The long road to the goofy, 2005 version of "Fantastic Four" is littered with a handful of directors who came and went from the project, and the one who got closest to directing was Peyton Reed. Creative differences with 20th Century Fox eventually saw him replaced by Tim Story, which is somewhat ironic given his position of replacing Edgar Wright on "Ant-Man." With Reed’s Marvel outing getting generally good notices, the director is candid that Fox didn’t treat the characters as seriously as he wanted to.
"I felt like I couldn’t make the movie I wanted to make in that environment,” he told Yahoo. “The environment at Fox in 2003 was very different to the environment at Marvel in 2015. Fox at that time had a very specific idea; they wanted to pitch it much younger than I wanted to and I always felt like they were treating those characters like b-level characters. I never felt like they understood the real strength of that property.”
READ MORE: It’s Clobbering Time In The New Trailer For Josh Trank’s ‘Fantastic Four’
Reed cites "The Avengers" as an example of the direction he wanted to do, and notes that that upcoming version of "Fantastic Four" could be the one to course correct. “I actually feel like Joss Whedon’s first ‘Avengers’ did a lot of the same things that I would have liked to have done in ‘Fantastic Four.’ These massive battles in the streets of Manhattan for example," he said. "But I’m psyched for Josh Trank’s version of ‘Fantastic Four.’ I know nothing about it but I know I really liked ‘Chronicle,’ so I’m hopeful. I think there is a great ‘Fantastic Four’ movie yet to be made.”
Everyone is watching to see if Fox can get it right the second time around. "Fantastic Four" arrives on August 7th. Watch a ton of new TV spots below.
