Out doing the rounds for X-Men: Days Of Future Past, screenwriter Simon Kinberg has naturally also been quizzed about his and Josh Trank's new Fantastic Four. Kinberg had previously hinted that there were discussions underway at Fox to merge the studio's Marvel properties along the lines of Marvel/Disney's own interlocked franchises, but, for the time being, that no longer seems to be on the cards. The X-Men and the FF will continue to exist in "discrete universes", Kinberg now reveals.
The problem, says the writer, is that the Fantastic Four cease to look particularly remarkable alongside the** X-Men**.
"The Fantastic Four acquire their powers," he explains, "so for them to live in a world where mutants are prevalent is kind of complicated. You're like, 'What's so fantastic about you?' No, they live in discrete universes."
Elsewhere in his chat with ScreenCrush, Kinberg is, carefully, less than complementary about the previous Four films. Comparing the reboot of the Fantastic Four to Sony's similar challenge with Spider-Man, he suggests that his is an easier job.
"People have a very different relationship to the Fantastic Four movies than they have to Raimi's Spider-Man movies," he winks. "Raimi's Spider-Man is a beloved movie that sort of redefined, tonally, what comicbook movies could do. Rebooting a beloved movie fewer than ten years after it came out is challenging. We approach **Fantastic Four **with a different set of challenges..."
As far as the new Four's own tone Kinberg, unsurprisingly given that Trank is the director, compares it to Chronicle. "There's a spectrum from Raimi's Spider-Man to Chronicle," he suggests. "We're between those two movies. On the other side of Chronicle is X-Men, with the darkness, and then The Dark Knight is the darkest. On the other side of Spider-Man are the original Fantastic Four films [with that] goofiness. So we're somewhere between the joyfulness of Spider-Man and the reality and drama of Chronicle."
Fantastic Four, starring Jamie Bell, Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan, Kate Mara, Toby Kebbell, Tim Blake Nelson and Reg E. Cathey, is shooting now for a release on June 18 next year.