20th Century Fox's "Fantastic Four" reboot has generated significant debate among fans for a variety of reasons. Rumors of friction between director Josh Trank ("Chronicle") and writer/producer Simon Kinberg ("X-Men: Days of Future Past"), extensive reshoots, controversial casting and more have movie-goers concerned that Fox has another flop on their hands. Even Fox may be worrying the same thing right about now.
But with the film's release just days away, Kinberg sat down with Entertainment Weekly to try and assuage some doubts audiences may have.
"I am proud of it," he said. "It's not a disaster. It's a good movie. I find Fantastic Four a hard book to adapt. I think the tone is very tricky. It's deceptively simple. Figuring out the comedy and the drama and the powers themselves are hard to fit into a tone that is as grounded as we wanted to make it. But I'm happy with the way that it turned out. I really love this cast, and I want to keep making movies with them."
Kinberg sounds as if he is offering some lukewarm praise for a film that has undergone considerable (alleged) behind-the-scenes drama. Just because the film reportedly had to go through extensive reshoots doesn't necessarily mean that it isn't a quality movie. But the fact that Fox won't be screening it until a day before its wide release isn't a good sign either.
The producer did take the high road when asked about Josh Trank, however.
"What I do think we had was a very young director making a very big movie," he said. "And a director that, for whatever reason, people were either rooting against or his personality troubled the press. So it just got viewed differently than any other movie that's a tough movie. We came in on schedule, under budget, [with] a movie that was pretty true to the original intent of the film. Whether people like it or not, it was his vision, which was a more grounded, a much more real version of Fantastic Four. Was it an easy production? No. Was it harder than a lot of movies I've been on? No. But I may also have a higher threshold. I think there was something about Josh's identity that made him a good target. I'm not sure what that is."
"Fantastic Four" cost a reported $122 million to make and, by the sounds of it, will struggle to make a tidy profit if all the doom and gloom surrounding the film turn out to be accurate.
