Chris Columbus has directed some of the most enduring blockbusters of all time, from Mrs. Dasffire and Home Alone films to the first two Harry Potter films. However, even if those films were under his belt, Columbus found himself booted from the original Fox Fantastic Four films of the 20th century. The director has been credited as an executive producer for the film as “has nothing to do with it,” he recently told the Fade to Black podcast.
“We were in a strange situation,” Columbus said. “In the first ‘Fantastic Four’, I was working on the script. Many writers were involved. They were trying to make a film and producing it. I met with the director and had some ideas. Essentially, some of this concept art should feel like Jack Kirby, the creator of Fantastic Four. I left that meeting and on my way home I received a call from the head of a 20th century Fox.
Columbus was in the stages of his career when he was interested in superhero films. He circled “Spider-Man” before Sam Raimi took on the property and also wrote the “Dardevil” script. But being fired from “Fantastic Four” was a blow and “probably made it a bit sour” from the genre, he said. Columbus has no interest in steering comic books these days.
“Those have done it well over the years, so I personally lost interest in making superhero movies,” he said. “It started a bit with Spider-Man 2. When I saw what Sam Raimi did, I thought it was the perfect superhero movie.
In an interview with Blackfilm.com 10 years ago, Columbus said Ben Grimm/The Thing The Thing in The Life was also in conflict with the studio. He promoted the “Fantastic Four” film, which uses visual effects to bring things back to life, claiming that “If you’re not CGI or anything, you’ll never get Ben Grimm’s size.”
Tim Story directed the 2005 Fantastic Four. This featured Ioan Grafdo as Reed Richards, Jessica Alba as Soustorm, Chris Evans as Johnny Storm and Michael Chris as Ben Grimm. The film was a medium box office grossing $333 million worldwide, but it received negative reviews from critics. Chiklis is Todd Collider, who recently critics got it wrong.
“They really put our film in malice and they were very underrated considering… They were so loved by the audience,” Chikris said. “It was one of those cases where critics weren’t very good for those films, but the audience was still there.”
Watch the complete interview with Columbus on the “Fade to Black” podcast in the video below.
