Fantastic Fail: Fox Didn't Want the Fantasticar or H.E.R.B.I.E the Robot to appear in Fantastic Four

Fantastic Fail: Fox Didn't Want the Fantasticar or H.E.R.B.I.E the Robot to appear in Fantastic Four

In the wake of reports on the film's troubled development, new evidence reveals Fox forbade Josh Trank from including elements of the comic.

By MrFantastic - Aug 15, 2015 04:08 AM EST
Filed Under: Fantastic Four
Source: Entertainment Weekly

As Fantastic Four continues to face disappointing reviews and poor box office returns, long-standing rumors of difficulties during the film's production have been confirmed as true. Such conflicts include clashes between director Josh Trank and Fox, as well as Trank getting into a confrontation with actor Miles Teller. It was also claimed that Trank discouraged his cast from reading the Fantastic Four comic books, which gave the impression that he disliked the Marvel Comics stories. Yet it has been revealed that he did not reject the source material but was overruled on incorporating aspects of the "World's Greatest Comics Magazine" into the film.

According to ''Entertainment Weekly'', Trank seemed to have a positive rapport with Emma Watts, Fox's president of production. Furthermore, as the magazine reports, he was very much enthusiastic about bringing elements from the comic book into the script: "By all accounts, Trank dove in with zeal, devising plans that combined playful comic-book elements of the Marvel Comics characters withe darker, almost horrorlike tone that made Chronicle so bracing."

Perhaps most interesting is the revelation that the director sought to include the Fantasticar and H.E.R.B.I.E the Robot (Humanoid Experimental Robot, B-Type, Integrated Electronics) in the film. Entertainment Weekly states Trank might have become "too enthusiastic, constantly throwing new and bigger ideas into the mix and changing his own mind about major plot points, like the kinds of powers Doctor Doom should possess." Ultimately, Watts rejected Trank's plans as "geeky elements"; according to the source, "She deemed Trank's ideas too scattered; he felt she wasn't getting it."

Curiously, Fox's overruling of Trank bears a similarity to Zak Penn's comment that his plan to have Fantastic Four appear in the X-Men movies was rejected.

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BlackPhillip
BlackPhillip - 8/15/2015, 5:15 AM
Revert to Marvel
jerryblake
jerryblake - 8/15/2015, 5:22 AM
i was wondering what happened to Herbie and why didn't he appeare in the movie ...
MrFantastic
MrFantastic - 8/15/2015, 5:23 AM
@jerryblake

I believe he was featured in a deleted scene of Tim Story's Fantastic Four (2005). That scene (in which we see him on a shelf in Reed's lab) is restored in the Extended Edition.
jerryblake
jerryblake - 8/15/2015, 5:24 AM
*appear
NovaCorpsFan
NovaCorpsFan - 8/15/2015, 5:35 AM
Not surprised. We'll likely never see those things in this franchise.
MrFantastic
MrFantastic - 8/15/2015, 5:41 AM
@NovaCorpsFan

I know, and it's frustrating. Tom Rothman- the ex-Chairman of Fox, now at Sony- refused to allow the X-Men to face off against Sentinels, due to a "No robots" mandate.

Of course, this was before Transformers hit the big screen, and we all know how that turned out.....

He did the same thing with Galactus in FF2- despite the fact that the character is a being and force of nature- far from a robot!
FriendORFaux
FriendORFaux - 8/15/2015, 5:44 AM
#thatawkwardmoment when you have proof that Fox has no respect for the comic book properties they're banking on even though, for years, fans of their crap have been calling you crazy for saying so.
FriendORFaux
FriendORFaux - 8/15/2015, 5:46 AM
@VisonaryNPA That's pretty sad when compared to the 'Blackbird' or the 'Helicarrier' or the 'Batmobile'...
DrKinsolving
DrKinsolving - 8/15/2015, 5:48 AM


AleSir19
AleSir19 - 8/15/2015, 6:05 AM
I dont care, i love it...
DukeAcureds
DukeAcureds - 8/15/2015, 6:06 AM
Trank got stuck on "The kinds of powers Doctor Doom should possess".
How about... none?

How about instead of Doom going with Reed, Ben and Johnny into the unknown and getting powers, how about (now go with me on this) how about Sue goes with them and gets powers, instead? That would've been good.

Marbles. No, for real. Marbles. Revert. Marbles.

Help us, Kevin Feige, you're our only hope.
DukeAcureds
DukeAcureds - 8/15/2015, 6:10 AM
They did mention the "Flying car" that Reed as working on, in the movie, though.

But seriously, Tim Story's FF movies were a million times better than this piece of shit. They were so much more faithful to the Lee/Kirby comics.

Y'know how, if you stand next to someone who's fatter than you it makes you look thin?
This movie makes the first two FF movies look like The Avengers.
TucksFrom2015
TucksFrom2015 - 8/15/2015, 6:22 AM
my FF script has HERBIE in it. and it's pretty badass.

MrMartyMarvel
MrMartyMarvel - 8/15/2015, 6:33 AM
I don't know this, Trank's vision from the beginning seemed to be to give the finger to all the fantastic elements of the comics. Maybe this happened early on, and therefore by the time we started hearing about the movie he was already reduced to making it nothing but "dark and gritty"?
dinoSlider
dinoSlider - 8/15/2015, 6:37 AM
"She deemed Trank's ideas too scattered; he felt she wasn't getting it."

This pretty much sums up everything I have read about this movie.
FriendORFaux
FriendORFaux - 8/15/2015, 6:40 AM
@ALmazing Yeah for all of Corman "Fantastic Four" shortcomings, the paid respects to the source in a few ways; the 'Fantasticar' and uniforms were done well IMO. I even liked 'Dr. Dooms' look for the most part.
FriendORFaux
FriendORFaux - 8/15/2015, 6:42 AM
@ALmazing Story* "Fantastic Four"
MrMartyMarvel
MrMartyMarvel - 8/15/2015, 6:42 AM
*don't know about this
TheBritAvenger
TheBritAvenger - 8/15/2015, 6:57 AM
@TucksDeluxe- When the hell are you going to post that thing? I remember you saying the first part would be up in JUNE. It's August, and still nothing.
ATrueHero1987
ATrueHero1987 - 8/15/2015, 7:35 AM
@MrMartyMarvel Correct. When FOX first announced the FF reboot(not long after Disney acquired Marvel) FOX wanted to be "Dark & Gritty"(because, TDK came out the year before, so....yea,lol).

So really, this reboot has been in trouble WAY before it began....
TucksFrom2015
TucksFrom2015 - 8/15/2015, 9:05 AM
@TheBritAvenger - It's a really complex and nuanced screenplay, so I need to finish the WHOLE thing before I even upload Act I to make sure all the moving parts synchopate, all the setups have a gigantic payoff, all the Easter eggs, jokes, action scenes (there are six major action beats, and all of them are totally strange and unexpected but awesome) it's all being pieced together with the most meticulous care and precision. HERBIE the robot in particular has a very practical, purposeful place in this universe, and the things HERBIE does are unexpectedly grounded and brutal, it's gonna take your breath away. The way its reimagined, and the way its setup has such a twisted payoff that it's gonna retroactively ripple backwards in time and cause a young M Night Shyamalan to give up on making movies. What a tweest!

cyclopstb
cyclopstb - 8/15/2015, 9:06 AM
Are they nuts ? Herbie and the Fantasticar are part of the Fantastic Four
BlackIceJoe
BlackIceJoe - 8/15/2015, 9:31 AM
Hopefully when Disney gets the rights back, they put them in their movie.
billnye69
billnye69 - 8/15/2015, 9:36 AM
I enjoyed F4, sure it was missing scenes to connect the middle to the ending but other then that I thought it was solid. Defiantly better then the original as well.

Catwomen, Electra, Daredevil are still miles worst.
MrFantastic
MrFantastic - 8/15/2015, 10:42 AM
@billnye69

Daredevil: The Director's Cut is a pretty good film. Far stronger than Daredevil (theatrical version), Elektra, and Catwoman put together.
kong
kong - 8/15/2015, 10:49 AM
When a fanboy (@TucksDeluxe) has planned out a Fantastic Four movie more than the amount of planning that's gone in to all four of the films already made by a major Hollywood studio....

BTW, Max Landis needs to write this film when the rights go to Marvel.

Also they should first appear in Black Panther two in 2020, it's only right.
Bulldawg2014
Bulldawg2014 - 8/15/2015, 10:53 AM
@mrfantastic big fan of the daredevil director's cut. There's still some really hokey elements in it *cough* playground fight *cough cough*, and they were obviously WAY to inspired by the matrix but the movie works.
MrFantastic
MrFantastic - 8/15/2015, 10:57 AM
@Bulldawg2014

The playground fight could easily have been removed- like how they had Daredevil not sleep with Elektra in the director's cut.
Bulldawg2014
Bulldawg2014 - 8/15/2015, 11:03 AM
@mrfantastic yeah I definitely prefer the tv show to the movie but the directors cut is definitely a decent flick. I'd say it's better than the back end mcu movies (incredible hulk, thor the dark world, iron man 2, and thor)man of steel, and the entire amazing spider-man franchise. You can tell the director had a really solid vision for the movie and that fox just butchered it for the original cut (which they actually accidentally admit to in the special features).
MrFantastic
MrFantastic - 8/15/2015, 11:10 AM
@Bulldawg2014

From what I remember, Fox wanted to have a Spider-Man type success with Daredevil. Considering they had a good one with X-Men (X2 had yet to be released), it's not surprising that they wanted the theatrical cut to be lighter and not dark/brooding.

There's a myth that Daredevil was a box office flop. In truth, it made its money back- just not on the level that Raimi's Spider-Man achieved. Furthermore, aside from Affleck's deleted cameo in the Elektra spin-off, they had a sequel planned for years- before the rights reverted to Marvel.
Bulldawg2014
Bulldawg2014 - 8/15/2015, 11:23 AM
@mrfantastic yeah there was a quote by one of the producers who said something along the lines of we could make this really great deep dark rated r movie or we could make a really fun popcorn movie, we chose the later, and he said it very proud of his decision. Which I don't believe dark is always better than fun but in the case of this movie the dark version is objectively better.
TheBritAvenger
TheBritAvenger - 8/15/2015, 11:36 AM
@TucksDeluxe- Hmph. Okay then. I'll wait........
MrFantastic
MrFantastic - 8/15/2015, 6:10 PM
@Bulldawg2014

Agreed. I don't have a problem with having lightness in superhero films such as Spider-Man, but they can make a plot serious without going into dark and grim territory.

For me, Daredevil has always been a heroic vigilante who isn't all "doom and gloom"- even though life tends to throw a lot of punches at him.
Matador
Matador - 8/17/2015, 5:01 AM
And here's HERBIE!
View Recorder