Simon Kinberg still has a lot of explaining to do. The producer behind "Fantastic Four," Fox‘s fantastic flop, has spent much of the year being the human shield for the production, taking all the pointed questions that get thrown his way, while mastering the art of very carefully not throwing anyone under the bus. Last month he suggested a sequel could still possibly happen, while the studio itself has remained silent on the matter. And sitting down with THR, Kinberg admits "Fantastic Four" didn’t turn out the way he had hoped, which is a bit of a change from when he professed it was a "good movie."
"I haven’t really done a full diagnosis. It was a hard movie to make, but I’ve made a lot of hard movies. I do think that there is a great ‘Fantastic Four’ movie with that cast. But there’s so many different elements that need to come together perfectly," he said. "It’s like a collaboration between all these strangers. And if there’s a few things that don’t go right, it’s hard to recover from. I went straight from that into [‘X-Men:] Apocalypse.’ I haven’t had a lot of time to decompress. I’m obviously disappointed with the way it turned out."
That said, Kinberg doesn’t necessarily point to the widely reported production woes as the problem. "Some movies work out and some don’t. In my experience, there’s not a direct correlation between the process and the product, meaning, I’ve been on some really hard movies, like ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith,’ where we shot a lot of reshoots that were very difficult days, as extensively reported — and in some places, accurately reported. So, I read stories about troubled movies and then I go see the movies and I’m like, ‘Wow, that movie turned out to be a great movie.’ There’s a lot of crazy-talented writers, directors, actors who are difficult, and their films turn out great. And then there’s some people who are lovely, wonderful human beings and the process is a joy, and the movie is flat," he explained. "I don’t subscribe to the idea that a happy process makes a happy product or an unhappy process makes a broken product."
However, the big question is whether or not Kinberg would work with Josh Trank again: "In the right context? Sure." As for any chance of making another "Fantastic Four," the closest the producer comes to an answer is, "…I really love a lot of people on that film and felt really close to the actors. Those are the guys whose faces are on the poster and are the most exposed. I hope we get to make more movies with them."
At the very least, Kinberg is ending the year on a high note, with "The Martian" (on which he’s a producer) a smash success and "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" (where he served as a creative consultant) getting ready to take over the world in December.
