Why does Fox have a better handle on the X-Men movies then the Fantastic Four movies?

[The Overlord]

Of the Fox produced Marvel movies we have had 4 good X-Men related movies (X2, First Class, Days of Future Past and Deadpool), two okay ones (X-Men and the Wolverine) and 2 bad ones (X-Men Origins and the Last Stand). Of the Fantastic Four movies Fox has produced, all 3 have been bad.


Why does Fox have a better handle on the X-Men movies then the Fantastic Four movies?

 

[2kt09]

Because maybe they don't have full ownership of the F4.
From the producers that brought you the video-game-movie adapted Resident Evil franchise comes...

 

[Wildcard]

Of the Fox produced Marvel movies we have had 4 good X-Men related movies (X2, First Class, Days of Future Past and Deadpool), two okay ones (X-Men and the Wolverine) and 2 bad ones (X-Men Origins and the Last Stand). Of the Fantastic Four movies Fox has produced, all 3 have been bad.


Why does Fox have a better handle on the X-Men movies then the Fantastic Four movies?

Because they hired the right people to get behind X-Men (i.e Bryan Singer) and Deadpool & did the polar opposite with Fantastic Four.

 

[Flint Marko]

A few years back I read an interview with a comic book writer who spoke about going into 20th century fox to pitch his take on the FF; he detailed the straight up hatred and ignorance Fox had regarding the property. Apparently they were eager to deviate and downplay the source material at every turn. If you were paying attention to the production of FFINO and didn't have your head buried deep in the sand, you'd understand how that is undeniable. It has nothing to do with Constantin films and everything to do with the studio itself being utterly incompetent.

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

It's like they hate money.

Deadpool might change that tho.

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

How to make a successful CBM franchise...


Step 1: Show people why the source material is popular.

Step 2: Get showered with hundreds of millions of dollars.

 

[pr0xyt0xin]

They've had a lot of time to screw up.

imo X1, X3 and XO:W are riddled with more mistakes than pleasantries. X2, FC, and W are not nearly perfect. And DoFP/Deadpool willingly admit how much the franchise has screwed up. Fox making comic book movies is the movie studio equivalent of [BLACKOUT]Deadpool punching and kicking Colossus until every limb is broken. And then healing a new baby hand and *********ing with it.[/BLACKOUT]

 

[horacethegrey]

A few years back I read an interview with a comic book writer who spoke about going into 20th century fox to pitch his take on the FF; he detailed the straight up hatred and ignorance Fox had regarding the property. Apparently they were eager to deviate and downplay the source material at every turn. If you were paying attention to the production of FFINO and didn't have your head buried deep in the sand, you'd understand how that is undeniable. It has nothing to do with Constantin films and everything to do with the studio itself being utterly incompetent.

Is this for real? Why bother with the f***ing property if you're not going to do it justice?! I think the MCU has proven that being loyal to the source material is not an impediment to making a successful comic book movie. Now granted, they do tweak the material a bit to adapt for the cinema, but they keep enough of the elements that made the property unique and a success in the first place.

The Fantastic Four is one of Marvel's most treasured properties and it's a damn shame Fox isn't giving it the film adaptation it deserves.

 

[Lord]

They got lucky by hiring the right people for the X-Men franchise. From what i hear, they were constantly putting budgetary restraints on the first 3 or 4 films. People now seem to like looking down at X-Men 1, but making that film right was no small feat. At the time there hadn't been any good superhero film centered around a team, let alone one that also had complex moral themes at the center. Most of the problems in that film can be traced to budgetary cuts.

Bryan Singer's obsession with the franchise is also one of the reasons it was able to be resurrected. His development on First Class put an end on a few of the planned spin-off films. Then the studio started to realise X-3 and Origins had made people lose interest in the films, and so, gave Bryan Singer the control to do his dream X-Men film in Days of Future Past and were more careful with The Wolverine, giving the character his edge back.

With Fantastic Four, they have yet to crack a decent entry, so they don't have a good FF film to base their future decisions around, only failures.

While i'm a big fan of the X-Men franchise and hope it doesn't go back to the MCU, i'm still slightly afraid of it's future with X-Men Apocalypse. That story has the potential of being terrible, Bryan Singer never showed much interest in that story (unlike Phoenix saga or Days of Future Past), seems like the film will need to condense many plot threads and Apocalypse is more of an overpowered mutant, which doesn't bring in as interesting a conflict as Magneto did.

Deadpool seems to be a mix of Fox wanting to expand the X-Men franchise and Ryan Reynolds + Lauren Donner being passionate about the character.

 

[Typhoon22]

It's not rocket science you know. You hire quality people you get a good shot at creating quality material.

 

[Mike Murdock]

A few years back I read an interview with a comic book writer who spoke about going into 20th century fox to pitch his take on the FF; he detailed the straight up hatred and ignorance Fox had regarding the property. Apparently they were eager to deviate and downplay the source material at every turn. If you were paying attention to the production of FFINO and didn't have your head buried deep in the sand, you'd understand how that is undeniable. It has nothing to do with Constantin films and everything to do with the studio itself being utterly incompetent.

Peyton Reed talked about a similar experience. He had a very Jack Kirby proposal and the studio basically went "yeah, no."

Here's the charitable answer for why they don't know how to do a Fantastic Four film compared to the X-Men. The X-Men have been far more popular than the FF for the past 25 years. Given that, the studio knows that popularity will transfer to a movie. They don't know that with the Fantastic Four, so they tried to change things and put a square peg in a round hole.

You can also see this to a degree with the X-Men. They've gotten more faithful as time went on. They never deviated as much as the Fantastic Four did, but they certainly toned it down at first.

 

[Zarex]

A good part of the problem comes down to cost. Singer has proven that you can make an excellent X-Men film at a budget barely breaking nine figures. But Reed, Ben and the outlandish environments one associates with the FF look cheap at that price point.

 

[horacethegrey]

You know, if they kept the cast of the first two films (with the exception of Jessica Alba. I've nothing against her, but she was seriously miscast as Sue Storm), and paired them with a director who respects the material and a decent script, we might have had a good FF film. I mean, we don't need Thing to be a fully CG character no? The prosthetic makeup on Michael Chiklis was already pretty good and was all I needed for a convincing Ben Grimm.

But, if the FF had become a success, we probably wouldn't have had Chris Evans as Captain America. So I guess it worked out. But seriously, Fox should just give Fantastic Four back to Marvel if we want a film that even remotely resembles the comic.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

Because they actually care about X-Men. They only make Fantastic Four movies because they will lose the film rights if they don't, not because they actually want to make them. So they put in a bare minimum amount of effort into them.

 

[Flint Marko]

Is this for real? Why bother with the f***ing property if you're not going to do it justice?! I think the MCU has proven that being loyal to the source material is not an impediment to making a successful comic book movie. Now granted, they do tweak the material a bit to adapt for the cinema, but they keep enough of the elements that made the property unique and a success in the first place.

The Fantastic Four is one of Marvel's most treasured properties and it's a damn shame Fox isn't giving it the film adaptation it deserves.

Oh it's definitely real, I just wish I could remember which writer it was.

Peyton Reed talked about a similar experience. He had a very Jack Kirby proposal and the studio basically went "yeah, no."

Was this on a podcast or an interview or what? I'm going to try and find that.

 

[doink]

Because they actually care about X-Men. They only make Fantastic Four movies because they will lose the film rights if they don't, not because they actually want to make them. So they put in a bare minimum amount of effort into them.

This...FOX doesn't get the FF or give a crap about them, they only made the last one because they went "KYAAAAA THE RIGHTS ARE EXPIRING" and not because they really wanted to make a good FF movie. They care way more about X-Men.

 

[MarvelU]

Maybe they find the X-Men Universe as more marketable although I am sure the Fantastic Four could be big in the right hands. At this point after 3 failed attempts it will take a long time to make the general audiences care about the fantastic four.

 

[Orba]

Was this on a podcast or an interview or what? I'm going to try and find that.

http://filmschoolrejects.com/featur...al&utm_source=***********&utm_campaign=buffer

Think this is it.

Also

https://uk.movies.yahoo.com/post/124260231921/how-ant-man-director-peyton-reed-fell-out-with-fox

 

[Dasher10]

Because the studio don't care about the IP anywhere near as much. The first two films aren't very well regarded and Fox only did a reboot because they wanted to keep the rights as a bargaining chip to sell back at a later date. The X-Men on the other hand, have a proven track record. The comics are in no danger of being canceled since they've sold well ever since the late 1970s and even when the films are critically reviled, they still do well at the box office.

What we know about the productions shows that the producers neglected the film during production when they had an out of control director. Simon Kinberg wrote a rough draft that was filmed on the spot despite him having enough experience to actually pull off a better screenplay because the film was shot near the deadline for the rights to revert and the actual plot comes across as very rushed and poorly thought out because it WAS.

Matthew Vaughn was busy with Kingsman and didn't have time to babysit Trank. He even commented on how he was kept out of the loop and only saw some rough test footage.

Mark Millar on the other hand, was actually kicked to the curb by Trank who didn't want him involved despite Millar writing the Ultimate Fantastic Four origin which was being adapted. If you look at interviews from 2014 and 2015, Millar and Kinberg both talked more about Deadpool and X-Men: Apocalypse which shows how Fantastic Four was more of an afterthought for both men.

And Lauren Schuler Donner and Bryan Singer both wanted nothing to do with the Fantastic Four and Donner had references to the X-Men removed in post-production.

Quite clearly the studio weren't interested in making a great film and Fantastic Four was just an afterthought to them while Josh Trank was the only guy who cared... and he cared more about ruining the project and wasting a nine figure budget.

 

[DieSmiling]

How to make a successful CBM franchise...


Step 1: Show people why the source material is popular.

Step 2: Get showered with hundreds of millions of dollars.

I'll throw in "hire a good director who respects the source material".

 

[metaphysician]

In addition to many of the reasons mentioned, I'd add "Because X-Men works when dark, and Fantastic Four doesn't". The Fox execs like their comic book movies to be "serious and respectable", which basically translates into a surface level dark-and-serious tone. X-Men can do that, easily, simply by having an *actual* dark and serious plot and theme, which works with the material. Fantastic Four, by contrast, does not. Thus, they either do not treat it seriously, and give us something campy and silly, or they try and *force* the surface tone, and give us FFINO.

 

[Flint Marko]

http://filmschoolrejects.com/featur...al&utm_source=***********&utm_campaign=buffer

Think this is it.

Also

https://uk.movies.yahoo.com/post/124260231921/how-ant-man-director-peyton-reed-fell-out-with-fox

Perfect! Thank you.

 

[Frankeh]

I think it all comes down to the talent involved, not FOX themselves. The X-Men movies have had their difficulties in production just as well, but they managed to rise above them... well except for X3 and Origins, lol. Look at X1. They didn't want to spend much on it. Filming was rushed. And yet it was critically and commercially succesful. Heck, even after the success of X1, FOX wouldn't go all out on X2 and had certain elements cut off (Danger Room for example) and yet Singer and co. still delivered a quality product. First Class was another rushed production that people didn't have faith on and turned out to be succesful.

 

[TheVileOne]

It's not like Fox has a sterling record with X-Men.

I don't want to say Deadpool is a bit of a fluke, but let's also look at the fact that they only gave this film $58 million. Yes it got an R-rating but only because they slashed the budget, not to mention they took away another $7 million at the last minute so they had to remove more characters and action as a result.

Let's also not forget that Fox drug their feet on Deadpool for years, YEARS. It took the leaking of the test footage and the positive response after that for Fox to finally give this the greenlight.

Let's not forget those dark days when it looked like Deadpool was never happening.

 

[Rocky89]

Haven't seen the new Fan 4 film yet, but heard it was bad.