This weekend, Matthew Vaughn‘s highly anticipated sequel ‘Kingsman: The Golden Circle’ arrives in theaters and we’ll see if it can live up to the cult favorite first film. In addition to ‘Kingsman: The Secret Service’, Vaughn has delivered two other successful, if low key, comic book adaptations, ‘Kick-Ass’ and ‘X-Men: First Class’. He has also served as producer on a couple of others which were, to put it mildly, less well-received. First, there was ‘Kick-Ass 2’, which while not terrible, was not as well-liked by viewers as the first. Then there was the notorious 2015 reboot of ‘Fantastic Four’, considered by some to be the absolute WORST comic book movie ever.
Vaughn is still smarting from that experience and wants to make up for it. While promoting ‘Kingsman: The Golden Circle’, he addressed ‘FF’ saying:
“The other one I’ve felt an obligation to do is, I wouldn’t mind maybe making a Fantastic Four film to apologize to everyone out there that maybe it didn’t go very well for them. It’s brilliant. One of my favorites is the Fantastic Four, so maybe one day I’ll try and rectify the mistake.”
Despite a cast consisting of some of the brightest young stars in Hollywood– Jaime Bell, Michael B. Jordan, Toby Kebbell, Kate Mara and Miles Teller–‘Fantastic Four’, directed by Josh Trank, was an embattled production. Trank had never helmed a big budget franchise piece and 20th Century Fox, according to reports, both failed to support his efforts and then turned around and reworked the project without him. Trank blasted the experience online, stating that the finished film was not his vision. (Kebbell went on record to back this claim.)
Also, while Vaughn has remorse, keep in mind he was involved with the ‘FF’ debacle as a producer. It’s not as though he didn’t contribute to this mess. Does he really have what it takes to do it right?
Despite also trashing ‘Fantastic Four’, Mara stated that she would actually enjoy doing another ‘FF’ provided it was done in a different manner.
“Oh yeah, I mean, I’d love to be a part of a Fantastic Four sequel, or whatever they may or may not have in store for us. And I know all of the guys feel the same way. We love working with each other and yeah, we would love to actually play these characters in another way, somehow in the future. I have no idea if that’s actually true. If that will happen. But I’d be really happy to do it.”
Fox had scheduled a sequel to the 2015 film but has since erased it from their slate. The latest word is that the studio may cling to the film rights by re-purposing the brand as a family franchise based on the adventures of Reed and Sue Richards’ children Franklin and Valeria. It looks like the 2015 installment was one-and-done.
Many are hoping that Fox just lets go of the rights or enters an agreement with Marvel Studios akin to the one Sony did in order to reboot ‘Spider-Man’ as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But as long as there is money to potentially be made, it’s unlikely Fox will give up without exploring every avenue they can in order to reap all of the spoils that a hit ‘FF’ film could generate.
Would you like to see if Vaughn has learned from the sour experience of the 2015 film and see what he can do with the brand now?
Source: Cinema Blend
