Chris Columbus has helmed many enduring family blockbusters, including Home Alone, Mrs. Doubtfire, and two instalments of Harry Potter. You can probably see why that would make him a good fit to helm a movie revolving around Marvel's First Family.
The filmmaker was credited as an executive producer on 2005's Fantastic Four, but confirmed in a new interview that he "had nothing to do with it." Columbus intended to direct the Marvel Comics adaptation, but was fired after a meeting with studio executives.
"We were in a weird situation," Columbus said. "On the first 'Fantastic Four,' I had worked on a script. There were a lot of writers involved. They were about to make a movie, and I was producing it. I met with the director and had some ideas."
"I basically said, 'Some of this conceptual art should feel more like Jack Kirby, the creator of the Fantastic Four, and should feel more like the Silver Age of Marvel,'" he continued. "I left that meeting and on the way back from my house, I got a call from the head of 20th Century Fox saying I was fired and had too much of an opinion."
Columbus circled many superhero movies around that time, including Spider-Man and Daredevil. However, being fired from Fantastic Four "probably soured me a little," the filmmaker admitted, leaving him with little interest in returning to the genre.
"Over the years, people have done it so well that I personally lost interest in making a superhero movie," he admitted. "It started a little bit with 'Spider-Man 2.' When I saw what Sam Raimi did with that I thought it was a perfect superhero movie. Certainly Matt Reeves' 'The Batman' with Robert Pattinson was a brilliant film, too."
"I realized I don’t have a desire to make those movies anymore because people are doing them better than I ever could at this point in my career," Columbus added.
Columbus has previously said that he wanted The Thing to be CG because you could "really never get the size of Ben Grimm if he's not CGI or something." Ultimately, Ben Grimm ended up being a man in a rubber suit, with Michael Chiklis taking on the role.
Tim Story directed Fantastic Four and the 2007 sequel Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. The franchise was then shelved until Josh Trank's ill-fated reboot in 2015. Marvel Studios ultimately regained the rights and released The Fantastic Four: First Steps last month.
The movie opened to overwhelmingly positive reviews, largely because it embraced a Silver Age tone and the work of Jack Kirby. That approach clearly wasn't one 20th Century Fox was interested in at the time.
You can hear more from Columbus in the player below.