"At first, when Sue and Johnny realize and use their powers THEY’RE NAKED! Hence the need for the blue costumes."
"Victor Van Damn is the Vain Megalomaniac European Businessman who runs VANDAMN INDUSTRIES..."
"Reed wants to go into space to investigate a cloud full of cosmic ray particles that is approaching Earth and conduct a study of the cloud’s effects on DNA."
"Sue takes charge with a fashion designer to alter the uniforms."
"Doom’s origins are very faithful to the comics. The only thing different with the film is that Victor Van Damn’s castle isn’t in Europe but in the Adirondack mountains in upstate New York."
Yeah...very insignificant change, that.
This message has been edited by CoreyJohnson on Apr 9, 2004 6:47 PM
JB's right on. I've been reviewing the early FF for ffplaza.com for about a year now ('though my reviews have slowed to a snail's pace) and I was stunned by how long it took for the Dr. Doom we all know to come together. As I recall, there was zero intimation that Doom was European in FF #5- and Ben Grimm had never heard of the guy!
Making Alicia a goth chick and Dr. Van Damn, on he other hand...
I've been reviewing the early FF for ffplaza.com for about a year now ('though my reviews have slowed to a snail's pace) and I was stunned by how long it took for the Dr. Doom we all know to come together. As I recall, there was zero intimation that Doom was European in FF #5- and Ben Grimm had never heard of the guy!
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Doom came together in FF ANNUAL 2 -- and dear god I can just imagine the howls of the fanboys if such a story was done today! His whole history was shoveled into him in one go, and virtually none of it had much to do with what we had seen before. Even his "origin" as seen in FF5 was on increasingly shaky ground, as Doom became much, much too smart to have made such a stupid mistake.
Of all the pre-FFA2 Doom moments that have little or nothing to do with who he came to be, though, my favorite must surely be the time he disguised himself as the janitor in the Baxter Building, replete with rubber mask, wig and beard worn over his metal helmet!
I just read the very first part of that ff story-
I didn't want to know too much-
but I assumed the Van Damn thing was a typo!
If not its kinda strange.
I hope they don't get Van Damm to play doom!
first - goth chicks are hot. Had to get that off my chest.
Second - anyone who follows scripts will attest - there are tons of scripts floating around that will never ever be made - even ones by big name writers - how many different Spider-Man scripts were passed around, and how many looked like the final product you saw on the screen? (uh, none. Most had Doc Ock as the villian.) Same with the X-Men - there was this lousy script about the X-Men and Phoenix fighting Sentinals that was making the round about 15 years ago with Jim Lee on the cover of it. Anyone see that film?
I have 2 different (at one point) "official" Indiana Jones 4 scripts - (for the curious - one is awesome, one is craptastic. However, the awesome one could never be made, just because of the howling from bitter fans...) - and you'll note that as I type this, we're still waiting for a new "official" script before filming can begin.
So! Take it with a grain of salt - this will probably die the sad death it deserves.
But! Is it really from Mark Frost? He's usually pretty good! A surprize! Anyone read his books? ("List of 7", and "6 Messiahs"?) They're awesome new versions of Sherlock Holmes stories. Fantastic stuff. If this is, in fact, a Frost script, and if it is, in fact, the way the reviewer described it, it's a big surprize.
Mike....I have an interesting Goth Chick story for you!
Several years ago I met this pretty brunette at a branch of my bank. We flirted a bit each time I went in...and I finally broke down and asked her out. We had a nice dinner and went out afterwards to see a friend's band play. A second date was assured. She asked me if I wanted to go to this club with her. I said sure. As an aside...I should mention that I was the living embodiment of the "young Republican". So I swing buy to pick her up in my pressed jeans and starched shirt. She meets me at the door wearing black fishnets, a leather skirt, a fishnet top with black tape over her nipples and this long velvet black coat. I shouldn't fail to mention the black highlights of her makeup and the rasberry spray she had used on her black hair. The rasberry spray is an important part of our story! I didn't know what to say. I guess she could sense my confusion. So she told me it was Goth night at this club. She didn't want to suck my blood....that it was just fun to dress up and forget her button down world once a week. I asked if I was gonna be the only person there who wouldn't be decked out in black. She said I was fine. I witnessed some interesting things that night. And found that no one treated me badly...even though I was definitely out of place. Truth is...most of the folks there were just like me in real life. This was just an escape for them. I had a good time. But...to complete my story...I should mention I had to throw away my pillow cases cause that rasberry coloring just wouldn't come out of them. : )
I had a similar thing happen once.. but all worse... a goth co-worker was in the dog-house with his girlfriend and needed a place to crash, so I let him stay at my place, and he got raspberry hair dye on my bathroom wall, and it never came out...
she LOOKS perfect for Sue. But I'm fairly sure it'll be Aretha. Although 50 cent looks to be getting to be the favorite for Reed....and you can finally breathe a sigh of relief, Johnny WILL be played by Emmanuel Lewis of Webster fame. -Rick
The Invisible Woman has to be Naomi Watts. Has to be. She's perfect for it. Pretty, tough, intelligent...>>
She's too old -- mid 30s. Sue is around 22 when she becomes the Invisible Girl (and actually casting someone who looks 22 would somewhat justify calling her the Invisible Girl, as I think they should for the first film). Reed should be mid 30s (twelve years Sue's senior) -- Alex Denisof would be perfect, though he'd have to alter his voice again (his natural voice just isn't "right" for Reed but Reed also isn't English, so the Wesley voice would be wrong).
I'm rather adamant about Sue being 22 because if they cast a woman in her late 20s, early 30s, then you wind up with too much of an age gap between the teenage Johnny and Sue. As for Johnny, I think the fellow who plays Tru's brother Harrison on Tru Calling would be a good fit.
Oh, another reason for my opposition to Naomi Watts: Why waste millions of dollars on big name stars? The Fantastic Four, while not Superman or Spider-Man, should have enough name recognition that you could cast unknowns. Use the Naomi Watts money on getting the look of the Thing right?
A 22 year old Sue? I'm not sure what her 'official' age is, but I've alway thought of Sue as late twenties. (Johnny is in his teens, Ben and Reed in their thirties.)
Any ages that are picked are going to violate some bit of comic continuity, and so the ages of the characters should just be the ages that they 'seem', without questioning too deeply.
Of course Sue may seem 22 to you; and I can't really argue. I'm just scared that they will get a girl to play the role, not a woman. How many actresses in their early twenties have any sort of air of maturity or strength? Sue's a mom.
Oh, well. You can only argue so much about something that's mainly just a matter of taste.
Please tell me this whole "Van Damn" stuff is just nonesense. How utterly retarded can the writer be if he changes Victor Von Doom, to Victor Van Damn? Why stop there? Maybe instead of Reed Richards they could go with Randy Savage. Instead of the Thing, they could go with the Dink. Change Johnny Storm to Johnny Appleseed and suddenly you could get an american folk-hero in there.
JB has stated on many occasions that Sue is young...closer to her early 20s than late 20s...AT THE BEGINNING.
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At the beginning, I probably agree with. I guess we'll be dealing with the origin story here, so I should just shut up.
I view the FF in the comic books as aging at the beginning of the series and then becoming timeless... As if Sue aged seven years in realtime, and then froze at 29 for three decades. That's my little coping mechanism for handling Marvel-Time.
Btw, everything I hear about this movie scares me.
A 22 year old Sue? I'm not sure what her 'official' age is, but I've alway thought of Sue as late twenties. (Johnny is in his teens, Ben and Reed in their thirties.)>>
Sue is 22 when she becomes the Invisible Girl. Johnny is 16. A six year age difference makes sense for their relationship -- changing that (having Sue in her late twenties and Johnny a teenager) throws things off.
<<Of course Sue may seem 22 to you; and I can't really argue. I'm just scared that they will get a girl to play the role, not a woman. How many actresses in their early twenties have any sort of air of maturity or strength? Sue's a mom.>>
Sue is not a mom when she becomes the Invisible Girl. That's years later and certainly shouldn't factor into the first film.
As to your other point, I sadly agree -- few actresses in their twenties have the right air of maturity for a Sue Storm. It's similar to what I call the Wonder Woman Conundrum: Wonder Woman should be in her early 20s but try finding an actress that age who can pull off Wonder Woman. It's unfortunate -- Lauren Bacall was 100% woman while still a teenager.
Please tell me this whole "Van Damn" stuff is just nonesense. >>
I wouldn't be surprised.
<<<How utterly retarded can the writer be if he changes Victor Von Doom, to Victor Van Damn? Why stop there? Maybe instead of Reed Richards they could go with Randy Savage. Instead of the Thing, they could go with the Dink. Change Johnny Storm to Johnny Appleseed and suddenly you could get an american folk-hero in there.>>
"Richards" and "Storm" are somewhat "normal" names. Von Doom is a perfect supervillain name (it's probably my favorite) but the self-loathers would want to distance themselves from that and change it to "Van Damm" ("Victor Von Damm no longer exists! I'm now Doctor DOOM!")
A 22 year old Sue? I'm not sure what her 'official' age is, but I've alway thought of Sue as late twenties. (Johnny is in his teens, Ben and Reed in their thirties.)>>
Sue is 22 when she becomes the Invisible Girl. Johnny is 16. A six year age difference makes sense for their relationship -- changing that (having Sue in her late twenties and Johnny a teenager) throws things off.
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I put a lot of thought into the relative ages of the characters. Stan had provided something of a guidline, when someone wrote a letter asking how old they were, and in the lettercol he responded that Reed and Ben were in their "late 30s" (commensurate with having served in ww2), Sue in her 20s and Johnny "just turned 16".
This made Reed and Ben, as I saw it, about 22 years older than Johnny, say 38. I decided Sue was 10 years younger than Reed, based on her having been old enough to become Johnny's legal guardian when their mother was killed and their father sent to prison.
I did cheat a bit, mind you, by having Reed celebrate his 40th birthday during my tenure on FANTASTIC FOUR, which with the "Seven Year Rule" would have made him 33 when they went up in the rocket, and Johnny only 11!! I know a fairly substantial chunk of time elapsed between the rocket ride and the other events of issue 1 -- but I don't think it was 5 years!
I put a lot of thought into the relative ages of the characters. Stan had provided something of a guidline, when someone wrote a letter asking how old they were, and in the lettercol he responded that Reed and Ben were in their "late 30s" (commensurate with having served in ww2), Sue in her 20s and Johnny "just turned 16".
This made Reed and Ben, as I saw it, about 22 years older than Johnny, say 38. I decided Sue was 10 years younger than Reed, based on her having been old enough to become Johnny's legal guardian when their mother was killed and their father sent to prison.
I did cheat a bit, mind you, by having Reed celebrate his 40th birthday during my tenure on FANTASTIC FOUR, which with the "Seven Year Rule" would have made him 33 when they went up in the rocket, and Johnny only 11!! I know a fairly substantial chunk of time elapsed between the rocket ride and the other events of issue 1 -- but I don't think it was 5 years!
JB-)
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Some items from JB's own run...
In FF annual 17, it is stated that the first encounter with the Skrulls was "6 years ago".
In FF # 271, it's Reed's 40th birthday.
It was also established that Reed is about 10 years older than Sue, and that Johnny was 16 at the time of FF # 1.
Thus, from my perspectivem at the time of the rocket flight...
Reed was about 34 (with prematurely gray temples?)
Ben was maybe a year of two younger.
Sue was about 24.
Johnny was about 16.
In current time, I estimate Reed and Ben to be in their early 40s, Sue in he early 30s, and Johnny in his mid-to-late 20s.
