, Rebecca Staab, Jay Underwood, Carl Ciarfalio and Michael Bailey Smith as Marvel’s “First Family of Super Heroes”, along with Joseph Culp who played ‘Dr. Doom’.

Denver filmmakers Meryem Ersoz and Mark Grove are also on board as producers. Ersoz and Grove have most recently collaborated on the feature film, MIND’S EYE, which is prepping for a Fall ’13 release. Sikes was the casting director on that film, which stars Malcolm McDowell and Dean Cain.
The filmmakers have commitments from many of the principal cast and crew (including EVERY principal actor) and expect to shoot up to 30 interviews for the documentary. The filmmakers also have dozens of movie posters, stills and other marketing materials that will be included as ‘Perks’ in an INDIEGOGO campaign to be launched on May 21st.

IndieGogo Link: www.indiegogo.com

Finally, the producers would like to announce that 6% of the film’s profits will be donated to THE HERO INITIATIVE – an organization that helps comic creators in need - www.heroinitiative.org

Follow the team on Twitter & Facebook: twitter.com/DoomedFF and www.facebook.com/DoomedFF

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DC4everLantern
DC4everLantern - 5/21/2013, 12:01 PM
Sounds fine to me. FIRST !
Tony93
Tony93 - 5/21/2013, 12:03 PM
probably be better than the FF films
MediaMan
MediaMan - 5/21/2013, 12:05 PM
You know, I have never seen Corman's FF... maybe someday...
JoeMomma29
JoeMomma29 - 5/21/2013, 12:07 PM
Yeah this has to rank up there with the StarWars Holiday Special...
sephiroth211
sephiroth211 - 5/21/2013, 12:09 PM
Yea let's see those Reed Richard effects!! I heard that stick they used as an arm was awesome. =P
BenjiMan
BenjiMan - 5/21/2013, 12:10 PM
@MediaMan My mate bought it on Ebay, its terribly good. The Thing looks like an orange TMNT with leprosy.
CaptainAmerica1945
CaptainAmerica1945 - 5/21/2013, 12:12 PM
The movies on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVLqs9MrGbw
invalensname5
invalensname5 - 5/21/2013, 12:13 PM
It's bad, but it has a lot of heart! Very odd POV shot from Alicia Masters though...
Xandera
Xandera - 5/21/2013, 12:14 PM
Was an awesome pile of crap... I'll probably end up checking this out...
TerminalVoyd
TerminalVoyd - 5/21/2013, 12:20 PM
Actually, it did get a very limited DVD release abroad. Not surprisingly, the run was bought up and now... well... it costs this much for so little:

http://www.amazon.com/Fantastic-Four-IMPORT-Alex-Hyde-White/dp/B000KCJQ1C

With Captain America (1990) seeing a DVD (and now Blu-ray) release, maybe the parties that be will allow for a proper release (likely long after the reboot is established).
JoeMomma29
JoeMomma29 - 5/21/2013, 12:21 PM
Here is a taste of the movie!

TheBeard
TheBeard - 5/21/2013, 12:23 PM
its realy hard to watch unless your stoned out of your mind
jessepostal
jessepostal - 5/21/2013, 12:23 PM
It's a b cheese fest and a half, but it's fun for what it is. I remember seeing set pics of it in a magazine as a kid and it never coming out. When I finally got to see it a few years back, it was so cheesy that I loved it. It's like a Saturday morning cartoon matinee come to life. Hope it gets a blu release!
jessepostal
jessepostal - 5/21/2013, 12:29 PM
@terminal, it's not actually an import, it's a fan made bootleg DVD-r. It never had any kind of release although there are a few different copy's floating around.
CaptainKangarooPimp
CaptainKangarooPimp - 5/21/2013, 12:32 PM
I hear they're making a sequel to it right now
musicsuperhero1
musicsuperhero1 - 5/21/2013, 12:33 PM
For those who haven't seen the Roger Corman FF...you can watch it in full on YouTube.com. Though it [supposedly] made for the sole purpose of keeping the rights, with full intention--from the beginning--of merely shelving it, it's fun to watch. It has every ouch of the awesomely bad you'd expect with a Roger Corman flick (which is typical of his stuff). But that's part of the fun.
MGS
MGS - 5/21/2013, 12:44 PM
I chatted with close Corman confidant Jim Wynorski about the movie and he said it was a rush job to retain the copyrights to the characters which would had elapse and reverted back to Marvel if they didn't put out a movie by a certain deadline. It was a hack job and it showed.


I remember back when it was initially planned for release on home video, that actor Alex Hyde-White who played Mr Fantastic showed up in his FF costume for the promo at a my local comic book store. Safe to say nobody knew who he was or who he was playing at the time as customers just continue to read and browse the comics while he just sat at his signing table thumbing his thumbs.
brokenexcitement
brokenexcitement - 5/21/2013, 12:48 PM
I actually own a copy (pirated) of this. I've watched it all the way through and have compared it to the 2005 movie. They really were not all that different. If you take away the special effects, the stories were eerily similar. It was like watching the rough draft of the 2005 movie.
JoeMomma29
JoeMomma29 - 5/21/2013, 12:49 PM
@ brokenexcitement

Your are correct the stores are almost identical.
TelaVizion
TelaVizion - 5/21/2013, 1:23 PM
So bad that they were paid to not release it
jessepostal
jessepostal - 5/21/2013, 1:24 PM
How were the stories alike?
Cryptonautaz
Cryptonautaz - 5/21/2013, 1:29 PM
Ok, how do I get that taste out of my mouth? No one said it was Limburger cheese, yuck.
Brainiac13
Brainiac13 - 5/21/2013, 2:29 PM
I've seen this crap movie.....the thing is funny!!!
Nova2012
Nova2012 - 5/21/2013, 2:55 PM
I own the Corman film on DVD....I was also co-hosting the Florida Comic-Con where the cast made their first appearance on the first leg of promoting the film (they had no clue that there were never any real plans to release this movie). The cast was unbelievably cool (and IW was hot)...we partied well into the night and it was like we had all always hung out....They treated this movie VERY serious.....for the budget that they had they actually turned out a movie that was way more straight from the comics...If they could have kept the original script, actors and Corman, with the budget from the released FF, (and you would have to remove the mole-manish character changed to The Jeweler for some odd reason) it would have been a definite crowd pleaser...ohh and overall the Thing looked better too (and the actor looked just like how Ben was originally drawn....perfect casting)
iambosh
iambosh - 5/21/2013, 4:19 PM
@mediaman http://youtu.be/fVLqs9MrGbw there's the whole movie
GreenJeans
GreenJeans - 5/21/2013, 5:30 PM
That movie comes at you like a steaming pile of dog sh!t. It is quite simply, the most woeful superhero feature you could ever have the misfortune of seeing. There is not one redeeming aspect to it, and I believe it was only made so the studio could retain the rights to the property so they could make a decent version later, being the 2005 version.
Jobu
Jobu - 5/21/2013, 7:33 PM
I had this quite a few years ago on a bootleg VHS tape. I remember being so psyched to finally get this "masterpiece". The budget was literally a million bucks.
ComicFan1134
ComicFan1134 - 5/21/2013, 8:41 PM
Yeah, Saw This Film A While back.....So Horrible.
TheClemster
TheClemster - 5/22/2013, 6:37 AM
Gusto who are you to make fun of other people's mug shot??

You forgot Cleveland 1992???

espnfx
espnfx - 5/22/2013, 5:16 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVLqs9MrGbw
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