Fantastic Four Reboot Coming Following Disney Purchase

As we  told you yesterday, Disney is now buying Marvel, and it seems those at Fox Searchlight now aim to cash in on what may be a total genre rebirth.

Under a licensing deal with Marvel, Fox own the rights to ‘The Fantastic Four’ — as long as they keep making the movies. So it’s no big surprise that they’ve now decided to do a reboot.

Widely regard as the worst comic-book adaptation of all time, ‘Fantastic Four’ bowed in 2005, followed by the highly forgettable sequel, ‘Silver Surfer’ in 2007. Now Hollywood producer and author of the ‘Da Vinci Code’ screenplay, Akiva Goldman, has been brought in to create the do-over, and thus extend Fox’s license.

But despite all the pain this new plan will cause us, the outlook for Disney is remarkably good; Fox also owns “X-Men,” “Daredevil” and the “Silver Surfer.” character, and is planning more movies on all of these themes. Meanwhile, Columbia Pictures has ‘Spider Man 4′ booked for production early next year, and Variety tells us the writer, James Vanderbilt, is already committed to writing two more.

Our only hope of redemption from this comic-book onslaught is the faint chance of new cast; Spider-Man 5 or 6 will see that franchise get a new director, and what could be the exit of Toby Maguire. And Fantastic Four II may also look new — Michael Green [who co-wrote 'Green Lantern,'] is on board for the script, but it’s not known if any of the cast from the 2005 outing will return for this needless new film.

No date for production of the un-named new ‘Four’ film has been mentioned as yet, but we’ll bring the word when it comes.