FRIDAY NIGHT MOVIE: THE FANTASTIC FOUR (1994)

The Fantastic Four is an unreleased low-budget superhero film completed in 1994. It was produced on a low-budget by Roger Corman and Bernd Eichinger, who went on to produce the Fantastic Four movie in 2005. The film was based on the long-running comic book by Marvel Comics and featured the origin of the Fantastic Four and that superhero team's first battle with the evil Doctor Doom, combining the team's origin from The Fantastic Four #1 and Doom's origin from Fantastic Four Annual #2 with original elements.  It stars: Alex Hyde-White as Reed Richards / Mister Fantastic, Rebecca Staab as Sue Storm / Invisible Woman, Jay Underwood as the Human Torch / Johnny Storm, Michael Bailey Smith as Ben Grimm, Carl Ciarfalio as the Thing, and Joseph Culp as Doctor Doom.  Also appearing are: Kat Green as Alicia Masters, Ian Trigger as the Jeweler, and George Gaynes as the Professor.

In 1983, German producer Eichinger met with Marvel Comics' Stan Lee at Lee's Los Angeles home to explore obtaining an option for a movie based on the Fantastic Four.  The option was not available until three years later, when Eichinger's Neue Constantin film company obtained it for a price the producer called "not enormous" and which has been estimated to be $250,000.  Despite some interest from Warner Bros. and Columbia Pictures, budget concerns precluded any production, and with the option scheduled to expire on December 31, 1992, Neue Constantin asked Marvel for an extension.  With none forthcoming, Eichinger planned to retain his option by producing a low-budget Fantastic Four film, reasoning, he said in 2005, "They didn't say I had to make a big movie."  In September 1992, he teamed with B-movie specialist Roger Corman, who agreed to produce the film on a $1 million budget.

Production began on December 28, 1992 under music video director Oley Sassone.  Storyboards were drawn by artist Pete Von Sholly.  The three week production was shot on the Concorde Pictures sound stage in Venice, California, as well as in Agoura, California for a spacecraft-crash scene, the Loyola Marymount campus for a lab-explosion scene, and the former Pacific Stock Exchange building in downtown Los Angeles for team-meeting scenes.

Costume designer Réve Richards recalled in 1993 going to Golden Apple Comics on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles to buy Fantastic Four comic books for research, and, upon explaining his task, "[T]hese people in the store just swarmed me and said, 'You are going to be faithful to it?'  And I told them, 'This is why I am buying these books.'"  Paul Ahern was hired as weapons consultant, and Scott Billups for computer visual effects.  The special-effects makeup was by John Vulich and Everett Burrell of Optic Nerve.  Stuntman Carl Ciarfalio, who wore a rubber suit to portray the monstrous superhero Thing, worked with actor Michael Bailey Smith, who played the Thing's human self, Ben Grimm, so that their mannerisms would match.  During the months of post-production, music composers David and Eric Wurst personally contributed $6,000 to finance a 48-piece orchestra for the soundtrack.

Starring: Alex Hyde-White as Reed Richards / Mister Fantastic; Rebecca Staab as Sue Storm / Invisible Woman; Michael Bailey Smith as Ben Grimm; Carl Ciarfalio as the Thing; Jay Underwood as the Human Torch / Johnny Storm; and Joseph Culp as Doctor Doom. Also appearing: Kat Green as Alicia Masters; Ian Trigger as the Jeweler; and George Gaynes as the Professor.

COPYRIGHT 2007-2014 OH BOY! 3LAWNVIEWAGOGO / ALL RIGHTS RESERVED MR.E.

ED SPRINGSTEAD, JR.