Latest news with #RogerCorman
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS Had a Cameo From the Cast of Unreleased '90s FF Movie
You might have heard that the actors who originally played the Fantastic Four in live-action made an appearance at The Fantastic Four: First Steps premiere on the blue carpet. But you may have been confused when none of these actors were Chris Evans, Jessica Alba, or Michael Chiklis. (The original Reed Richards, Ioan Gruffudd, did attend). You see, those were actors who played the FF in the 2005 Fantastic Four, from director Tim Story. But a decade prior, in 1994, a whole different set of actors played the team in a movie. Only to have their film never come out, shelved indefinitely. And those actors cameoed in First Steps, although it's a 'blink and you miss it' moment. The actors who truly played Marvel's First Family for the first time on film were Alex Hyde-White (Reed Richards), Rebecca Staab (Sue Storm), Jay Underwood (Johnny Storm), and Michael Bailey Smith (Ben Grimm). Marvel Studios and director Matt Shakman invited them to the Hollywood premiere of First Steps. Thus, giving them a proper moment in the spotlight at last. Because their movie, sadly, never had a true premiere. The story of why the 1994 Fantastic Four movie never came out is truly a wild 'only in Hollywood' tale. The 1994 Fantastic Four movie became a famous bootleg tape for years, traded at conventions by fans, and eventually posted online. It was a very low-budget production, produced by B-movie guru Roger Corman for a mere one million dollars. A trailer even saw release in 1993. The movie was never intended to hit theaters, and only had one known screening. All of this was a way for producer Bernd Eichinger to keep the Fantastic Four license for another decade. Sadly, no one ever informed the actors of that, so all their hard work was for nothing. Now, the original live-action FF finally got their moment to appear in front of millions of Marvel fans, as they cameo as New York City residents for a brief moment in Marvel Studios's film. Many believe this whole debacle was when the 'curse' of the Fantastic Four on film began. Although the 2005 Fantastic Four film was actually quite profitable (many fans forget it became a box office hit), it received terrible reviews. It paled in comparison to Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films, or the Fox X-Men franchise when it came to success. The 2015 reboot from Josh Trank was a true mega flop. But judging from the early reviews, it seems the fourth time's the charm for Marvel's First Family. We should have all known it would take four times to get it right. The 1994 Fantastic Four movie is indeed pretty terrible, when all said and done. Although it does have a certain low-budget charm. Marvel never officially released it, so every version that's out there since the '90s is a fuzzy, low-quality version. Now that all this time has passed, it would be fun for Marvel Studios to give the film a proper release. Even if it's just as a glorified special feature on the eventual The Fantastic Four: First Steps Blu-ray release. Alex Hyde-White, Rebecca Staab, Jay Underwood, and Michael Bailey Smith deserve that much at least. Solve the daily Crossword
Time Magazine
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time Magazine
Sorry, 'First Steps,' But No Fantastic Four Movie Has Lived Up to 'The Incredibles'
The critical consensus on The Fantastic Four: First Steps is that, finally, they made a good Fantastic Four movie. The previous attempts to bring Marvel's First Family to the big screen—a low-budget unreleased Roger Corman movie, a pair of middling films in the '00s, and Josh Trank's universally panned 2015 movie—were all failures, and while First Steps isn't by any means perfect, it's the closest thing we've gotten to a great Fantastic Four movie. Except, that's not really the case, because there was an incredible Fantastic Four movie just over 20 years ago. It just wasn't technically a Fantastic Four movie. The argument that Pixar's 2004 masterpiece The Incredibles is not-so-secretly a Fantastic Four film is hardly a new one, though it seems especially relevant in the wake of the original foursome making a high-profile, high-stakes, and warmly received (or at least warmly enough) entrance into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The similarities between the Incredibles and the Fantastic Four are obvious; both are families of four people who all have superpowers, including one person with the ability to stretch, another who can turn invisible and make forcefields, and a big strong guy. It's not a one-to-one match; Fantastic Four have the Human Torch while The Incredibles' Dash has superspeed. The relations are different, too, as The Incredibles focuses on two parents and their two kids while the Fantastic Four consist of a husband, his wife, his brother-in-law, and his best friend. Brad Bird, who wrote and directed the Pixar film, didn't set out to explicitly make a movie about the Fantastic Four with the serial numbers filed off, and indeed The Incredibles is much more than just that. The Fantastic Four, one of the most famous superhero teams around, are an obvious influence, and there are shades of the X-Men, James Bond-esque spy antics, and Alan Moore's seminal comic Watchmen. (Bird claims he hadn't read Watchmen prior to penning The Incredibles, making it a coincidence that both plots involve superheroes in hiding after the government outlaws vigilantism.) To call The Incredibles a knock-off of any specific superhero story rather than a broad homage is to do the Oscar-winning movie a disservice, especially considering it came out four years before the start of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the truly modern era of superhero cinema as it exists today. Still, it's the Fantastic Four who seem like the most natural point of comparison to the Incredibles. The makers of the 2005 Fantastic Four movie certainly thought so; there were reports that they had to reshoot the ending of the live-action movie because they worried the cartoon had already outdone them. First Steps almost seems like it's copying The Incredibles; the movie is set in its own corner of the MCU's multiverse on a retro-futuristic world that very much resembles the stylish mid-century modern vibes of The Incredibles. Composer Michael Giacchino provided the music to both films, and in an interview Giacchino admitted that it was a challenge for him to differentiate the two scores. The Incredibles is the secret benchmark that Fantastic Four films need to try to live up to, and it's an incredibly high one. Certainly in the conversation for the title of "Pixar's best film," The Incredibles is a rollicking superhero adventure that also digs deeply into familial dynamics, touching on fears of infidelity, the way marriages change, and the way kids fight with their parents (and each other). Mr. Incredible (Craig T. Nelson) misses the thrill of crime-fighting so he goes behind his wife Elastigirl's back and accepts a moonlighting superhero gig. But when his employer, Syndrome (Jason Lee), reveals himself to be a spurned would-be sidekick who now wants to make it so no one is super (except him, of course), Elastigirl (Holly Hunter) and their kids Violet (Sarah Vowell) and Dash (Spencer Fox) must come to his rescue—and get the whole costumed family doing good together. The Incredibles is a remarkably standalone story. All of its influences are just that, influences, rather than homework. You basically just need to know that superhero fiction exists and have the vaguest awareness of the core tropes to enjoy The Incredibles, and even then you'd probably be fine going in with a blank slate. Compare that to The Fantastic Four: First Steps, which is going to great lengths to attempt to be a standalone story. Despite being the 37th movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe—a franchise that is clearly straining under the weight of its own continuity—First Steps takes place in an alternate reality. There are no shared characters, previous plot developments to be aware of, or even any Easter eggs connecting First Steps to the main MCU, and even though the foursome will eventually join the rest of the Avengers in Doomsday, out next year, the film ends without any multiversal voyages. Instead, we meet Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Ben Grimm, and Johnny Storm (Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Joseph Quinn) four years after they got their superpowers and watch them save the planet (and Reed and Sue's newborn son) from a powerful planet-eater known as Galactus. It's a grander plot than The Incredibles and it's executed more sloppily, but the focus is clearly intended to be on this family rather than a larger cinematic universe. And yet the looming specter of a continuity and questions about how the Fantastic Four fit into the MCU loom over First Steps. Even more oppressive is the sense that, for as much as First Steps tries in its aesthetic and with its marketing to tell audiences that it's a breezy, new kind of superhero movie, First Steps is sweaty. Fantastic Four needed to be good and do really well at the box office to help the MCU recover after an ongoing fallow period in the wake of Avengers: Endgame. It's a crucial pivot for the biggest franchise in the world, a superhero movie that's all-but explicitly tasked with reversing superhero fatigue. Meanwhile, The Incredibles is a breath of fresh air; a superhero movie made before costumed crime-fighters reached total cinematic and cultural saturation. (It helps that The Incredibles was made by Pixar during the studio's golden era that saw some of its best creative output. Marvel Studios, meanwhile, is tired and on the backfoot.) To mix superhero metaphors, the kryptonite of The Fantastic Four: First Steps is that it's following in another movie's footsteps. First Steps is a fine enough movie that's under a lot of pressure and scrutiny; The Incredibles is an unburdened masterpiece with similar characters, a similar look, some similar themes, and a similar score. Maybe that's OK, though—another similarity they have is that they're both owned by Disney. You'll be able to watch either of them on Disney+ soon enough.
Gizmodo
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Gizmodo
‘First Steps' Includes a Touching Quartet of Cameos Bridging ‘Fantastic Four' History
As detailed in a new article over at Vanity Fair, The Fantastic Four: First Steps includes a few truly unexpected cameos outside of Paul Walter-Hauser's Mole Man or its brief nods to other 60's-era Marvel antagonists. As this site's own intergalactic herald, may all who pass the purple portent below know they will be irreparably spoiled…If you've already seen First Steps in its early screenings today, you may have recognized appearances from the original live-action Fantastic Four. Of course, we're referring to the cast of Roger Corman's unreleased 1994 film, made only to retain character rights. You read that correctly: none other than Alex Hyde-White, Rebecca Staab, Jay Underwood, and Michael Bailey Smith make fleeting appearances in Marvel's latest. While Hyde-White and Staab appear as TV journalists, Underwood and Smith play a pair of power plant workers rescued by the Human Torch in a newsreel at the beginning of the movie. The original cast was even invited to the film's Los Angeles premiere, where Rebecca Staab received a hug from her Sue Storm successor, Vanessa Kirby. As the actress notes in the piece, 'In this business you know anything can happen—and anything can not happen. [John] Malkovich got cut out of the movie, for crying out loud!' If you weren't already aware of the doomed 1994 film's fascinating history, the piece provides a brief rundown. With a budget of just $1 million, legendary B-movie producer Roger Corman put together a not-nearly-as-bad-as-you-think Fantastic Four movie, all so that a producer friend could meet the contractual deadline allowing him to retain rights that were set to expire at the end of 1993. Unfortunately, the cast was not hip to this fact and felt deep resentment that the project was never intended to see the light of day. Still, bootleg copies of the project have flowed like wine at comic conventions and in tape trading communities, and the film has garnered a small cult following. Just last month, JoBlo touted it to be the best Fantastic Four adaptation, besting at least three of its four theatrical scions. In the words of former Ben Grimm actor Michael Bailey Smith, the acknowledgement 'felt great.' 'Look at the other ones that they're compared to,' he rightfully notes, 'and their budgets? Trust me: if we had a bigger budget, we'd be kicking some serious butt.' Actor Joseph Colt, who played Doctor Doom in the 1994 film, was unfortunately not asked to participate in First Steps, but when reached for comment stated, 'It's the curse of The Fantastic Four because they have not paid proper homage to the original.' However, Roger Corman's Johnny Storm, Jay Underwood, believes Marvel's invitation has lifted the hex. 'I think the curse is broken. I hope this movie just goes through the roof.' Alex Hyde-White, who played Reed Richards in the film, shares his sentiments. 'I do, actually, believe in karma. Very rarely do you get a chance to wait 30 years to test that theory.' While the 1994 film is lurking on certain corners of the internet, The Fantastic Four: First Steps is in theaters now. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what's next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps' Review: Marvel Gets Its Mojo Back With a Satisfying Retro-Styled Reboot
Fourth time's the charm. First there was the low-budget version of 'The Fantastic Four,' produced by Roger Corman, which Marvel managed to bury before it hit theaters (though bootlegs abound). The comic-book company was far more enthusiastic about a pair of early-2000s adaptations at Fox, which boasted a fun cast — including Jessica Alba, Chris Evans and Michael Chiklis — but couldn't get the tone right, skewing corny in both the dialogue and effects departments. Then came the 2015 reboot, which was a bomb, turning the characters into sullen, moody versions of themselves (and Dr. Doom into an emo megalomaniac). As live-action adaptations of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's pulp quartet go, Marvel's back-to-the-drawing-board 'The Fantastic Four: First Steps' succeeds where earlier attempts have faltered — and good thing, too, since the studio has a lot more riding on this franchise now. At their peak, Marvel movies earned upwards of $1 billion at the box office, but they've lost steam of late, as the studio unfairly asks fans to consume every film and TV show in its extended 'cinematic universe' just to keep up with the increasingly convoluted mythology (one complicated by alternate realities, time travel and so on). More from Variety Original 'Fantastic Four' Star Michael Chiklis Wishes Marvel's New Cast the 'Best of Luck and Success': 'I Admire These Actors' 'Avatar: Fire and Ash' Trailer to Screen Exclusively in Theaters Before 'Fantastic Four' 'Fantastic Four' First Reactions Say Film Is One of the 'Best Things Marvel Has Ever Made' With 'Stunning Visuals' and 'Excellent' Performances From Leading Cast The new movie, which Matt Shakman directs with a stylish retro-futurist flair, skips over the whole origin-story shtick we typically get whenever new superheroes are introduced. Personally, I find that to be the most relatable aspect of the genre: the part where we get to see how ordinary people adapt to the gift/curse of being granted extraordinary powers. It's the stuff that comes next, when those same characters must inevitably face off against some force hell-bent on destroying Earth, that bores me. What a pleasant surprise, then, that the opposite proves true in 'First Steps,' which centers almost entirely on a threat from Marvel's biggest villain to date, the planet-sized Galactus. The Fantastic Four are already famous when the film opens, appearing on an 'Ed Sullivan'-style variety show to celebrate four years of protecting the world from all manner of human-scale villains (relatively manageable pests like Mole Man, who resurfaces here in the form of Paul Walter Hauser, or Red Ghost and his Super-Apes, name-checked early on in a nod to the vintage comics). Set in the early 1960s, the movie starts out almost like a sitcom from that era — albeit one filmed in the high-definition Imax format — presenting a brief but impressive shot of the Baxter Building, an elegant space-age skyscraper that's home to our heroes (in 'Mad Men'-era Manhattan), before cutting to a domestic scene between Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal) and his wife, Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby). Sue, who can generate force fields and make objects (and herself) disappear, has just learned that she is pregnant — something these two struggled for years to achieve. In this couple's case, however, the discovery adds an understandable anxiety other parents needn't worry about: What effect will that fateful exposure to cosmic rays, which gave the Fantastic Four their powers, have on their unborn child? It's common knowledge that 'The Incredibles' writer-director Brad Bird had the Fantastic Four in mind when he conceived his beloved Pixar cartoon, which resonated with audiences because it focused on the everyday concerns of an exceptional family. Now 'First Steps' returns the favor, adopting what worked so well in that animated homage — especially the mystery of what mutant abilities their adorable computer-generated baby might inherit (the two films also share a composer, Michael Giacchino). Here, the central foursome are more or less related: Reed and Sue are married, and they live with her hotheaded younger brother Johnny Storm, aka the Human Torch (Joseph Quinn), and Reed's strong but sensitive best friend Ben Grimm ('The Bear' star Ebon Moss-Bachrach). Ben came back from their fateful space flight permanently transformed into a hulking rock monster, which hinders him from expressing his romantic feelings toward Rachel Rozman (Natasha Lyonne), a friendly teacher from his old neighborhood. Visual effects technology has come a long way since filmmakers obliged Chiklis to don a bulky foam latex suit as the Thing, and Marvel is now capable of conjuring the expressive orange character entirely from CGI — even if his mouth doesn't always match what he's saying. As visual effects go, it's hard to top the handsome Pascal, who gives the elastic Mr. Fantastic a gravitas missing in previous ensembles. As Sue, Kirby delivers her super-baby in space, but that's nothing compared with the marathon labor scene in 'Pieces of a Woman.' Shakman, who has only directed one other feature (2014's 'Cut Bank') but counts all nine episodes of the 'WandaVision' limited series among his extensive TV credits, gives the Fantastic Four sufficient time to establish their personalities before introducing Julia Garner as Galactus' herald, Shalla-Bal. Looking like a cross between a hood ornament and a chrome-plated surfing trophy (when she should be at least as impressive as the liquid-metal man from 'Terminator 2'), she travels all the way to Times Square to announce that Earth will soon be devoured by her all-consuming master. Gender-swapping the Silver Surfer is the biggest — and likely most controversial — change to Marvel arcana, although it does yield an intriguingly flirtatious dynamic with Johnny. Marvel has made clear that the studio is preparing the Fantastic Four's most iconic nemesis, Dr. Doom, for a forthcoming film, but the planet-obliterating combo of Galactus and Silver Surfer hardly feel like second best. If anything, they trump even Thanos, a force so strong it took uniting all the Avengers to defeat him. Superhero experts can tell you where this is all headed, along with the significance of certain inside jokes, including references to whether Sue Storm will give birth to twins and catchphrases from the classic Hanna-Barbera animated series. Truth be told, 'First Steps' can feel like a live-action 'The Jetsons' at times, between the flying Fantasticar and production designer Kasra Farahani's brightly colored modern sets, like Reed's lab and the family kitchen (where robot assistant Herbie does the cooking). Somehow, the brains at Marvel must find a way to get this team from the past — and a parallel reality on Earth 828 — over to where the rest of their stable now reside. Now that Deadpool, Wolverine, the X-Men and the Fantastic Four have been reunited with the other iconic Marvel characters (under the same corporate umbrella, at least), Disney is well positioned to do something interesting with them. And yet, there's relief to be had from a Marvel movie in which you needn't have carefully studied multiple other movies to make sense of what's happening. Kid-friendly and funny enough without veering into self-parody, 'First Steps' represents the launch of Phase Six for the studio, building toward another two-part 'Avengers' tentpole from the Russo brothers. True to its subtitle, the film feels like a fresh start. And like this summer's blockbuster 'Superman' reboot over at DC, that could be just what it takes to win back audiences suffering from superhero exhaustion. Best of Variety The Best Albums of the Decade Solve the daily Crossword
Time Out
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time Out
‘The Fantastic Four' film they won't let you see (and how to watch it)
'I want a Fantastic Four flick, and I don't want it good – I want it Tuesday!' With these immortal words, German producer Bernd Eichinger commissioned legendary independent filmmaker Roger Corman to make a film based on Marvel Comics' The Fantastic Four. The twist? It was never meant to be seen by the public. In the first issue of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's The Fantastic Four comic, published in November 1961, four astronauts – inventor Reed Richards, his scientist fiancée Susan Storm, her younger brother Johnny, and their friend Ben Grimm – were granted superpowers following exposure to an alien phenomenon during the first spaceflight of their experimental rocket. Richards was reborn as 'Mr. Fantastic', able to elongate any part of his body; Susan became 'The Invisible Girl' (self-explanatory); hot-headed Johnny could ignite himself into living flame, becoming 'The Human Torch'; most tragically, Ben's body took on stone-like properties, granting him superhuman strength and the nickname 'The Thing'. It was an instant success, but – Invisible Girl aside – the special effects required to bring such superpowers to the screen were not available to filmmakers until the late 1980s. It was then that Eichinger took an open-ended option to make a Fantastic Four film, on the proviso that it entered production by the end of 1992. In the meantime, Tim Burton's Batman became one of cinema's biggest ever box office and merchandising success stories, opening the doors to anyone with the rights to a hot superhero property. Eichinger hatched a plan as brilliant, cunning and diabolical as any the Fantastic Four's nemesis, Dr Doom, had ever dreamed up. By making an ultra-low-budget film, the producer could hold onto the rights, hoping that in the meantime, he would be able to set up a big deal at a major studio. If such a deal could not be made, the producer would still be left holding the negative of a Fantastic Four film, which could be released at a profit. Roger Corman, who – according to the title of his own autobiography – 'Made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime' was chosen to make the film, and Oley Sassone (Bloodfist III: Forced to Fight) was hired to direct. Principal photography began on Boxing Day 1992, just five days before the rights were due to expire. It lasted a mere four weeks. The producer hatched a plan as cunning and diabolical as any of Dr Doom's Alex Hyde-White and Rebecca Staab played Reed Richards and Susan Storm respectively; actor/stuntman Carl Ciarfalio (The Incredible Hulk Returns) donned a convincingly concrete costume to play Ben Grimm, while Jay Underwood burned his scalp and almost fried his hair off, dying his brown locks blond to play Johnny Storm. Lee had longed to see his self-styled 'World's Greatest Comic Book' on screen, but understandably had concerns about the $1.5 million budget – a fraction of Batman's $35 million price tag. 'I have a sentimental attachment to The Fantastic Four,' he said, 'and I was heartbroken to think it might appear only as a low-budget quickie'. Then, just days before its January 1994 premiere, it emerged that Eichinger had bought back the film's negative, intending to shelve it – permanently. 'I feel very, very sorry for the actors and the director and most of the people involved in it,' a disappointed Lee commented. Six months later, 20th Century Fox announced that it had secured the rights from Eichinger, hiring Home Alone and Mrs Doubtfire director Chris Columbus to direct a brand new $40 million movie, with real-life couple Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan tipped to star. Corman's budget-challenged yet well-meaning production would be relegated to fuzzy bootlegs sold at comic conventions and under the counters of video rental stores. Ironically, Columbus' film never happened, torpedoed by post- Batman superhero flops such as The Phantom and The Shadow. It would be another decade before Fox cashed in on the noughties success of The X-Men and Spider-Man by making a Fantastic Four film, with the then-unknown Chris Evans – Marvel's future Captain America – as Johnny Storm. A year before its 2005 release, moviegoers had marvelled at another family of superheroes, featuring super-strong inventor Mr Incredible and his wife, stretchy superhero Elastigirl, clearly a riff on the Fantastic Four. The success of The Incredibles did not doom the box office prospects of The Fantastic Four, however: it was as big a hit as The X-Men. But the 2007 sequel, Rise of the Silver Surfer, was a flop and a third film failed to materialise. Now, as Marvel's own The Fantastic Four: First Steps towers over the summer box office like the shadow of Galactus, Roger Corman's 1994 version remains officially unreleased anywhere in the world.
