1) When did Story say that Fox specifically showed him numbers that said to aim that a kid demographic?
2) The film can't be 2 and 1/2 hours because they simply didn't have the budget for that without degenerating into assloads of talking on static sets.
I'm glad this movie wasn't just 2 and 1/2 hours of blather, it had ACTION and moved fast!
http://forums.superherohype.com/showthread.php?t=237096&page=11
Tim Story:
Playing to a younger crowd
To find the right tone for "Silver Surfer," Story says he is tapping into why the first "Fantastic Four" was so successful. He had originally thought that movie was for comic-book crazed teenagers and 20-somethings.
"The film actually played younger than we thought. We found that 8-year-olds and 9-year-olds and even 6-year-olds were able to go watch this movie and have a ball," he says. "And because it's younger, we also found that we also got people on the other side of the 25 range because they have to take their kids."
Actually it was McMahon who let slip that they were asked to tone it down:
With that type of audience in mind, Story will again rely on the teasing banter among the superheroes that kids find so funny but will adjust his approach to McMahon's villain.
"Because of what happened with the last movie - the younger-audience skew - I've been asked to temper things just a little bit more toward a more childish audience," says McMahon, with what seems like a permanently arched eyebrow. "They wanted me to tone it down a little bit so it didn't look quite as brutal."
I need to be clear on this. I don't think the PG rating is or was a problem. I loved that it was PG. What I have a problem with is when that is the target audience and others are discarded. Does PG mean you can't get 2 and a 1/2 hours and well developed character moments with serious tones.
I think the FF includes light and Dark moments even though I think the Dark moments are in the crises they face. Batman fights megalomaniacs who want to take over cities. The FF on a good day fights villains who want to rule the world, other days they fight villains who want to destroy all life on earth (Galactus) and other days they face villains bent on wiping out all life in the Galaxy and beyond, Abraxus, Anihilus etc.
The budget was 130 million. I don't accept that you can't make a 2 & 1/2 movie with 130 million dollars. When did that become a reality.
Star Wars:ROTS was 2 hours 26 minutes and cost 113 million.
http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=starwars3.htm
And there was plenty of action in that movie.
Maybe George is on to something when he said everyone but one or two people are coming to him to do the special effects.
maybe Fox who may have issues with George should eat crow and pay the man some money to get a great film.
They owe us.
And don't take my constructive criticisms as an indication that I disliked FF2. I actually like both FF1 and FF2 but I took a reality check and realized that the FF can be so much more and knowing that Tim Story said he reads SHH I have taken the oppotunity in the hopes that he sees that we all love what he is trying to do to take the franchise all the way.
He said in an interview somewhere that these characters have about 4 possible movies in them and the contracts are for three with a fourth as an option.
There is still time to take this thing to the next level and I think that Tim Story is still the guy to do it. He is growing fast and i still think that he is the best one to break through and give us the a home run.
On a positive but off topic note. I just read that After Story pitched the idea to introduce the SS that Avi Arad who had wanted the Mole Man as mentioned in an interview somewhere jumped in with the people at Marvel to convince Fox to introduce SS in the FF sequel.
So Fox apparently does listen sometimes.
The FF comic is NOT, a deep, dark, serious comic. It is fun, lighthearted, corny, cheesy, pokes fun at itself comic. When are people going to get that ? This is not Batman, not Superman, not Ghost Rider, or any other serious comic you can think of. The 2 movies have stayed true to the spirit, if not the letter of the comic. It's that simple. K.I.S.S Keep It Simple Stupid. People want to make this harder than it is.
