Roger Corman's FANTASTIC FOUR documentary (10/11/16)

[Bosco685]

Documentary about Roger Corman Fantastic Four film coming this year

 

 

In the cinematic sense, everyone loves watching a train wreck. That’s because there’s something so joyously mean-spirited about watching something fail so spectacularly. It’s quite fascinating to watch a movie and think about which one of Satan’s trickster demons was working to make this thing happen (*cough* NINE LIVES *cough*). Truly, the history behind such spectacular bombs is quite fascinating. But there’s one bomb that many haven't got to watch explode, and its history is about to be unveiled.

 

The documentary DOOM! THE UNTOLD STORY OF ROGER CORMAN’S FANTASTIC FOUR will be released this year, and will go behind the scenes of the mysterious, notorious, unreleased 1994 Fantastic Four movie from the legendary producer of countless, cheap flicks, Roger Corman. The doc put out its first trailer (see below) in 2014, but will finally be released later this year, according to EW.

 

As for the doc's subject, the film THE FANTASTIC FOUR, has only been seen by people who have been able to snag a bootleg copy, but has otherwise not been released to the general public. Images have poured out on the internet, though, showing off the campy costumes and the nightmare-inducing makeup of The Thing (played by Michael Bailey Smith), leading many to wonder "what the hell is this mess and how can I get it?"

 

[Bill C]

I saw the poster and preview for this.

 

Can't wait! Looks far more interesting than the last FF movie.

[chrisco37]

I've seen the movie. It's pretty horrible, but also a little charming.

 

Certainly no worse than any of the "real" FF movies that have come out since. The Corman one had so little budget at least there is an excuse.

[Meeklo]

So with everyone involved in this movie, who were the people behind the scenes who knew it wasn't going to be released? I thought at least Corman knew.

[Bosco685]

So with everyone involved in this movie, who were the people behind the scenes who knew it wasn't going to be released? I thought at least Corman knew.

 

Doesn't sound like it.

 

From the teaser video, they definitely got in touch with a large swath of the creative team and cast. So it could be interesting to see how consistent their stories are about events.

[Bosco685]

DOOMED! Director Marty Langford Doesn't Believe Marvel Really Destroyed the Fantastic Four Negatives

 

"Yeah, I absolutely believe that the negative exists," Langford told ComicBook.com when we cauht up with him recently. "I don't believe Avi Arad's claims that he burned it. There is a question as to who ultimately owns the rights. Corman is kind of out of the picture. Through his own statements and through the legal contracts, Corman signed away everything when he accepted a check from Constantin films. That was part of their kind of escape clause in the contract, but you have 20th Century Fox, who were the ones that Constantin was courting for the time was running out on the option. You have Marvel Studios, as they are called now, and then ultimately you have Constantin Films, which are, in my opinion, the biggest player in this, and as to the kind of possibility of them helping to facilitate a release of the original film? I doubt it. I mean, we had a trailer that we originally posted about a year ago put up, and it was so frustrating because we had close to a half a million views on it....I woke up to go check the total and it had been removed through a copyright violation through Constantin films."

 

He added that while several people involved with the production of Fantastic Four declined to be interviewed for Doomed!, it was only Constantin who flat-out refused to acknowledge their attempts to make contact.

 

"They are clearly aware of it, and we reached out to them countless times during production for even just a 'no comment,' but we just had nothing but silence," Langford added. "At least when we reached out to Stan Lee, at least he acknowledged us and said 'no.' Marvel acknowledged us and said 'no.' Constantin, I just see them holed up in this little evil dark part of Germany, biding their time and trying to sink us, but they haven't been able to yet."