Julian McMahon (pictured), who played good guy/bad guy Cole on Charmed and now stars on Nip/Tuck, will be Dr. Doom in the upcoming Fantastic Four movie. Here's how Variety describes the character: "Doom, a crazed scientific genius who hides his scarred face behind a metal mask, goes up against the title quartet of Michael Chiklis (Ben Grimm/the Thing), Jessica Alba (Sue Richards/the Invisible Woman), Ioan Gruffudd (the eminently stretchable Reed Richards) and Chris Evans (Johnny Storm/the Human Torch). Simon Kinberg wrote the script."
The 20th Century Fox film will be directed by Barbershop's Tim Story and comes out July 1, 2005. Production begins this month in Vancouver.
Meanwhile, Gruffudd (King Arthur, Horatio Hornblower) told Sci Fi Wire said he wasn't familiar with the comics but was drawn to the character of Mr. Fantastic when he read the script. "I think the beginning of the story is us as real people, our friendship," Gruffudd said. "They are real people. You can associate with them. They're just in this incredible situation."
So why did Gruffudd get the role of Mr. Fantastic? "I'm a mathematical genius," he joked. Then, he added, "We're sort of down-to-earth people, and I think that's the main attraction of these characters." He's now learning Reed Richards' characteristic brainy talk that drives the Thing nuts.
"[There's] a lot of that," he said. "Which I will make quite interesting for you all."