Fantastic Four, The

The Fantastic Four is the little movie that never was, which is probably why so few people have heard of it. The movie is based on the popular Fantastic Four line of comic book titles that were created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby and began publication in November, 1961. Sadly, the most enduring legacy of this unreleased film is that it begat a string of equally unwatchable live-action films based on the same property. The Fantastic Four was directed by Oley Sassone with a screenplay written by Craig J. Nevius and Kevin Rock. It was produced by Roger Corman with New Horizons and Constantin Film Produktion. It was scheduled for a 1994 limited release, but it never materialized. Thye movie features an ensemble cast which includes Alex Hyde-White as Reed Richards, Jay Underwood as Johnny Storm, Rebecca Staab as Susan Storm, and Michael Bailey Smith as Ben Grimm with Carl Ciafalio as his mutated counterpart, the Thing. Playing the part of the film's antagonist is Joseph Culp as Victor von Doom.

Notes & Trivia

 * "The Fantastic Four (1994)", and "Fantastic Four, The" all redirect to this page.


 * This film was the subject of a 2014 documentary called Doomed! The Untold Story of Roger Corman's "The Fantastic Four", which went into detail about the production problems that ultimately prevented the movie from being released.


 * This is the first of at least three live-action films based on the Marvel Comics superhero team. A big budget film, Fantastic 4, was released in 2005. A sequel to the movie, Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer, was released in 2007. In 2015, the concept was re-imagined as Fantastic Four by director Josh Trank, which was universally reviled by both viewers and critics.


 * While this comic book adpatation of the Fantastic Four may not have come to fruition, there was a Fantastic Four animated series that began airing in 1994.


 * Production on The Fantastic Four began on December 28th, 1992.


 * The movie was shot on the Concorde sound stage in Los Angeles, California.


 * The Fantastic Four was never intended to be screened at all. The film was made soley so that Bernd Eichinger could maintain licensing rights to the characters.


 * There are a total of eighteen cast members associated with the producton of this film. Fourteen of them are male cast members with four of them being female cast members.


 * Actor Chuck Butto is credited as Charles Butto in this film.


 * Actor Robert Alan Beuth is credited as Robert Beuth in this film.