A Geeky Viewpoint

Between July 1st and August 31st 2013 there are approximately 500 entries into the blogosphere with news reports and tid bits about 20th Century Fox's release of X-Men: Days of Future Past.  

In the same time frame for the Fantastic Four there are 60.   It gets worse if we correct for fact Fantastic Four opens in August as opposed to May that reduces the number to 45.     To make matters worse most of those 100 or so stories involve Marvel Publishing decision to end the publication of the Fantastic Four Comic book.   

Leaked Photo of the Thing

In terms of images released by 20th Century Fox there were approximately 100 images released more than 8 months before X-Men: Days of Future Past debuted, for Fantastic Four we have ummm well none officially.   There is one leaked photo for the Fantastic Four reboot.

There is no movie poster no leaked footage, no interviews on the set. 

What gives?

Most of the rumors do not paint a pleasant picture for the Fantastic Four reboot.    On several occasions we have heard rumors that Jim Gianopulos, President of 20th Century Fox, has summoned the film makers to Los Angeles to discuss the state of the film.   More than one rumor has surfaced that executives at 20th Century Fox had to be talked out of axing the project or firing large numbers of people directly involved in the production.  

Lets start by discussing Jim Gianopulos predecessor as President of 20th Century Fox, Tom Rothmann.   Tom Rothmann hated superhero movies, okay hated may not be the correct word loathed feared they take over that may be a better concept.   Tom Rothmann tore up a script by a young screen writer by the name of Josh Whedon for the first draft of what becomes the 2000 release X-Men.   In finally approving X-Men he required that there were no silly suits and no pop culture references and ....
With the Success of X-Men 20th Century Fox moved ahead on Daredevil, Elektra, and the Fantastic Four.   Needless to say Rothmann and his management team almost destroyed the Superhero Genre at 20th Century Fox.
The 2005 and 2007 releases of the Fantastic Four were supposed to be campy family friendly superhero films.  That was Rothmann's mandate.   
Daredevil and Elektra were financial disasters and after talks with Marvel the properties were returned to Marvel Entertainment rather than rebooting them.

In 2009 20th Century Fox announced it was rebooting Fantastic Four into a more grounded and realistic Super Hero.  (Realistic Super Hero - Oxymoron?)    That's not to say that 20th Century Fox was completely sold on the idea as many discussions with Marvel Entertainment, specifically Isaac Perlmutter, who I understand is a truly nice guy to work for,  about selling the IP back.   After the final meeting in 2013 when 20th Century Fox decide to move ahead with the Fantastic Four reboot Isaac Perlmutter had every poster, picture, and image of the Fantastic Four removed from the walls of Marvel's Headquarters, and it went down hill from there.

Since 2012 Jim Gianopulus has been the sole chairmen and President of 20th Century and he had final say in the project and is the individual Perlmutter blames for the Fantastic Four fiasco.

Why is the Fantastic Four a fiasco in the eyes of Perlmutter.   Three words "The Amazing Spiderman".   Sony Pictures epic failure with the beloved Spiderman including putting a "newb" behind the Camera a decision to retell the entire origin story, attempting to redefine the voice of the film in a radical way...   Now 20th Century Fox was doing the exact same thing the Fantastic Four a series that made 1/3 what Spiderman did.
Why does Marvel Care, its not like they would make a Fantastic Four movie at the moment?
That's not entirely true, Marvel Studios has a problem, with all the Mutants and Fantastic Four IP's controlled by 20th Century Fox and Spiderman's IP controlled by Sony they own the IP for the Avengers, which only has a small handful of A-List badguys and a slightly more B-Listers.    In the comic books the Avengers lock horns with Doctor Doom, Galacticus, Kang the Destroyer and many other villains from the Fantastic Four IP.   Same goes for Spiderman, but not so much for the X-Men.
In Phase 4 Marvel is looking at doing a Secret Wars themed series, kind of hard without bad-guys.  

The next problem for Fantastic Four Reboot is the radical changes in the storyline.
1) Our group of middle aged super heroes has turned into a pack of early twenty somethings
2) The movie is now about coming of age
3) The powers will not be caused by an accident in space.
4) Reed Richards will not be the dumbest smart guy on the planet.
5) Doctor Doom now resembles a human version of Ultron.

I can hear the question now, didn't you forget something huge...
I could hardly care that Michael B. Jordan is African-American, I am beyond that, however the fact he is 15 years to young to play the part is a whole other can of worms.

The argument, at least the rumors and tidbits we get to hear as bloggers, between 20th Century Fox and Marvel centers on who does 20th Century Fox think is going to show up in the theater to see the film.    There is suggestion that 60% of the Audience will be male and up to 75% of the Audience will be 16 to 25 years old.   The last superhero film that followed that pattern ... Green Lantern, tell me how that worked out.
In all fairness I should point out that Man of Steel had those demographics in the audience but that wasn't who they were marketing too, rather WB's marketing to woo woman in the 18 to 49 bracket failed.

It's been suggested that Marvel expects Fantastic Four to earn about 150% of its budget in terms of movie ticket sales, which means it will break even.   A shame to waste such an great piece of the Marvel Universe on such a secondary island.