Caffeinated Clint
I personally don’t think George Clooney is going to be wanting to rush into another comic movie too soon. Read any interview he does, and he’ll tell you how much he hated being a part of "Batmn and Robin", saying it’s one of the worst decision’s he has made in his life. And he’s not wrong. Not only was the script dreadful, but Clooney – then, just fresh out of the "ER" – was so wrong for the part of the Dark Knight. But according to the rumour mill, Clooney is in serious talks with Marvels’ Ari Arad to play Reed Richards in "The Fantastic Four" movie. George, you sure you want to do this again?
Aint it Cool says "Avi Arad wants Clooney to be Reed Richards, and right now… what Avi wants, Avi gets and the word I’m hearing is that George is going to do it. You see, Avi wanted George for two different Marvel Characters… Reed Richards aka Mr Fantastic and… NICK FURY, AGENT OF S.H.I.E.L.D. George passed on that project because he was more into doing the Steranko cool as all fuck Nick Fury of the 60’s and not the Ultra Violent Modern Take that they are apparently developing."
Ok, so I think it’s pretty safe to say this is a far less riskier decision for George. After all, he looks like Reed Richards, and hey he’s not going into a franchise, where two other actors have played the same character in the three blockbusters that proceeded "Batman and Robin". And from all indications, audiences are hot for a "Fantastic Four" movie. You may recall, another was made some years back -but never saw the light of day because it was that bad.
Director Peyton Reed recently sat down to talk to Cinema Confidential about the film.
"We are still in the script stage, we just hired a new writer, Mark Frost, who wrote "Twin Peeks." So we are starting on another draft of "Fantastic Four.", he told the site. "Mark is such a really smart writer, he’s been a fan of "Fantastic Four" for a long time and has a respect for the source material. When that comic came out, it was billed as the world’s greatest comic magazine and it was really revolutionary in the comics industry. All the things that made it fresh and innovative at the time are now clichés and they’ve been done to death in comics and in movies. So, you’ve really got to reinvent that property. If you just did it as it was, it wouldn’t really delineate itself except to die hard fans that are just there to see the thrill of bringing the comic book to life in a movie."
And is there any pressure on him? "think these movies can only be judged on an individual basis. They are just as good as they are and there are a lot of thematic similarities to the Marvel movies. "Fantastic Four" always appealed to me because tonally it’s different. The pressure that I feel is to make it the best "Fantastic Four" movie. There’s 40 years of source material and there’s a lot of different periods of that comic book and which ones do you draw from? Also, they are daytime super heroes. They don’t have secret identities and they are all a part of New York City. It’s a different thing tonally from "X-Men" or "Spiderman" or "Hulk" and it’s a tough nut to crack."
Ok, so when we likely to see this "Fantastic Four" movie? According to Superhero Hype, November 4th 2004.
