Fantastic Four reborn! - - - - - - - Part 16

[A Dollar Short]

Few people expected for it to gross more than 1 billion. Most people voted for $700 million in the box-office thread of Days of Future Past. So worldwide, the expectations were met, not just in domestic where people expected it to outgross X3.

Yeah, I saw very few predictions for 1 billion. Those who did were usually made fun of, similar to those who dared to suggest a SuperBowl ad.

I did, however, see plenty of 'X-Men films don't make money, DOFP will fail.' Which of course, I have to laugh at now.

 

[Orba]

Being a superhero movie means everything! When was the last major superhero movie that made less than 300 mill? And the previous Fantastic Four movies left a bad taste in peoples mouth primarily for comic book fans, and even than I've met some who've liked it. And be realistic the movies weren't necessarily a bad representation of the FF. Weak script and for some dull performances are to blame honestly.

And go back and look at the hate for Transformers 4, now go back and look at how much the movie made. Over a billion. That argument becomes less and less valid.

Hell, go look at the doubt factor for Days of Future Past; which ended up being one of the best comic book movies ever.

A trailer or two will get people excited, or at least curious. The only reason this movie is getting hate in the first place are because of the deviations which result in people blatantly ignoring the HUGE talent from both cast AND crew. I'll reiterate, this movie will go under the radar and become buried in hate that more than likely it's going to become a huge hit. It's been happening often.

Kick-Ass 2, Ghostrider:SoV, Green Lantern, Kick-Ass, Watchmen, all superhero films from the past 5 years that made less than $300 million.

This Fantastic Four will not be a DOFP, a Transformers 4, or ever a TMNT, all those had studios who wanted to make them, who were willing to give them decent budgets. FF is a being made on a minimal budget by a studio because they have to, nothing more, all Fox want from this film is to make back their money and hold onto the rights for 7 more years.

 

[Gamma Goliath]

DoFP, Transformers4, and TMNT also had good legs due to fanbase, sequel boost and big name draw.

Xmen was coming off of first class and the wolverine (both decent movies) and it got Bryan singer back.

Transformers4 made money because its popularity, and its a sequel that was pretty much guaranteed to make bank no matter how bad it was and its had a couple cartoons on tv so that didn't hurt it.

Tmnt while being the most controversial of the group has the nostalgia fanbase who hadnt seen a live action movie in almost 20 years, and it has a whole new following due to the hit cartoon.

Hell even Tasm2 while still suffering a little from reboot lag, it had a crazy amount of marketing, was a sequel and a summer tent pole name.

Fantastic 4 has to battle through reboot lag, big cosmetic changes (characters do not appear as they normally do), along with pretty much no big name draws involved whatsoever besides the marvel logo and maybe the fantastic 4 title, and its in a very busy summer in close proximity to jurassic park and a disney/pixar flick.

All I can say is they better hope the trailers impress the masses and after that they better hope the movie is a huge hit, it won't have that fresh property gift/curse because people know who they are but the last movies were not impressive. So its a tough battle for this franchise.

 

[justanotherguy]

heard yesterday that they are doing some reshoots.

 

[Ragnaroknroll]

heard yesterday that they are doing some reshoots.

LOL! They must have saw the fan reaction and asked Roger Corman if they could borrow his Doom costume.

As cheesy as it was it's sadly the best version of Doom's costume we've ever gotten.

 

[StarkTheProdigy]

Does anyone think that the movie could be pushed back?

 

[RAE072]

heard yesterday that they are doing some reshoots.

Ha.

Does anyone think that the movie could be pushed back?

Definitely a possibility. Might as well just stick in in February 2016.

 

[Ragnaroknroll]

Does anyone think that the movie could be pushed back?

I don't think so. They already pushed the release date back from its original slot on March 6. FF:ROTSS was released on June 15, 2007. This film is releasing June 19, 2015. That's almost exactly 8 years later. That seems significant to me. I could be wrong but I have a feeling that that is the absolute last week they can release the film before they lose the rights.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

Few people expected for it to gross more than 1 billion. Most people voted for $700 million in the box-office thread of Days of Future Past. So worldwide, the expectations were met, not just in domestic where people expected it to outgross X3.

I overstated things a little bit. Several did think it would get there though, especially after the early reviews started coming in.

The point was that DoFP was not this film with little expectations that fans were dumping on. It was a highly anticipated film. There is no comparison between it and this film.

Yeah, JP keeps pushing the story that DOFP was the little engine that could, with only a select group of true believers - he leading the charge - supporting the film. It's complete BS.

So I gather this isn't the first time? Good to know.

 

[Dark Raven]

heard yesterday that they are doing some reshoots.

Trank: So how did the fans respond to the new Doom costume? I bet they loved it.

Kinberg: Alas no. Seems they hated it, though I can't for the life of me imagine why.

Trank: Damn! Now we've got to re shoot all our scenes with Doom all over again and leak another photo in a month's time. So much work down the drain.

Kinberg: You're telling me. And I've got to see how to rework the trash can liner we used to look more like armour.

Trank: Maybe it's worth hiring a real designer for the task.

Kinberg: And spend more money on this project? That will come out of your pocket then.

Trank: No thanks. The trash liner will work fine. We'll just say that Doom's armour got burnt by the Torch.

Kinberg: I thought people already used that excuse.

Trank: And if it worked before it will work again. That's exactly the philosophy I'm taking for this Chronicle remake FF movie.

 

[Ragnaroknroll]

Trank: So how did the fans respond to the new Doom costume? I bet they loved it.

Kinberg: Alas no. Seems they hated it, though I can't for the life of me imagine why.

Trank: Damn! Now we've got to re shoot all our scenes with Doom all over again and leak another photo in a month's time. So much work down the drain.

Kinberg: You're telling me. And I've got to see how to rework the trash can liner we used to look more like armour.

Trank: Maybe it's worth hiring a real designer for the task.

Kinberg: And spend more money on this project? That will come out of your pocket then.

Trank: No thanks. The trash liner will work fine. We'll just say that Doom's armour got burnt by the Torch.

Kinberg: I thought people already used that excuse.

Trank: And if it worked before it will work again. That's exactly the philosophy I'm taking for this Chronicle remake FF movie.

 

[Orba]

Does anyone think that the movie could be pushed back?

Possible, but we don't know that Fox actually can push it back. The rights are supposed to revert after seven years which mean that if production hadn't started they would have reverted in June. We know that the contract gives Fox extra time as long as the film is in production, but that there is a limit to the time to stop studios keeping films in production indefinitely as a way of holding on to the rights.

The big question is how much extra time Fox has, but its something that I have yet to see anyone put any sort of confirmed figure to. Personally I think it is probably between 12 and 18 months, that is more than enough time for most films to finish, and thats not even counting the fact that the film has to already have started before that. If the contract was created with that extension period designed purely for studios to finish off the last bits of a mostly completed film (as opposed to FF where Fox started film a month before the rights would have reverted) then an extension of only 12 months is quite likely.

If the extension period is only 12 months then June 2015 (when they are already scheduled to release) would be as late as they could make the release, any longer and the rights would probably revert completed film or not.

 

[Ragnaroknroll]

No people were hyping up DOFP on numerous sites. The only thing I remember people really hating on was Quicksilver and especially his derpy spy kids look. Regardless of how one feels about his performance or supposed standout scene, he still looks ludicrous. It's still a terrible design. It's not like fans were wrong about that.

 

[jaymes_e06]

^It made sense for the context of the time and the character they were trying to make him into (quirky fast guy).

 

[Dark Raven]

No people were hyping up DOFP on numerous sites. The only thing I remember people really hating on was Quicksilver and especially his derpy spy kids look. Regardless of how one feels about his performance or supposed standout scene, he still looks ludicrous. It's still a terrible design. It's not like fans were wrong about that.

The other thing about XM: DOFP is that fans already knew what Wolverine, Professor X and most everyone else were going to look like, because they've already been in movies before. It's not like they were somehow going to mess up Wolverine's look. So even if they messed up Quicksilver's appearance, it was a relatively minor thing in the larger scheme of things. He wasn't a major character.

With Doom, he is the main villain, and Fox are trying to relaunch the FF as a viable franchise (or so they would have us believe), so they can't afford to just submit their burnt offerings but have to be on their A game. It's not like here we're getting some of the old cast of the previous FF movies to bolster the reputation and hype of this movie together with a bunch of new replacement stars.

 

[Ragnaroknroll]

The other thing about XM: DOFP is that fans already knew what Wolverine, Professor X and most everyone else were going to look like, because they've already been in movies before. It's not like they were somehow going to mess up Wolverine's look. So even if they messed up Quicksilver's appearance, it was a relatively minor thing in the larger scheme of things. He wasn't a major character.

With Doom, he is the main villain, and Fox are trying to relaunch the FF as a viable franchise (or so they would have us believe), so they can't afford to just submit their burnt offerings but have to be on their A game. It's not like here we're getting some of the old cast of the previous FF movies to bolster the reputation and hype of this movie together with a bunch of new replacement stars.

These are excellent points.

 

[Pickleweasel]

Late to the party but just recently saw the Doom pics. I think this movie is going to surprise a lot of people but from the pic it looks like Doom is wearing a camo onsie with a trash bag on his head.

The Thing looks great though so maybe it's just cuz its not a great quality picture. Maybe the suit is part CGI?

 

[Saitou Hajime]

Does anyone think that the movie could be pushed back?

All of the traditional slots in 2015-2016 are already fully booked, and I don't think Fox is the type of studio to rebook FF on an unconventional month. I reckon they're stuck.

 

[Dark Raven]

They can't put it into a DD/ Elektra type slot like January/ February? Are Fox expecting this to do more than those films?

 

[StarkTheProdigy]

They can't put it into a DD/ Elektra type slot like January/ February? Are Fox expecting this to do more than those films?

I feel like a January/February release date would be more appropriate for it

 

[Orba]

Would it be ready in time? They look to have a lot of green screen work, including at least one fully CG character.

 

[Farren]

I feel like JAN/FEB would be a kiss of death for this movie, because of the signal it would send.

February 2015 would also be too crowded IMO. Jupiter Ascending already got pushed there. And then there's Secret Service and 50 Shades of Grey.

 

[Dark Raven]

Would it be ready in time? They look to have a lot of green screen work, including at least one fully CG character.

That's their problem deciding to go for a production that's almost entirely green screen. And for those saying that Doom's costume will be mostly CGI, why would they do that when they have enough on their plate with tons of post production instead of just going a more practical route for him when they can?

I think that if they just gave them all the Roger Corman costumes, it wouldn't make a whole lot of difference to the overall film, and in fact some of them would actually look better.

I feel like JAN/FEB would be a kiss of death for this movie, because of the signal it would send.

February 2015 would also be too crowded IMO. Jupiter Ascending already got pushed there. And then there's Secret Service and 50 Shades of Grey.

And it's not already sending out a signal at this point being up against a Pixar movie and with Jurassic Park a week before? And with their poor production values etc? I think they've tasted the kiss of death a long time ago. Heck, at this point they're already onto shoving their tongue down its throat and playing tonsil tennis.

 

[Farren]

And it's not already sending out a signal at this point being up against a Pixar movie and with Jurassic Park a week before? And with their poor production values etc? I think they've tasted the kiss of death a long time ago. Heck, at this point they're already onto shoving their tongue down its throat and playing tonsil tennis.

I don't disagree with these points, but I'm thinking that in terms of GA perception, a lot of casual movieogoers are well aware of the "January and February are where bad movies go to die" concept. It would take a PR hit if it moved there (and since there is still some competition in February it might not be worth it).

But like you say: it's in a horrible slot as it is, so I can see how making the move could be for the best. I just wanted to offer what I see as a potential reason Fox wouldn't move it to Jan/Feb.

Do we know if Secret Service is expected to be a tent pole film for Fox? That might be a deterrent as well, esp since Fox wouldn't want to go up against itself.

 

[Mr.M]

I think early 2016 is probably the way to go. Get a leg up on BvS. Avoid the MCU sandwich in 2015. It's a no brainer. I am sure the deadline, which we don't even know the exact date of, is a non-issue.