Good news, everyone. As of March 6, 2015, we can officially erase the first two live-action Fantastic Four movies from our collective memories. (The 1994 Roger Corman version doesn’t count.) That’s the date that Fox has set for Josh Trank’s reboot of the superhero franchise, and making it one of the first major blockbusters scheduled for what is now most mind-bogglingly insane year in geek cinema. The news came via the reboot’s screenwriter, Jeremy Slater, who tweeted, simply and efficiently…
3/6/15.
— Slater (@Boner_Mountain) December 8, 2012
Joining Fantastic Four in 2015 are Star Wars: Episode VII, Justice League, The Avengers 2 and Ant-Man. We’re also rumored to be getting Avatar 2 that year, if that production ever gets going. You might want to move closer to a movie theater right now, just to avoid the rush. Dear god, the rumor mill is going to be uncontrollable in the next few years.
Speaking of which, we can expect to start hearing casting news surrounding Josh Trank’s new Fantastic Four sometime in the near future, since – hopefully – the film will be a visual effects bonanza that will require the prodution to get started pretty darned soon. Josh Trank, the director of this year’s excellent low-budget superhero saga Chronicle, is also attached to the video game adaptation Shadow of the Colossus, but it appears that Fantastic Four is the top priority for both Trank and 20th Century Fox, who own the rights to the superhero team’s cinematic incarnations.
Will Josh Trank be able to produce a better version of The Fantastic Four than Tim Story’s oft-maligned live-action movies? We think he’s got the chops, but just in case, we hope he’s learned a few lessons from the 2005 film.
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani
