As yet unscreened for critics, saddled with bad buzz, and certainly not supported by fanboys, 20th Century Fox will be holding its breath when "Fantastic Four" opens this week. Will a mass audience see the Marvel branding and show up? Or has the lack of enthusiasm all around dampened the film’s chances?
Producer Simon Kinberg isn’t going down without a fight. “I am proud of it. It’s not a disaster. It’s a good movie," he told EW. "….I’m happy with the way that it turned out." Director Josh Trank has remained the focus of speculation about his on-set behavior, and Kinberg has rallied to the filmmaker’s defense.
“What I think we had was a very young director making a very big movie —a director that, for whatever reason, people were either rooting against, or his personality troubled the press. So it just got viewed differently than any other movie that’s a tough movie. We came in on schedule, under budget, [with] a movie that was pretty true to the original intent of the film," Kinberg said. "Whether people like it or not, it was his vision, which was a more grounded, a much more real version of Fantastic Four. Was it an easy production? No. Was it harder than a lot of the movies I’ve been on? No. But I may also have a higher threshold. I think there was something about Josh’s identity that made him a good target. I’m not sure what that is.”
That’s some pretty vigorous support for the filmmaker. Meanwhile, the cast are doing the interview rounds, but they have yet to see the finished movie for themselves. “I’m going to try to see it opening night with a real audience,” Kate Mara shared with Newsbeat, with co-stars Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan, and Jamie Bell also noting they hadn’t seen the picture either.
However, seeing the movie is hardly the biggest problem facing the cast on the press circuit. Mara, Jordan and Bell recently did a chat with Atlanta’s Rock 100.5 Morning Show where Steven J. Rickman couldn’t wrap his mind around Mara and Jordan playing an interracial brother and sister in the movie. “Am I missing something? … But you’re white and you’re black. How does that happen?” he asked. He followed up by probing questions about Mara’s attractiveness and her haircut. Geez.
You can watch that cringeworthy interview below — "Fantastic Four" arrives on Friday.
