20th Century Fox’s new **Fantastic Four **boasts a director in Chronicle’s Josh Trank, a release date of June 19, 2015, and a small army in screenwriters, including X-Men: Days Of Future Past’s Simon Kinberg. What it conspicuously lacks, to this point, is a cast, and it wouldn’t be much of a movie without one of them.
But, with the long-agonised-over script now officially locked, Variety reports that there are screen tests planned for the likes of Game Of Thrones’ Kit Harrington, **Divergent **and Project X’s Miles Teller, Saoirse Ronan and Kate Mara, who will need no introduction to House Of Cards fans.
Teller, in fact, seemed to confirm that he would be playing Reed Richards, aka Mr. Fantastic, when quizzed on the rumours at Sundance. “Yeah, that should be happening in the next few weeks,” he told reporters. Those comments have subsequently been dialled back, and it seems the actor was referring to the imminent screen and chemistry reads.
Mara and Ronan are said to be testing for Sue Storm (Invisible Girl), while man-of-the-moment Michael B. Jordan is up for Johnny Storm (Human Torch). No word on likely contenders for The Thing, Ben Grimm.
With that June 19 release date to meet, Fantastic Four is 20th Century Fox’s horse in the battle for Summer 2015 - a time when your local multiplex will resemble something out of Warhammer. Watch this space for official casting news soon.