Variety reports that Fox has set a writer to reboot the Fantastic Four movies. This has been considered likely for some time and thanks to the deal Fox made with Marvel back in the ’90s, Fox can keep the rights to the franchise as long as its at least developing it. Anyway, Michael Green is the man charged with the new script. He’s most recently co-written the Green Lantern script, produced and written for Heroes and created the short-lived Kings series. That may or may not impress you, especially without knowing how Green Lantern is, but maybe this other hire will provoke a reaction. Akiva Goldsman is onboard as a producer for the new movie. He’s infamous for writing Batman Forever, Batman & Robin, I Am Legend and several other licensed films and/or adaptations that are known to piss on the source material. As only a producer he’s given us Constantine and Hancock. Mysteriously, the man also won on Oscar for scripting A Beautiful Mind.
I can’t say I actually watched either Fantastic Four or Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer since they looked fairly terrible (although the sequel seemed better). They seemed plagued with lackluster production values, miscasting galore and too much melodrama. I don’t think I’ve read much of the comics, but I’m sure there are great stories to be told so a reboot is probably a great idea, theoretically. With Fox though, they always seem to screw these things up. I’d suggest skipping the origin story, recapping it in the opening credits and just telling a story with this family already developing as a superhero team. Go the route of The Incredible Hulk instead of a full-blown restart.
