Not everyone has been happy that Michael B. Jordan was cast as Johnny Storm in ‘Fantastic Four‘ and now director Josh Trank and Executive Producer Simon Kinberg are weighing in on the matter. Even before the casting was announced, Trank says that he knew it was going to get “ugly.” With all of the major complaints about the first two films having gone so far astray from the source material, this shouldn’t be too surprising in the slightest. While racist remarks have come up, I think that Jordan addressed them best previously. That doesn’t change the fans who are reluctant to buy into the film where so much of the source material has been changed before barely scratching the surface.
Trank understands their concerns:
“I get it. I have a lot of friends who are older than me who are comic fans and it’s really hard for them to be on board with a change like that. ‘Fantastic Four’ has been theirs for longer than I’ve been alive. It hasn’t been mine.”
That being said, the director feels that even fans who have loved the material for longer than he has been alive should be open to the idea of change:
“It only speaks to the greatness of any story that has been told for decades or centuries that people still want to tell that story, but you can’t just keep telling it the same way over and over again. And I think it only helps the world to be more honest with young kids, to show them the world that they go walk outside and see.”
As a cinematic version has yet to arive that delivers the original or even the Ultimate version of Marvel’s First Family, that might not be the best example to lead by. I mean, let’s be honest. We’ve all seen what Trank has turned Doctor Doom into by now and it is no wonder that Marvel is wanting to distance themselves from the ‘Fantastic Four.’ It doesn’t help his case that his work on this film is rumored to be exactly why he is off the ‘Star Wars’ stand alone film he had been set to direct.
Simon Kinberg also adds in on the changes to The T”hing:
The change of Jamie as Ben being a smaller guy instead of a bigger guy, for example, was for a purpose. It’s more dramatic when that character becomes a huge rock creature – that’s a bigger transformation. The notion of a working-class tough guy who’s been pushed around by his bigger brothers his whole life seemed like a more interesting character than the guy who started as a football player and just ended up being 4 inches taller.”
All of my complaints aside, Kinberg does make one extremely valid point that all critics need to keep in mind prior to seeing the film:
“I think it’s true for a lot of movies that you can take license with adapting the underlying material and you will be forgiven for it if it’s good – and you will not be if it’s bad. If you look at Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, everybody was upset at first that Wolverine was tall and now nobody can imagine anybody else other than Hugh Jackman playing Wolverine.”
I mean Jackman was able to embody the character even with how horrible ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine‘ turned out to be.
Do you think Trank may have a sleeper hit on his hands with the ‘Fantastic Four’ or have his changes to the core of the characters driven you too far away from wanting to see it? Share your thoughts below True Believers!
‘Fantastic Four’ starring Michael B. Jordan, Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Jamie Bell, and Toby Kebbell opens on August 7, 2014.
Source: LA Times
