Hey folks, Harry here. I'm dying to lay my hands on the latest draft of the FANTASTIC FOUR script. I've read about 7 different drafts so far, and the best I've ever read was Michael France's first draft which was deemed too expensive from the point of view of folks in the pre-SPIDER-MAN success world of executive decision making. Now, I'm willing to bet, that budget is more likely to be greenlit, but they're still pursuing new drafts and takes on the characters. More than any other Superhero property (with the possible exception of a period CAPTAIN AMERICA or a complete Tales of Asgard THOR film) this is the one I'm dying to see be done justice in the Marvel world. I mean, sure... I'd love to see MARVELS brought to the screen with Ian McKellen as the one eyed photographer... but that's just me probably. Here's what Doug Petrie has been saying it is going on with the project...
Hi Harry,
After the argument caused by the changes to Superman you might be interested in checking out a story in the new Dreamwatch magazine about The Fantastic Four movie.
Doug Petrie from Buffy is doing the script and says...
ìThe change to the origin story, which came from the earlier drafts and I adopted, is that Doom ws like the fifth Beatle. He was on the spaceship with them and in my version he saw this particle wave coming ñ they didnÃt want to say cosmic rays because they felt it sounded fake, but in fact cosmic rays are real. I wanted to do A Perfect Storm in space, wher a giant wave is coming towards them, and Victor blasts off in the escape pod, saving his own skin. He crashlands to Earth and becomes Doom because his face is lost in the reentry process, which is horrible and violent, while the four of them get bombaded by these mysterious rays and become The Fantastic Four.î
Petrie says that the origin will be told in flashbacks because the film opens "with a giant action sequence where everyone in New York City is watching The Fantastic Four kick the crap out of a giant monster on Fifth Avenue."
I don't really mind the changes to Doom - I can see that working because Reed Richards and Doom were supposed to be friends at one point. But what's worrying is that Petris says he wants to make an "unfilmable script" and that "every scene in the movie is the last 20 minutes of Independance Day.î
They just better not screw up The Thing right or it's clobberin time!
Cheers,
Confuscious Brown
