FOX is gearing up to start making some moves towards getting a Fantastic 4 reboot rolling (mostly, because if they don’t the license will revert back to Marvel, and GOD FORBID that happens). There have been no announcements regarding a director or any actors, but in true form, the rumors are a-buzz with who may be directing and playing some of the characters. I’ve broken down the rumors I could find below – who knows if they actually hold any weight!
Directors
It looks like the three names topping the list of rumored potential directors are Joe Carnahan (The A-Team), James McTeigue (Ninja Assassin), and David Yates (Harry Potter). I haven’t seen The A-Team, but I have seen Smokin’ Aces, and while that film is one of my guilty pleasures Carnahan seems to have a style that would be an odd fit for a F4 film, same goes for McTeigue. As far as Yates goes, I could see aspects of his style transferring okay to a F4 film.
Cast
Stephen Moyer (HBO’s True Blood) is supposedly a name being thrown around for Dr. Doom. . . meh? Much to no one’s surprise, FOX is most likely going with a CG version of the Thing – which, in my opinion, studios are notorious for using CG when they shouldn’t have, but using it to create a big lumbering Thing would have been much better than that foam suit they used instead. Anyways, two names being thrown around to voice this rocky superhero are Kiefer Sutherland and Bruce Willis. Did you laugh at the latter? Yeah, me too, I kind of doubt FOX could get him for a reboot of a film franchise that was pretty bad the first time around – but hey, I’ve been surprised before.
FOX is also supposedly eyeing Adrian Brody (Splice) and Jonathan Rhys Meyers (The Tudors) to fill the shoes of Reed Richards and Alice Eve (She’s Out of My League) and Amber Heard (Zombieland, she was “406”) to take on the role of Sue Storm. No rumors yet on who may fill the shoes of Chris Evans as The Human Torch (and in my opinion, the only well-cast character from the previous films). I don’t really have strong feelings one way or the other for these particular casting rumors – probably because these are just rumors right now.
Of course, this Fantastic 4 reboot is going to be shot in (sigh) 3D and FOX is aiming for a Summer 2012 release, so I’d imagine we will continue to hear casting rumors for the next few months followed by some relatively solid news early next year.