Can anything be done with the Fantastic Four franchise at this point?

[SSJmole]

But they were God Awful and the second one didn't do so well, that's why they aren't making a third.

Aren't they still making "Silver Surfer" ?

 

[Langsta]

I know some of you don't think a reboot is necessary....but I think if they want to continue this franchise, they need to do it over....I think the best way to do it would be to base *most of it* off of Ultimate Fantastic Four. Bear with me now: We haven't really had a Marvel movie based completely off of an Ultimate title yet, but in the case of UFF, it would solve the problem of having the same origin played out, and....to tell you the truth, I'd like to see the FF in their teens like the UFF, instead of being adults like mainstream FF. This means Reed with no graying temples. I hate every single thing about the current FF movies. Ioan Gruffud (or however you spell his name) is horrible as Reed. Jessica Alba, though pleasing to the eye, is about as versatile as....well, she's just not a good actress. Chris Evans and Michael Chiklis were pretty fantastic in their roles; the Silver Surfer was done pretty well also. Dr. Doom sucks in the movies.

So, the first movie would essentially be the first UFF arc. Who would play the UFF tweens, you ask? Ourchair had a perfect cast in the UFF Dreamcasting round - have Anton Yelchin play Reed (aka Charlie Bartlett; there really is no other option for Ultimate Reed) and Gaspard Ulliel (aka Young Hannibal) as Victor....in later films, if you want to, have Ellen Page as Rhona Burchill. And even though they aren't going to be in the Avengers movie, it'd be nice to have a little continuity with the other "Marvel Studios" films, so get William Hurt to play a small role as Thunderbolt Ross.

First movie follows Reed from early childhood to the Baxter Building think tank, to the FF. Same origin as Ultimate FF. Doom helps Reed develop his teleporter, and eventually blames him for his disfigurement. Goat legs in the sequel. There are still a lot of major villains that haven't been covered in the FF movies, like Mole Man....make him the major villain of the first movie, with Doom in the background, waiting to exact his revenge on Reed. I'd make Mole Man have the civilian identity of Harvey Elder (his 616 name) instead of Arthur Molekevic (the "Moley moley moley" jokes are cool, but they've already been done in Austin Powers 3). Harvey works for the Baxter Building, but is fired when they discover his biological experiments....the giant mole creature might be a little farfetched to put on the big screen, but....I dunno.

Second movie, again, would just follow the UFF comics and have Nihil as the villain. I guess. The FF explore the N-Zone....I think they should merge the second and third arcs together so that Nihil and Doom are both in it. The movie would have Doom leading a cult in Eastern Europe. And again, goat legs. Nihil is defeated near the end, but Doom is the last villain in the movie.

I don't know....the Namor story could be the second movie though....I don't know when Galactus would come in, because I think there should be villains that weren't in the last series (Doom is an exception because....you can't have Reed or the FF without Doom).

But rebooting the series and basing it off of UFF would solve a lot of problems.

Aren't they still making "Silver Surfer" ?

Fox is waiting to see how successful the Wolverine movie is before putting the Silver Surfer movie into development (because of FF2's bad sales). Doug Jones is apparently signed on for 2 more FF movies. The Surfer script, written by J. Michael Stracynski, follows Norrin Radd after FF2 as he returns to his home planet, fearful that Galactus would return and eat it. Stracynski's script apparently described Galactus in a manner more faithful to his comics appearance, revealing that his cloud form was "just a disguise."

 

[SSJmole]

The Surfer script, written by J. Michael Stracynski, follows Norrin Radd after FF2 as he returns to his home planet, fearful that Galactus would return and eat it.

How can he eat it? He's god damn mother ****ing cloud, at best he could rain a bit. OH NO! Get the umbrellas!

 

[ourchair]

I'm actually working on a pitch on the Fantastic Four as a TV series, with a semi-Ultimate approach.

I know some people are thinking, it just won't work with the kind of budget the special effects would demand, but I think with the right approach you can tone down some of the cost-heavy effects while still remaining utterly fantastic.

I think Grant Morrison's Fantastic Four 1234 is doable on a Battlestar Galactica budget, while Serenity showed that you can make big screen sci fi look just as slick as a Star Wars flick, but with half the budget.

 

[Langsta]

How can he eat it? He's god damn mother ****ing cloud, at best he could rain a bit. OH NO! Get the umbrellas!

J. Michael Stracynski's script for the Silver Surfer spin-off has the cloud form as a "disguise" for Galactus. Besides, even if he is a cloud, he's still "the Eater of Worlds." He's a cosmic being, he shouldn't necessarily need a mouth to eat/devour planets, even if he did have a human form in the comics. But I'm pretty sure the reason he had a human form in the comics was because that's just "how we perceive him." Even though it was later established (in the comics) that in his true form he was a humanoid named Galan, before the last universe/whatever was destroyed by a Big Crunch or something. Your puny human brain can't possibly comprehend this logic!

I'm actually working on a pitch on the Fantastic Four as a TV series, with a semi-Ultimate approach.

I know some people are thinking, it just won't work with the kind of budget the special effects would demand, but I think with the right approach you can tone down some of the cost-heavy effects while still remaining utterly fantastic.

I think Grant Morrison's Fantastic Four 1234 is doable on a Battlestar Galactica budget, while Serenity showed that you can make big screen sci fi look just as slick as a Star Wars flick, but with half the budget.

That sounds interesting.

 

[SSJmole]

I'm actually working on a pitch on the Fantastic Four as a TV series, with a semi-Ultimate approach.

I know some people are thinking, it just won't work with the kind of budget the special effects would demand, but I think with the right approach you can tone down some of the cost-heavy effects while still remaining utterly fantastic.

I think Grant Morrison's Fantastic Four 1234 is doable on a Battlestar Galactica budget, while Serenity showed that you can make big screen sci fi look just as slick as a Star Wars flick, but with half the budget.

Sounds cool however I don't think it would work as a tv series. Not because of the budget. The reason I think is for some reason the powers that be when it comes to tv have now seem to got this "If they have costumes it won't work on tv" mentality.

Personally speaking I want a superhero tv show on tv with costumes (One of the reasons I'm hoping Smallville gets the Metropolis spin-off) Now I guess the idea could work if they were plain clothed. But again I'm not sure.

It seems most superhero and.or comic shows the last couple of years have been Smallville, Heroes, Blade the tv show and more all of which are plain clothed heroes like Heroes, Or a superhero who should have costume but doesn't like Smallville or all dark street clothed comic characters like Blade.


The sad thing is do you know what is the live action superhero show that still features real costumes? Power Rangers, And while I'm still fan of Power rangers I admit it says something when that is the one.


Though I guess what I said would have been better in a "why are no heroes wearing costumes on tv?" type thread with discussion (or completely ignored like my other threads) I feel it's a vaild thing to consider when thinking Fantastic four on TV.

 

[ProjectX2]

Just think of them as uniforms rather than costumes.

 

[Langsta]

Bryan Hitch makes costumes look cool.

 

[ourchair]

Sounds cool however I don't think it would work as a tv series. Not because of the budget. The reason I think is for some reason the powers that be when it comes to tv have now seem to got this "If they have costumes it won't work on tv" mentality.

Just think of them as uniforms rather than costumes.

Proj is right.

The beautiful thing about the Fantastic Four is they can get away with their costumes because they are easy to tone down without losing what makes them recognizably Fantastic Four, as the only consistent design element is a bold use of blue and athletic seam-work.

Hell, even if they were to get more 'plain clothed' they could still get away with it by just accessorizing properly. Strategic warddrobe design is key. Perhaps in some scenes Reed has his lab gown on, while out in the field he has a vest with lots of pockets to hold all sorts of palm-sized gadgets. From a functional standpoint, the suits act as military-grade undergarments.

In any case, I still agree with Mole on that matter: Say yes to costumes, especially Fantastic Four, who have a screen-manageable group coordinated fashion statement going for them.

 

[SSJmole]

The beautiful thing about the Fantastic Four is they can get away with their costumes because they are easy to tone down without losing what makes them recognizably Fantastic Four, as the only consistent design element is a bold use of blue and athletic seam-work.

That is true. I just feel the only way tv people would agree if it was something like Navy blue overalls or something where you run the risk of it been too tacky looking.

Still I do want costumes right or more movie like. E.g I've always said I think Ultimate Spider-man would make a great tv show. Each season = 1 arc and do it order but costume would need to look more movie like as the powers andf fights + Teen highschool drama + an already laid out plan in stories = A pretty damn good tv show. But I may be the only one. (Plus Ultimate Goblin live action would be cool)

 

[The Overlord]

That is true. I just feel the only way tv people would agree if it was something like Navy blue overalls or something where you run the risk of it been too tacky looking.

Still I do want costumes right or more movie like. E.g I've always said I think Ultimate Spider-man would make a great tv show. Each season = 1 arc and do it order but costume would need to look more movie like as the powers andf fights + Teen highschool drama + an already laid out plan in stories = A pretty damn good tv show. But I may be the only one. (Plus Ultimate Goblin live action would be cool)

The problem is it would almost impossible to capture USM, with a TV budget, you would end up with something like Smallville, that's why superheroes are best left to the movies, they have the budget to do it right.

 

[SSJmole]

The problem is it would almost impossible to capture USM, with a TV budget, you would end up with something like Smallville, that's why superheroes are best left to the movies, they have the budget to do it right.

Not if they gave it less episodes and Terminator the series budget.

 

[ourchair]

Not if they gave it less episodes and Terminator the series budget.

Mole is right.

And as I indicated earlier, big budgets aren't really necessary to create a lavish production. It costs about 1.5 million dollars to produce each episode of Battlestar Galactica. That's $40 million dollars for a 26 episodes of 42 minute length. That's less than half the cost of today's summer tentpoles.

Even if you allow for some error: Up the price of a superhero TV show to $2 million per 42 minute episode, and spring for 13 episodes instead of 20+, that'd be $25 million dollars to run a show at BSG-production levels.

Now, let's say you HAVE to up the financing ceiling because a lot of production design work is necessary just to get the pilot of the ground, and that would require increasing the cost of the entire show by 50%. That's like what 38 million dollars?

That's still peanuts compared to shelling out $150 million dollars for today's superhero pics.

 

[The Overlord]

Mole is right.

And as I indicated earlier, big budgets aren't really necessary to create a lavish production. It costs about 1.5 million dollars to produce each episode of Battlestar Galactica. That's $40 million dollars for a 26 episodes of 42 minute length. That's less than half the cost of today's summer tentpoles.

Even if you allow for some error: Up the price of a superhero TV show to $2 million per 42 minute episode, and spring for 13 episodes instead of 20+, that'd be $25 million dollars to run a show at BSG-production levels.

Now, let's say you HAVE to up the financing ceiling because a lot of production design work is necessary just to get the pilot of the ground, and that would require increasing the cost of the entire show by 50%. That's like what 38 million dollars?

That's still peanuts compared to shelling out $150 million dollars for today's superhero pics.

But if that's the case why have we never seen a really good live action super hero show, I mean Smallville is the biggest example and people would hardly call that good.

 

[Gothamite]

But if that's the case why have we never seen a really good live action super hero show, I mean Smallville is the biggest example and people would hardly call that good.

Heroes?!?

Plus, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman had great writing, plotting and special effects (for its day) for its first three seasons and it's a show that still stands up quite well when re-watching it, today.

 

[SSJmole]

Plus, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman had great writing, plotting and special effects (for its day) for its first three seasons and it's a show that still stands up quite well when re-watching it, today.

I was going to say that, Great show.

 

[ourchair]

But if that's the case why have we never seen a really good live action super hero show

Because it hasn't been done?

Seriously, what kind of question is that?

It's like the people who ask, "If games have all the components to be artistic, why aren't there any artistic games?" or "If you can successfully make money off of music through the Internet, why hasn't anybody done it yet?"

You can't debunk possibilities on the basis of the fact that they haven't been realized.

 

[The Overlord]

Because it hasn't been done?

Seriously, what kind of question is that?

It's like the people who ask, "If games have all the components to be artistic, why aren't there any artistic games?" or "If you can successfully make money off of music through the Internet, why hasn't anybody done it yet?"

You can't debunk possibilities on the basis of the fact that they haven't been realized.

You are missing my point.

Maybe it could be done, it will likely take way too much effort and money on the part of an network and likely wouldn't be done. Seriously I doubt it would ever be done, at least in the near future, just because something is possible, doesn't mean there is the will (because this would take a massive investment of cash on the part of the networks and an insanely good writing team is it doesn't end like Birds of Prey) besides Mole mentioned the Terminator show, as a model of how such a show could done, but been banished to the Friday night death slot, so really it isn't a good example and may be sign that the networks will not be willing to make such big investments, if they haven't seen returns from similar shows. . Maybe it hasn't been done because the networks don't how to handle such a thing yet and I frankly I'm not going to care about something that is highly unlikely to done well, if at all.

Heroes?!?

Plus, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman had great writing, plotting and special effects (for its day) for its first three seasons and it's a show that still stands up quite well when re-watching it, today.

Heroes sucked after season two, plus the got create the characters to make them work for TV, they weren't working with existing characters, so they could created super powered characters that worked well for TV (no tights, powers that be easy to show on TV, etc). That wouldn't be the case with an FF or USM show.

Oh and Lois and Clark was okay for first season or so and then it sucked, plus it had radically change a lot of villains (Dr. light, Deathstroke, to make them work on TV.) It was hardly the comic book brought to life on screen.

Not if they gave it less episodes and Terminator the series budget.

Yeah and that show on the Friday night death slot dude. Not a good example. why the networks to make that kind of investment in something that hasn't payed off? Besides if were making a live action Spidey show, I think it would be severely limiting to rely solely on USM, when there are a lot of good ideas in 616 Spidey and lot of things 616 Spider-Man has done better then USM (like many of the villains).

Anyway this is off getting very off topic, perhaps we should all return to the topic of FF movies.

 

[SSJmole]

Yeah and that show on the Friday night death slot dude. Not a good example

Not a good example? Quality , taste , time slots and everything else don't matter I was using it as an example of a great budget for a tv show so all that matters in the example it's self is the budget.