Kate Mara Says ‘The Fantastic Four’ Movie Won’t Be Based On The Comic Book
The upcoming reboot of the “The Fantastic Four” movie has been described by the screenwriter, Simon Kinberg as “real, gritty and grounded.” The writer/producer even said the Josh Trank-directed movie was akin to “Batman Begins.” Now if you know the original “Fantastic Four” movies with Chris Evans and Jessica Alba, you know those films are nothing like “Batman Begins.” They’re much more in line with the comic—a bit goofy, broad and silly (which is why Tim Story’s movies might be terrible, but they were in the spirit of the comics).
So more and more, “The Fantastic Four” movie that 20th Century Fox is putting on for 2015 sounds like a massive reinvention. For one, Johnny Storm, aka The Human Torch, won’t be a Caucasian, he’ll be played by African-American actor Michael B. Jordan. In a feature titled “How The ‘Fantastic Four’ Reboot Might Be Changing Canon, And Why That’s A Good Thing” we’ve already speculated that “The Fantastic Four” film could be total reinvention. And now it seems it’s all but confirmed. In an interview with “House Of Cards” star Kate Mara in Esquire Latin America (via Live For Films), the actress says the movie won’t even be based on the comics or comics story lines.
Asked if she liked comics, Mara gave a revealing answer. “I’ve never been a fan of comics, I’ve never actually read one. I was going to for this movie but the director said it wasn’t necessary. Well, actually he told us that we shouldn’t do it because the plot won’t be based on any history of anything already published. So I chose to follow his instructions. The one fact is I am a fan of comic book movies, so it’s very exciting to be part of a movie like this.”
As suggested in that feature, this is possibly for the best. While the super hero group is a Marvel flagship team, there’s nary a classic storyline out there and the team and comic themselves were a little inherently lightweight. Trank did good on “Chronicle,” the sci-fi movie that has super hero-ish elements to it, but really was about characters, humans and people and how they’d react to suddenly being given super human powers.
There just might be a very similar approach here. And hell, if they’re throwing out elements like the Fantastic Four’s a bit ridiculous Baxter Building headquarters, the Fantasticar and those inane elements, we wouldn’t argue. “The Fantastic Four” is scheduled to hit theaters on July 19, 2015 (and there’s rumors the cast may hit Comic-Con, wooooooo!).
